iNews column
Take two world wars out of the equation and Britain and Germany have always been relatively close allies.
The two countries have a shared history, not least the fact that the Germans gave us our Royal Family 300 years ago; that development alone should not be underestimated when evaluating the state of Anglo-German relations today.
On Tuesday Britain and Germany signed a defence pact, similar to the one Britain has with France. It’s significant for all sorts of reasons, and not just to do with mutual support in defence policy.
The two countries will work together on developing drone technology and long-range missiles and the German Luftwaffe will fly sorties over the North Atlantic from RAF Lossiemouth. Yes, the Luftwaffe flying from British soil. Older readers may need some smelling salts. But that indicates what a significant development this is.
As a self-confessed Germanophile, I’d say it’s high time our political classes recognised that Germany should be seen as our most important European ally.
During the seemingly interminable Brexit debates we were repeatedly told that Britain’s influence in foreign and security policy would inevitably decline. Despite the Brexiteer’s protestations that a Global Britain would be outward looking, Remainers, and indeed most so-called foreign policy experts, projected an image of a friendless Britain, which would inevitably become isolationist. It was almost as if they were hoping it would turn out that way, just to be proved right.
The Ukraine war proved them utterly wrong. From the moment the Russians invaded, Britain led the European response, and in many ways co-ordinated it. Whatever failings and failures Boris Johnson was responsible for in his premiership, this was not one of them. He played a blinder. Even the most sceptical European leaders had to admit it in the end.
Just because Britain was ahead of the European pack in promising military support didn’t mean that Johnson indulged in his normal boosterish bravado. He recognised the need to persuade and cajole Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz to promise the kind of support that Britain had given, and he persuaded them to do so, however reluctant they were initially. And the co-operation has continued, despite three changes of prime minister.
It hasn’t always been this way. Margaret Thatcher, a child of the Second World War, never clicked with Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel treated David Cameron like a recalcitrant teenager. Even Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroeder, although politically on the same page, never had a close personal rapport.
When I was a teenager in the 70s, the attitude of most people in Britain to Germany was still crafted by the shadow of the Second World War. I remember my German pen-friend coming to stay, and having to sit my father down and tell him not to refer to “the Jerries”.
He came from the generation that thought the only good German was a dead one. Meeting my 15-year-old pen-friend was a revelation to him. Many a late night was spent with me listening to the two of them chat, learning from each other in a way I could never have anticipated.
But at the time our media also seemed to see everything through the prism of the war and the Nazis. There was little effort to understand modern-day Germany beyond a rather snooty respect and envy for the “Wirtschaftswunder”, which had seen Germany transform itself from the ruins of 1945 to become the economic powerhouse of western Europe.
Since then, things have changed to the extent that the appointment of a German as manager of the England football team barely raises more than an eyebrow, apart from the ever predictable monobrow of the Daily MailRead Next
My school exchange in 1977 was followed by another in 1979. German was the only subject I excelled at in school and it led to me taking a gap year working in a German hospital before getting a degree in German and becoming so fluent in the language that no German could tell I was a foreigner. It has led to a lifelong love of all things German.
It is a huge regret to me that fewer and fewer Britons are learning German at school. Since long before Brexit was even a glint in Nigel Farage’s eye, successive governments have failed to recognise the benefits of learning foreign languages and undermined foreign language teaching.
This year, there was a 3 per cent increase in those taking a German A-level, yet the overall number taking foreign language A-levels dropped again. School exchanges to both Germany and other European countries also continue to fall. Again, this trend started way before Brexit.
I firmly hope ways can be found to reverse this trend so tomorrow’s 18-year-olds can enjoy the same opportunities I had. Those trips to Germany changed my life and gave me the start in life which has culminated in being able to write columns like this.
And the new Anglo-German defence pact can give some real “Vorsprung” to a revitalised close relationship between our two countries.