COMMENT Science and other disciplines have the Nobel prize; German politics has the Quadriga awards. So when Gerhard Schröder was given the honour this month, it would have been tempting to believe that the country had finally made peace with the ex-chancellor’s far-reaching but highly controversial economic reforms.
Yet the jury’s choice of Kurt Beck, Mr Schröder’s successor as chairman of the centre-left Social Democratic party, to hand over the award suggests a different message: far from having come to terms with Mr Schröder’s legacy, German politicians are joining forces to give it a first-class funeral.
