ALLEINSCHULD, the belief in “sole guilt” for one if not two world wars, has had an enduring impact on Germany’s public life. It explains why there is little commemoration of war dead, even for this week’s centenary of the outbreak of the Great War. The first Weltkrieg is regarded as the terrifying overture to the second. It also explains Germany’s attachment to pacifism and its reluctance to show the leadership that friends demand of Europe’s biggest economy. Over recent decades, Germany’s answer to Alleinschuld has been to concentrate on its economy and cover itself with the European flag.“The Sleepwalkers”, a book by Christopher Clark an Australian-born historian at Britain’s Cambridge University, on the origins of the first world war, has been an unexpected success in Germany, partly because it reassesses the question of war guilt. “There is no smoking gun in this story; or, rather, there is one in the hands of every major character,” it concludes. “Viewed in this light, the outbreak of war was a tragedy, not a crime.” The point has been made by others, not…
