The German question

Regardless of how the Ukraine crisis ends, one thing present but often overlooked is the German question. It’s a question that has hounded Europe for centuries. After the Napoleonic Wars, the concern was whether Germany would unite into a single state. The Germans, especially the leaders of their fractious countryside, worried about this too, for in an age of monarchs and emperors, there can be only one ruler. But for the rest of Europe, the prospect of a revived Holy Roman Empire, a once-powerful entity even without the sense of unity or shared “German” identity, was frightening. The possibility that it might share Prussia’s militarism made their fears all the more acute.