BERLIN — More than a century ago, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, bombastically half-commanded the world to heal itself through an infusion of something he called the German essence. Last year, two world wars (and much rejected German essence) later, Chancellor Angela Merkel, the calm, modest, reasonable pastor’s daughter, twice picked up Kaiser Bill’s theme in the midst of a recession that has hit Germany perhaps harder than any other industrial...
Full Story: The New York Times
