Germany provoked the ire of many left-of-center economists for its embrace of fiscal austerity during the global downturn. Yet having just notched record GDP growth, the Germans are feeling their oats:
The battle over how to navigate the financial crisis helps display Germanyâ??s emerging post-cold-war identity as a country less tolerant of foreign demands and lecturing, one with a tenser relationship with European partners. Though Germany has plenty of problems to grapple with at home, it has also become less obsessed with its historical crimes and more enthusiastic about its economic model, its culture and its improved standing in the world.
Jenny Wiblishauser, 33, a single mother in the southern town of Memmingen, said Germanyâ??s financial prudence â?? and its willingness to ignore foreign criticism â?? made her proud. â??Before, the Greeks would call us Nazis, and we would act vulnerable,â? she said. â??Now one says, â??Well, Iâ??m not driving there for vacation.â?? â?
Some critics in Europe say that confidence veered toward hubris in the contentious debate this year over shoring up the Greek government and restoring confidence in the troubled euro. In particular, the venomous contempt in the German news media directed at Greece raised significant concerns among allies that a more assertive Germany had emerged, said Thomas Klau, an expert on European integration at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
â??That was like a wake-up call to the rest of Europe that something had changed in Germany,â? Mr. Klau said.
Does this new confidence in the economic realm augur a more assertive Germany in the security realm? Not quite: the Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is backing a plan that would halve the number of German ground troops and battle tanks.
[Hat tip: Scott Bleiweis]
(AP Photo)
