Germany’s Surprising Scepticism
‘Germany is seeing a definite increase in Euroscepticism—and now it’s coming from the Left too’
Politics, Ideas and the Arts
Blood and Lies Behind the Iron Curtain
Anne Applebaum's magisterial Iron Curtain tells the largely untold story of Eastern Europe's suppression at the hands of the Soviets after the Second World War
Israel Left Behind
‘The seriousness of a left-wing movement in today’s Europe can be measured by its stance towards Israel’
We’re Good Europeans Yet They All Hate Us
In 1953 Thomas Mann called “not for a German Europe, but a European Germany”. Now we have both—and neither is happy
Racing Certainty
The euro's life began in doubt and has ended in crisis; thank god we never threw our pound into the pot
How Brussels Stifles Democracy in Europe
The euro would never have got off the ground if it had been put to national referendums, nor would the bailouts or austerity plans
Intelligence Spared
‘Europe’s intellectuals should get on with the job of helping to lift the continent out of its apparently endless crisis’
Euro Soap Opera
Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Trichet recently attended a premiere of Tannhauser in Bayreuth but their own lives are more like an operatic melodrama
American Money Worries
'Germany’s reaction to America’s credit-rating downgrade was predictable: a pre-emptive schadenfreude that has become the gold standard when reacting to US affairs'
American Dreaming
‘I only discovered both how much I was missing New York and what was irritating me about Berlin when I visited Manhattan in the week after bin Laden’s killing’
Not All Roads Lead to Rome
Book review of The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions and their Peoples by David Gilmour
The Frau is for Turning
The German Chancellor Angela Merkel at first dismissed, then embraced Thilo Sarrazin’s attack on multiculturalism