First of all, minor nitpicking, we did not annex the DDR. The DDR has been stolen from us and its people managed to get rid of their oppressors on their own.

> If this does not suit the German people, then maybe we should just give up the federal project altogether.

Sorry, but that is just fatalistic. Europe will never be the US and does not need to. Germany itself is a federal project with differences among the states. Take the UK, Spain or Belgium for even harsher examples. With these differences even within the European states, you cannot expect them to give away control over economic and fiscal policies without any gain of influence. That is not how democracy works. If my money is spent, I want the right to vote on how it is spent.

I also want the UK in. For hundreds of years Europe’s situation was decided by how well its great powers got along with each other. I think the UK is essential for the definition of Europe. Besides that: The UK has virtually no industry left and London is the biggest financial market in Europe. As someone living in Frankfurt I am okay with that. But do you really think the UK does not know, that Germany will not let them leave without taking London away? I recently talked to a German MEP, who said this in nicer terms. I think "Better together" will be nothing compared to the bank sponsored campaign that will be started once the UK actually tries to leave.

> Besides, you cannot integrate welfare without common money pools

That is true, but there are common money pools. Just start to move parts of the welfare systems up one level to the EU and increase their funding.

> Tony Blair really was a wannabe rockstar, and he ended up being the most skillful politician of his generation in the UK, and one of the most influential across the whole of Europe.

You might take a look at the disaster that is currently happening in the middle-east, that he and his buddy Bush caused so skillfully.

> You have to face the fact that these guys are actually good: they took a smalltime leftist operation and got them in government. They managed to coopt some of their worst enemies on the right and basically took them out of the game. They tried to build a coalition across countries with similar interests, and the failure there is just due to political weakness on the other side […] But if you make them heroes to their people, making them appear as the saviours of national pride, they will have the political capital to make bolder choices in any area.

You might call the ability to increase once power skillful governing, I think we all learned that we are better of with democratic majorities behind the decision itself instead of the benevolent leader who makes them.

> […] Schauble, who is in fact a law graduate and much to the right of Merkel.

I do not like him either, but because of his former job as Secretary of the Interior [0]. Finally not spending more than you have is an achievement he will be remembered for, even if he was in a unique situation to do it easily.

> And if the Merkel coalition is the most social-democratic effort Germany can produce, Europe will soon be a thing of the past.

They introduced pension presents for mothers and workers, regulated rent and broker commissions for tenants and introduced a minimum wage in the past two years alone. This is not a defensive argument for Merkels achievements, I could think of much better ways to spend that money, but an argument for the CDUs social-democratic character.

Edit: Forced end of conversation by HN. Nice discussion, we will see how it will work out :)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi_2.0