WITH its decision yesterday to allow Germany to contribute to European bailout efforts, the countryâ??s Federal Constitutional Court not only handed Chancellor Angela Merkel a big political victory â?? it also provided further confirmation that this economic powerhouse, a cautious and self-effacing country during the cold war, is assuming a dominant role in a new Europe. And it is doing so in the 300th anniversary year of the birth of Frederick the Great, the Prussian ruler who almost single-handedly forged a powerful new European kingdom.
Indeed, Ms. Merkel is presiding over a transformation every bit as dramatic as that of her royal predecessor, a cultural and political shift in Germany that exemplifies a rebirth of the Prussian values of thrift, independence and incorruptibility that she hopes to export to her neighbors.
The idea of a Prussian revival, with its implications of German militarism, may strike some as a cause for worry. Even in Germany, it conjures up embarrassing images from the past: monocle-wearing officers barking orders that are slavishly followed by their subordinates.
This past summer Heiner Geissler, the former secretary general of the conservative Christian Democratic Party, said on TV that the golden victory column in Berlin that celebrates Prussiaâ??s 1871 defeat of France is Germanyâ??s â??dumbest memorialâ? and should be demolished. Not surprisingly, in denouncing Ms. Merkel for demanding fiscal austerity and rectitude, demonstrators in Greece and politicians in France have often depicted her as a Prussian dictator.
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