A glorious flowering of difficult ideas

Daniel Johnson

JANUS-FACED GERMANY is looking back with Sehnsucht (longing) and forward with Angst. As they bid reluctant farewell to the relative serenity of the Merkel era, Germans are asking themselves: if the price of becoming once more a nation of Dichter und Denker (poets and thinkers) is to be again a land of Sturm und Drang (storm and stress), the prosaic answer is: Nein, danke. After the trauma of two world wars came the euphoria of the economic miracle; after the triumph of the fall of the Berlin Wall came the trials and tribulations of reunification. No wonder they will do anything for a quiet life. In a provocative essay, the historian, Niall Ferguson, has accused Angela Merkel of having “all but brought German history to a halt”. His overall judgement…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 2021

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