In the world of security and defense, Germany presents an enigma. How can a country that has been re-unified and fully sovereign for almost 30 years, a country possessing a fully globalized economy (the fourth-largest in the world), a country with a few heavy history lessons under its belt, be so completely absent strategically? Why is it that especially in military affairs, Germany seems to be unable to play the role expected of it, given its size, strength, and geographic location? (...) There once was a good deal of understanding for the historic complexes on Germany’s shoulders, and this understanding had led to a more gentler approach to questions of security by Germany’s friends and allies. But this patience has been running low for a while now, and has recently run dry. Berlin is now regularly being accused of shameless free riding, of naïve pacifism, or of being a perfidious geo-economic power solely interested in its mercantile well-being. Neighbors are worried about Germany’s reliability as an ally. President Donald J. Trump has unloaded on Berlin for its reluctance to spend two percent of GDP on defense (....) But Germans are not free-riders by nature, and the reason for their reluctance in military affairs has nothing to do with saving money. Nor are Germans particularly pacifist. The peace movement, a powerful phenomenon on the 1970s and 80s, is practically dead, and the Germans have never revolted against the Bundeswehr’s deployments to Afghanistan or, more recently, Lithuania, Mali and Iraq. Germany is also not, as has been suggested, caught up in an undying 1989 mindset, reluctant to mentally leave the post-modern geopolitical paradise that the fall of the Berlin Wall and national reunification had unexpectedly created for the formerly divided frontline state. (...)