But Germany will always suffer, I fear, from the intensely dramatic character of the crimes of the Third Reich.

It is normal for politicians in all countries to profess themselves the pupils of history, anxious to draw the right lessons from her teaching.

A genuinely democratic Iraq might well act as a fresh spur.

Diplomacy is unfashionable in the world of knee-jerk reaction and the dogmatic sound bite on television.

There is no consensus even today on the merits of Napoleon - and certainly no agreement on the rights and wrongs of the origins of the First World War.

Margaret Thatcher was fearful of German unification because she believed that this would bring an immediate and formidable increase of economic strength to a Germany which was already the strongest economic partner in Europe.

Men like Hitler and Stalin and their immediate lieutenants cannot plead in defence of their actions that these were justified by the accepted values of that time.