“Merkel didn’t rise to the challenge like the French did.”Some historians fear the events of last week could mark a shift for the worse in Anglo-German relations. “Two narratives have dominated the view of Germany in the Brexit debate,” said Helene von Bismarck, a Hamburg-based historian specialising in British foreign policy. On the other, there was the view of Germany as an aggressive threat: first economic, then military. “There is still a large Anglophile community with a longing for rolling hills, Shakespeare and Jane Austen,” she said. “A lot of Germans think Britain has gone a little bit bonkers, but it will be all right in the end.”

Source: The Guardian October 12, 2019 15:00 UTC