Leader: Invisible wall threatens German prosperity

Fifty years ago today, when the Berlin Wall went up, the world seemed a truly dangerous place and Germany divided forever. Today, the world seems no less dangerous, if for other reasons.

But everything else has changed. The hated Berlin wall - fatuously described in the east as the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart - has gone, its graffiti-covered bricks broken and chipped into little pieces to become mementos and tourist trophies. Other features to disappear were not just Walter Ulbricht's Stasi-run German Democratic Republic, but the entire Soviet Union.

The power dynamics of Europe have been transformed. Not only has Germany been re-united, but she has also worked to overcome the massive costs that reunification brought. Today, Germany, after all these vicissitudes, has emerged to become the strongest economy in the European Union. But all this has come at a price. A new wall is starting to appear - invisible but growing in presence. It is the wall behind which Germany now cowers in fear of the pressures for ever more bail-out money to deal with the massive budget deficits and debt holes of her neighbours.

Unfortunately for her taxpayers, no wall may be big enough to protect her from being stuck with at least some of their debt excesses.