Germany and Greece Locked in a Mutual Obsession

By ALISON SMALEAPRIL 14, 2015

The New York Times

BERLIN — Lest Greeks forget, the Germans are watching. Closely.

When the leftist Syriza-led government was elected in Greece on Jan. 25, public broadcasters broke into Germany’s favorite crime series to announce the result. Television stations went live to Athens several times that night.

Years of crisis over Greece’s finances have often pitted Europe’s weakest economy against Europe’s economic powerhouse. German admiration for ancient Greece — dating back at least to Goethe — has given way to hard-nosed pragmatism, even in the face of increasing hardship in Greece.

Having contributed the largest share of the 240 billion euros, or $255 billion, of credits extended to Athens, Germany believes that it has done the most to keep Greece solvent and in the eurozone. And Germans keep tabs on their money.

Journalists and politicians here fret daily about Athens’ willingness to keep agreements with international creditors, or, by accident or design, leaving the eurozone. Complex graphs on Greek debt are a staple of newscasts that veer from patronizing to panicky. Less seriously, they ponder whether Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, 40, will ever wear a tie.

For weeks, the countries’ finance ministers sparred almost daily. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Mr. Tsipras called a halt when the Greek leader came to Berlin and was received with full honors. But tempers were not assuaged for long. As Mr. Tsipras headed to Moscow last week, his deputy finance minister declared that Germany owed Greece €287 billion in reparations for the Nazi occupation in World War II.

That argument over compensation for tens or hundreds of thousands of deaths, and repayment of a forced loan, has endured for decades. Ms. Merkel’s government insists that the matter is closed, while recognizing continued “moral responsibility” for war crimes.

Some opposition figures in Germany are open to new payments to Greece. But the latest demand tested even Ms. Merkel’s vice chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the center-left Social Democrats.

“Honestly, I find it stupid,” Mr. Gabriel said. “The Greeks have an interest in opening up space for a changed policy. That has nothing at all to do with World War II, or reparations.”

Predictably, in the Greek echo chamber, Mr. Gabriel was presented as branding all Greeks as “dumb.” German politicians, meanwhile, backed by a Brussels chorus, worried that Greece would break ranks on sanctions against Russia over Ukraine.

The visit to Moscow was “a threatening gesture,” thundered Elmar Brok, a Merkel party ally and veteran of European politics. Martin Schulz, the German who heads the European Parliament, warned Greece not to seek “solidarity” in Moscow and to remember which government (Europe, Germany) had shown the most “solidarity” to date.

Hundreds of thousands of Germans and Greeks living in each other’s country feel squeezed.

Jens Bastian, a German economist in Greece for 16 years, was on morning television in Germany last week, pleading for calm. “I am often surprised and frustrated” by the German news media, he said by telephone afterward. “Tone it down,” he said. “Don’t get hysterical.”

Meanwhile, he says, the Greek news media seizes on almost any utterance about Greece for at least 10 minutes of any evening’s hourlong newscasts.

That attitude compounds what he calls two mistakes of the Greek government. First, it won a mandate not for change in Europe, but for “a change — or at least attempting one — in Greece.” Second, “you cannot take a confrontational approach to Germany,” a main creditor and trade and political partner. “You need to have Germany on side, not off.”

Pigi Mourmouri, 67, a retired social worker from Greece who has lived in Berlin for over 40 years, resents some of what she sees here. “I have felt bad, because I had to justify myself,” she said. “And that is not a good feeling.” Besides, the “arrogance and superiority” of some German news outlets is hard to miss.

Instead of advancing European unity, as the euro was supposed to do, she said, people are thrown back on themselves.

“You feel it in small ways,” she said, citing a carnival two years ago. The host welcomed her and a friend warmly but ignored them once he realized that they were Greek. From both Germany and Greece, she said, “I try to take the best. That is a luxury I still have.”