The breaching of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the unification of Germany later were thrilling events which focused world attention on that country which, for good or ill, has radically altered the course of world history in the twentieth century. Germany, defeated in two world wars, has nevertheless come to rule over vast areas of the world's mind, with Nietzsche, Kafka, Rilke, Hesse, Thomas Mann, Brecht, Boll and Grass as emissaries or spokesmen...