Spiegel — 'The Fourth Reich': What Some Europeans See When They Look at Germany

Following World War II, a German return to dominance in Europe seemed an impossibility. But the euro crisis has transformed the country into a reluctant hegemon and comparisons with the Nazis have become rampant. Are they fair?

A reason that the right is rising in Europe since the left has demonstrated it is not capable of rising to the occasion and the center is co-opted?

Favorite line:

At a party conference of Merkel's Christian Democrats in Leipzig, [Volker Kauder, the conservatives' floor leader in German parliament] said in a speech: "Suddenly, German is being spoken in Europe."

Want to enrage some people?

Merkel's agenda:

.... [Merkel's] predecessor Helmut Kohl.... wanted to see Germany dissolve into the European Union. Merkel thinks more in nation-state terms, but she knows that Germany alone will have little influence on the world. Countries that want to have a say must have a large population and a strong economy. Germany has the latter, but, relative to China or the US, lacks the former -- which is why Germany needs populous Europe. But it must be a competitive, economically powerful Europe -- and that is what Merkel is working toward. 

Early on in the euro crisis, she developed ideas for so-called bench-marking. The concept called for European countries to be measured in several categories against the best in that category, which was often Germany. In this way, a German Europe would be created....

The change in Germany's approach to European policy has been dramatic. Helmut Kohl sought to avoid isolation at all costs when it came to important negotiations, but Merkel has all but completely rejected that approach. "I am rather alone in the EU, but I don't care. I am right," she once said to a small group of advisors during a discussion about the role of the IMF. Later, she said: "We are in Europe what the Americans are in the world: the unloved leading power."

The irony is that this time it is not about divisions and tank battalions but rather currency units.

"Germany," [Hans Kundnani, head of research at the European Council on Foreign Relations,] writes, "is characterized by a strange mixture of economic assertiveness and military abstinence." For that reason alone, the references to the Nazi period are off base. It is not about violence or racism. It is about money. And that is a vast difference, even if monetary questions can be uncomfortable as well.

But an empire is in play, at least in the economic realm. The euro zone is clearly ruled by Germany, though Berlin is not unchallenged.....

No, it not mostly about money, maybe, but all about money. What is coming through is German arrogance and exceptionalism, too.

[In the eyes of Manolis Glezos, a Greek resistance fighter during the Nazi occupation,] the German present is directly connected to its horrible past, though he emphasizes that he doesn't mean the German people but the country's ruling classes. Germany for him is once again an aggressor today: "Its relationship with Greece is comparable to that between a tyrant and his slaves."

Glezos says that he is reminded of a text written by Joseph Goebbels in which the Nazi propaganda minister reflects about a future Europe under German leadership. It's called "The Year 2000." "Goebbels was only wrong by 10 years," Glezos says, adding that in 2010, in the financial crisis, German dominance began.

Spiegel Online International
'The Fourth Reich': What Some Europeans See When They Look at Germany