History shows us a lot of things. It shows why the Lord's Prayer includes the supplication: "And lead us not into temptation." In my day, dissertations were still written by hand, or drummed out with a typewriter. In the past, you had to round up the literature, find the books and find the passages. Nowadays you click on Wikipedia or Google and you have everything you need. This probably makes it more difficult to resist temptation.

The goal of European unification can only be achieved if everyone participates, perhaps with exceptions in some areas. Not all countries are part of monetary union, and not all are in the Schengen area. But the fundamental goal should be to keep everyone on board.

For Martin Schulz, the chancellor candidate for the center-left Social Democrats, friendly wishes don't go far enough. He would like to see much more enthusiastic support for Emmanuel Macron than that shown by Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose comments so far have tended to be reserved. As she put it, she doesn't see a need to change her policies because of Macron.

Emmanuel Macron wants a stronger Europe, just as the chancellor and I do. I was impressed that the new president climbed onto the stage in front of the Louvre to the sound of the European anthem after his election victory. That was a very powerful symbol. It is very clear: Macron is our ally.

Most of the mosques were built in our cities in recent years because Turkish citizens in those neighborhoods feel a growing need for places to pray.

Germany has always stood for an E.U. of the 27 countries. But in light of Britain's continued resistance to further integration steps, as we saw with the fiscal pact, there are limits to my optimism in this regard. It's quite possible that we will have to create the new institutions for the euro zone first.

Those who constantly qualify everything and have no opinions of their own are ultimately just as incapable of tolerance.