“Germany’s postwar quest for normalisation – whether through philosemitism and west-philia, or Staatsräson and proud and ostentatious self-reproach – has reached a dead end. It always seemed implausible that a collective moral education could produce a stable, homogeneous attitude across the generations. There are too many other factors determining what is remembered and what is forgotten, and the German national subconscious is burdened by a century of secrecy, crimes and cover-ups.”