“Writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.” This 1949 statement by Theodor W. Adorno, one of the intellectual architects of modern German left-liberalism, has haunted Germany ever since. Its political and cultural discourse remains dominated by reductio ad Hitlerum—the near-obsessive tendency to compare contemporary events and individuals to the 12-year reign of the Third Reich, as few nations have struggled so intensely with their past, and fewer still have undertaken such a comprehensive rejection of their historical legacy. For decades, an implicit consensus among German intellectuals and politicians has held that the horrors of National Socialism were not a tragic aberration, but the inevitable and negative telos of German history itself.
Leading Europe - for its own good”
As a result, Germany exists in a perpetual post-historical state, attempting to build a modern nation founded not on continuity with its past, but on the conscious rejection of its national identity. Instead, it places exclusive emphasis on supposedly objective institutional procedures and universal human values. For many years, Germany’s post-war economic success—symbolised by the Wirtschaftswunder—appeared to validate this approach, reinforcing the belief that this new path was not only morally righteous but also materially advantageous. However, in recent years, that belief has begun to crack. Economic stagnation, a shift from liberal materialism to socialist materialism, the stifling effects of ideological conformity on education and innovation, mass migration, poorly conceived environmental reforms, and chronic underinvestment in infrastructure have led to a worrying national decline.
At the same time, Germany’s paradoxical sense of pride in its guilt—not only in having authored untold horrors but also in having become a global leader in atoning for them—has led to increasingly surreal self-perceptions. The author vividly recalls a 2017 speech by then-Economy Minister Brigitte Zypries, in which she explained to a somewhat unsettled international audience that Germany’s historical responsibility for conquering and nearly destroying Europe justified its leadership of the continent today—albeit, of course, this time for its own good.
This is why the upcoming German elections, occurring at a moment of both domestic and international volatility, are not merely a footnote in history. Since the Middle Ages, Germany has been the heart of the European continent, a role formalised in the Holy Roman Empire. Since the 19th century, it has also served as Europe’s demographic and industrial powerhouse. Whatever happens in Germany reverberates far beyond its borders, which is why its elections are of paramount importance—not just for the stability of the Old Continent but for the overall direction of the European Union, increasingly viewed as little more than a polite façade for German hegemony.