ABSTRACT
The events of 1989-91 once again installed a sovereign Germany2 at the geographical centre of Europe. At the end of the twentieth century, Germany’s position seemed in many ways different from, but in other ways, startlingly similar to, its position at the beginning of the twentieth century. While old Cold War structures, assumptions and certainties were eroding and new ones had not yet fully crystallised, Europe and Germany moved into a challenging and uncertain new phase of history.
