The central question of German politics since 1945 was always: “How will nationalism make its comeback to the German political mainstream?” Like a good suspense novel the German political system kept us guessing for a long time and even threw in a few political red herrings.
- Would the Cold War see a form of German nationalism revived as a counterpoint to the militarism of the Soviet Union? Some of the scenes from the 1965 movie Battle of the Bulge clearly hinted at this.
- Would Helmut Kohl’s 1990 reunification of east and west lead to a less cucked Fatherland that wasn’t scared of its own historical shadow?
- Would the NPD be able to brush off its rough edges and overcome infiltrators from the security services to edge out of its East German ghettos?
- And what about Pegida?
There was plenty to keep us guessing. All these narratives caught our attention for a while, only to reveal themselves as entertaining distractions. But, finally, with the results of Sunday’s election we were given our answer – the true German post-war miracle, the return of a nationalist party, with some caveats, to mainstream German politics was down to the machinations of Germany’s most brilliant and scheming politician of the last 20 years, Angela Merkel.
