About Germany

The Economist takes a long look at Germany's current role in the EU. They endorse a view first proposed over a century ago.

It is the same dilemma the historian Ludwig Dehio described after the country was first unified in 1871. Germany became “too big for a balance of power in Europe and too small for hegemony,” he wrote; “not powerful enough to impose its will on the continent, but at the same time powerful enough to be perceived as a threat by other powers.”

Not that they haven't given hegemony a heck of a try in two world wars, something no neighbor is willing to forget.