Germany began winter in the doghouse. Spring is yet to arrive, and already Berlin is being embraced as the savior of Europe.

You have to wonder, what will Germany’s status be in Europe by fall?

Less than four months ago, Germany was the bane of Europe, a ball and chain weighing down the efforts of Paris, London and Brussels as they tried to solve Europe’s financial woes. Berlin’s mutinous refusal to back the flamboyant, American-style, billion-dollar bailout packages irked its neighbors. Tensions mounted, barbs flew, anti-German sentiment rippled.

Today Europe is having a change of heart.

“Everyone is turning to Germany as the ultimate savior of the European economy,” Reuters columnist Paul Taylor wrote last week.

The nation that only months ago was scorned as the great European stumbling block is now considered its ablest lifeline, the nation with the best chance of plucking Europe from the jaws of economic Armageddon.

Germany’s schizophrenic tack on the economic crisis is part of the reason for Europe’s change of heart. For months, the German government adamantly refused to indebt itself to bail out states that it considered fiscally reckless and irresponsible. As Europe’s economic storm grew more violent, Berlin began to trim its sails. Today, with much of Eastern Europe teetering on the edge of economic collapse, threatening to take much of Western Europe, including Germany, down with it—and with France sidelined and Britain consumed with internal crises—Berlin is adjusting to reality.

There are no other options: Only German leadership can rescue Europe.

Last Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave what European papers reported was her biggest hint yet that Berlin is now prepared to help rescue failing European economies. Speaking to journalists ahead of Sunday’s EU summit, Merkel said, “We have shown solidarity and that will remain so.” In addition to the chancellor’s remarks, recent moves by both the German foreign minister and finance minister indicate Berlin is preparing some sort of lifeline to save Europe’s monetary system from being sucked under. Last week, Germany’s Spiegel Online reported,

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said … that Germany was considering ways in which economically stronger eurozone countries could help other states. … Spiegel reported last week that German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück had asked his staff to draft scenarios for possible rescue measures including bilateral bonds that could see Germany borrowing at more attractive interest rates to raise money for hard-up countries.

Be it independently or via entities such as the European Central Bank or the European Commission, Germany is positioning itself to form the vanguard of the rescue efforts to save European economies. For many longtime Trumpet readers, this is electrifying. For nearly 20 years (as our predecessor, the Plain Truth, did for decades prior), we have explained that Bible prophecy says Germany will emerge as the clear-cut leader of a united European bloc. We have warned specifically that a major global financial crisis could thrust Germany into this leadership position.

A quarter of a century ago, Herbert Armstrong prophesied that “A massive banking crisis in America could suddenly result in triggering European nations to unite as a new world power larger than either the Soviet Union or the U.S.” (Plain Truth, July 1984).

Is this now happening?

Europe’s change of heart toward Germany, Taylor wrote, “reflects a shift in the balance of power in the EU that puts Germany in the driver’s seat” (emphasis mine throughout).

The current economic crisis is changing the political scaffolding of Europe. Flailing European economies, from Spain to Sweden, Greece to Ireland, are now sending out the sos calls to Europe’s largest and economically strongest state. And while Germany hasn’t escaped the financial storm ripping across Europe—German gross domestic product is set to fall more than most others this year, exports are decreasing and unemployment is rising—it is by far the best-positioned to toss a line to its sinking fellow states.

As Spiegel Online continued,

Germany’s apparent willingness to support its neighbors reflects a change in direction for the leadership. Until now Germany … has been reluctant to offer to help pay for what it sees as other countries’ lack of discipline in national spending. As a result, it is expected that extensive strings will be attached to any assistance offered, a point made clear by president of Germany’s Bundesbank, Axel Weber. Speaking to German daily Die Welt, he said “targeted aid for individual member states” may be “unavoidable” but any such moves would have to be accompanied with “strict demands and conditions.“

Berlin is prepared to rescue neighboring states on the condition that those states submit to Teutonic rules and conditions. The economic crisis, explained Taylor, “gives the Germans leverage to force countries in trouble to pursue stricter fiscal consolidation as a condition for help ….” The worse this crisis grows, the greater the need for German intervention will become—and the more Berlin will exploit its leverage to demand concessions from Europe.

Europe’s economic crisis is only going to increase Germany’s leverage over the Continent!

This is a geopolitical manifestation of a basic principle of human relations: The drowning man is indebted to the saving hand. When crisis strikes, the heroic rescuer is empowered while the rescued, often willingly and gratefully, assumes a position of subservience. In the coming months, we can expect this rescuer/rescued relationship between Germany and the rest of Europe to be further delineated.

Though rescuing Europe from the economic abyss will come with tremendous advantages for Berlin, it will not be easy. Convincing the disgruntled German populace of the need to toss life floats to other countries at a time when Germany itself could use all the flotation devices it can get will be a challenge. Yet it is just such a challenge that could provide an opportunity for the right leader to seize political advantage.

The convergence of a chaos-ridden Continent looking to Germany as its economic savior and elections for a new German leader could create ideal conditions for the ascent of a unique, politically dangerous, prophetically significant individual to the German helm.

Regarding events in Europe in the end time, the Prophet Daniel warned that a “king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up” (Daniel 8:23). This man, as Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry explains thoroughly in Daniel—Unsealed at Last!, will be a master of subtlety and sinister diplomacy, a crafty politician with a mean streak.

The extreme conditions currently swallowing both Europe and Germany could produce exactly this kind of leader!

Such conditions might give birth to a profoundly talented leader, a man with exceptional political acumen, the fortitude to withstand tremendous stress, and uncommon communication skills. In other words, a man with Daniel 8-style character.

Watch the European political scene carefully, including the German national election coming in September. We fully expect an individual to ultimately emerge from these conditions who will navigate Germany and the rest of Europe through these dangerous economic shoals. This is a time of immense chaos—when European countries are crying out for strong leadership from Germany.

The Continent is primed and eager to follow a man with solutions! Just as the Prophet Daniel says it will.