The German alarm clock is ringing

In his recent Financial Times article, George Soros was blunt about the euro crisis. “As integration has turned into disintegration,” he wrote, “Europe’s political establishment has also switched from spearheading further unification to defending the status quo.”

As the world around us changes at a furious rate, Europe seems seems to be trapped in a standby mode. Germany, for instance, once the main driver of the European integration process, has become a keen advocate of the status quo.

Former Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher used to praise the ‘European Germany’, but now that has given way to a fractious German claim to leadership of a German-influenced Europe. What is causing this new German tendency to go it alone? Why is it that "politics without a normative core," as the philosopher Jürgen Habermas puts it, is transforming into a semi-permanent state "distinguished by a lack of perspective and creative drive"?

What is wrong with this new Germany, as it seems to suffer from a new type of political paralysis? German citizens now find it impossible to determine what is at stake in a political process where politicians only care about the outcome of the next election. We need to search for goals that Germans – and other Europeans – can identify with.

This seems to be a forlorn hope in Germany. Even on an issue as emotive as the recent phase out of nuclear power did not appear as a major national objective so much as a fearful and reflexive response to a distant catastrophe, and a nakedly opportunistic means for politicians to avoid losing votes.

Germany’s inaction and lack of vision is even more curious given the speed with which change is taking place in the wider world. New centres of political power and economic growth are sprouting up from Asia to South America. And yet Germany – after all a major exporter of goods that is highly integrated with the global economy – seems to be running on the spot, obsessed with parochial arguments. Shouldn’t Germany should be at the forefront of a globalised world, shaping this new world?

Doing nothing is not an option. While Europe clung to the G-7/G-8 model, the US and Canada took the initiative to herald a transition to a G20 world, carrying an overdue global legitimacy. Although Europe joined in, the chance of leadership had already passed. The sad events at the Copenhagen climate summit echoed the feeling that key decisions no longer needed European participation.

Does Germany think that in a world of climate change, the rise of China, nuclear proliferation, religious extremism, the Arab Spring, Facebook and cyber-warfare it can afford to sit on its hands rather than taking a hand in shaping this new order? These issues, trends and phenomena are not just keywords, but have enormous consequences for security, stability, growth and prosperity.

This parochialism can be seen in attitudes towards political projects at home and abroad. We reject plans for airports – at least the ones near our homes – and shy away from any large scale construction plans, like the Stuttgart 21 rail project. We do not just reject nuclear power, but also overhead power cables or wind turbines that are too close to where we live, yet also shout out to protest against coal mines! We prefer to have nothing to do with Libya (at least through NATO), and dismiss further European expansion (especially to include Turkey). Even within the EU, Germany has lost any feelings of solidarity towards those suffering with financial crisis like Greece, and others in the south who are struggling with refugees from the troubles in North Africa.

Is this really where we - the champion exporter and largest member of the EU - now find ourselves? In love with the status quo? If so, we will lose sight of the future.

Yet the Federal Republic of Germany's founding document, like the US Constitution, is an anti-status-quo document of the highest order. Germany's constitution, the Basic Law, is eminently clear in its goals, even if many people didn't take these goals - overcoming the division of East and West Germany and establishing peace throughout Europe - very seriously at first.

Perhaps we began to lose the normative desire for change when East and West were reunified, leaving us Germans comfortable with what we had achieved and satisfied with the status quo. Compare this with the US, whose anti-status quo spirit drove independence from the British crown and the world-changing aspirations of John F. Kennedy.

This is not to suggest that all major national or European objectives are by definition good and desirable – of course not. Changing the Middle East by way of invading Iraq is ample illustration of this.

There are, however, big ideas that deserve both political and public support. The problem is that these national and European goals, whether aiming for scientific and technological leadership or reinvigorating educational – carry a cost. And we don't want costs, except where necessary in avoiding absolute social catastrophe, paid in the form of welfare benefits.

What would happen if the EU proclaimed a goal such as winning at least one Nobel Prize more than the US each year by 2025? After all, 200 million more people live here than in the United States.

Unfortunately there is a blatant lack of German interest in any such big projects (take for example the EU's GPS satellite system, Galileo). There is little sign that these could generate enthusiasm or even win votes.

Curiously, beyond politics, Germany is accustomed to enormous innovation, as the global success of our mid-sized businesses demonstrates. This hints at potential, although objectives, risk taking and innovation have all been privatized, and this private sector virility refuses to be transferred to the political sphere.

Yes, we as a society want to be a low-energy country. But an awareness of the next looming election cannot and should not serve as a reason to sideline larger goals. Doing so undersells the German people. Politics has to want something, to strive towards a goal! It has to want to overcome the status quo and define goals that are worth making an effort for. It must explain why the fear of change is shortsighted, and it must strive to create perspectives for tomorrow and beyond, for future generations.

It is time to hear the alarm call and wake up, Germany! It is time to relaunch the great European project!

A version of this article first appeared in Spiegel