Twice in the twentieth century Germany called. Defeated after the Great War it took Germany only twenty years to mount a repeat fixture. Never again was the cry after the Great War. The Treaty of Versailles was a failure and after the Second World War a new strategy was needed to contain Germany. The plan that emerged was for countries in western Europe to work together and the hope was that the mistrust of Germany and that country's predilection to wage war as an extension of diplomacy would be overcome by the benefits of closer collaboration and the suppression of nationalism. Hence the formation of the European Economic Community (Common Market) and later the European Union.
The partition of Europe after the Second World War helped allay concerns about Germany. Half the nation was behind the Iron Curtain and part of the Soviet bloc.
After the false dawns of the Hungarian Uprising and the Prague Spring, eventually the USSR empire crumbled, as do all empires.. Fear of the power of a reunited Germany accelerated the demand for closer integration and hence the drive towards monetary union, but not fiscal union. Now it is recognised that there cannot be a workable monetary union without fiscal union.
Despite the drag on its economy of the former East Germany, the unified Germany has become the economic powerhouse of Europe. Like it or not, Germany is calling the shots in resolving the current problems facing the eurozone. Germany has come calling again.
The Brussels empire is as dismissive of the demands of the population under its fist as was the USSR of the people of its pliant states in eastern Europe. There will be a day of reckoning.
NB: The link below is to an article in the Guardian published on 22 July. Well worth a read.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/21/monetary-union-european-eurozone-sceptics
As is this:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100098260/this-crisis-will-give-germany-the-empire-its-always-dreamed-of/
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