Helmut Schmidt comments about the current trend in Berlin are most worrying. He refers to the 'pompous Wilhelmine slant'. He accuses the administration of foreign policy delusions not seen since the Kaiser era, particularly in Franco-German relations.
The former chancellor refers to a 'new national egotism'. In similar fashion Juergen Habermas and former foreign minister Joschka Fischer have criticised the Merkel government.
A spokesperson for Dr Merkel declined to comment directly, adding that the only monarch in Dr Merkel's chancellery office was a portrait of Catherine the Great.
"She admires her as a strong woman, not because she shares her political views," he said, adding hastily "and certainly not the views of the Kaiser.
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1 comment:
I think part of this was probably inevitable as reunification becomes more and more something which happened in the distant past and the Second World War and the Iron Curtain fade into formless folk memory.
There have been good results of this too - it would have been impossible to produce a film like "Der Untergang" in Germany twenty five years ago, and the innocent, flag-waving patriotism inspired by the World Cup is just fun.
As a long-time (west) German resident, I've always felt that it was a major mistake to move the capital of reunified Germany from Bonn to Berlin. Having a small city, with no history of imerialistic megalomania, as capital of a federal country always struck me as a great idea. Berlin (like Paris, London and Rome) tempts to hubris.
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