There are a good many of us who feel that whatever has been built in Europe since the '50s is getting torn down anyway. And that German policy bears a heavy responsibility for that sad state of affairs.

What it has to do with it is that Schäuble and the German elite in general are not behaving in accordance with the ethics you suggest.

I think the European narrative is actually over in Greece. They are back to what Papandreou used to say, "We are a Balkan nation." And that explicitly meant outside Europe.

I had no problem understanding your perspective, though I disagree only to the extent that I find it intolerable that German conservatives, especially those from the south, still complain about references to what those they strongly supported in the '30s did and that it left such a mark on German history. I do this because my real concern is that I see the social and psychological attitudes and political beliefs involved then still acting today in analogous ways. I have the same concern for all of the US conservatives who supported Hitler, to the extent of cooperating with him in the rearming of Germany right up until their holdings were (temporarily) confiscated during WW II, after they had transferred vital technologies to Germany - Standard Oil, DuPont, Firestone, Ford, IBM, etc., not to mention Harriman-Brown law firm It is a serious concern that they were and are not now held accountable. Individuals involved included Pierre DuPont, Henry Ford (Iron Cross by Hitler), Prescott Bush, both Dulles brothers, Joe Kennedy, etc. And these same people are now supporting the current, post modern imperial security state in the USA.

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."