Germany is governed by hidden rituals. On November 11, St Martin’s Day, German omnivores always eat goose and red cabbage. The following day they start to organise their summer holidays.
Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, is no different. She too follows the calendar. After November 9, the grand anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall — the quintessential celebration of Germany’s recovered sovereignty — she will go to France for Armistice Day with President Sarkozy. The gesture is a theatrical one, designed to replicate in modern form the rendezvous of Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand on the battlefield of Verdun.
It is also more than that: Germany is about to re-engage with Europe. Having turned inwards for the best part of a decade, Germany