Not even the newfound sense of urgency when the EU began planning for what had previously been held impossible — the departure of Greece from the eurozone, perhaps even from the union — could change that.

There was only slight irritation when Greek cartoonists depicted Horst Reichenbach, the German director of the EU's task force on Greece, in a military uniform — an allusion to the Nazi occupation during the Second World War. This indifference is all the more astonishing since it's not just Greece that is on the brink of collapse, it is Italy too, a country the German chattering classes have felt attached to ever since Goethe visited it in 1786.  

This may be a sign that Germans are just uncomfortable with the world's eyes being on them. In any case the combination of indifference and idealistic belief doesn't indicate, as some have suggested, that the trouble with Germany is not that it is a forceful power but that it is not forceful enough — thus avoiding making hard choices or accepting responsibilities. The challenge is on an altogether smaller scale. 

The last year has seen a surge in raw and slightly petty grassroots protests: Swabian pensioners protesting against the redevelopment of a railway station in Stuttgart or ponytailed geeks of the anti-copyright Pirate party entering the Berlin senate for the first time — these are the forces that have shaped public consciousness much more than the possible snowball effects of the still abstract idea of a united Europe.