"Germany was the most dangerous component of the Axis, though German forces, unlike Japanese and Italian, did not fire a shot in anger until the invasion of Poland in September 1939 which launched world war. The source of the German threat was Hitler. Other German nationalists wanted Germany to reassert herself as a major state in the 1930s following years of enforced subservience to the victor states of 1918. Few Germans of any political shade had accepted the Allied demands for reparations and German disarmament, or been reconciled to the loss of territory to Poland and France. But very few Germans wanted to run the risk of war again. Hitler's outlook was quite different. Any account of the origins and course of the Second World War must give Hitler the leading part. Without him a major war in the early 1940s between all the world's great powers was unthinkable."

"In Germany, it's, let's say it's 5:59 and you're heading for the bakery or whatever and it's due to close at 6. The German will walk right up to that door and close it right in your face, they will lock it on the other side of that glass door with a shrug, like 'sorry'."

"We do not fear that the operations of time may never bring a united Europe, with a reunited Germany at its centre. We do not know how it will happen, how this unnaturally divided Germany is to become once again. It is obscure to us, and we must take refuge in the belief that history will find ways and means of overcoming the unnatural and restoring the natural: a Germany as a consciously serving member of a Europe united in self-awareness – not as its lord and master... Let us not delude ourselves over the fact that among the difficulties delaying the unification of Europe is a mistrust of the purity of German intentions, a fear by other peoples of Germany and of hegemonic plans that its vital energy may install into it, which in their view it does not conceal very well….It is for the rising German generation, for German youth, to dispel the mistrust, this fear, by rejecting what has long been rejected and clearly and unanimously announcing their desire: not for a German Europe, but for a European Germany."

"Germany, and the Rhine Valley in particular must be one of the most beautiful places in the world. It is perhaps that beauty which has inspired the development of your culture as manifested by the excellence of the Germans in music, literature and philosophy. Germany's post-war rehabilitation and progress is a tribute to the indomitable spirit, ingenuity and enterprise of her people."

"The Germans, both because of their intense democracy and also because they were as a rule people of limited capital and dependent on their own labor and skill for a livelihood, were not favorable to the institution of slavery."

"In the valley of the Pegnitz, where, Across broad meadow-lands, Rise the blue Franconian mountains, Nuremberg, the ancient, stands.Quaint old town of toil and traffic, Quaint old town of art and song, Memories haunt thy pointed gables, Like the rooks that round thee throng."

"Football is a simple game. 22 men chase a ball for ninety minutes and at the end, the Germans win."

"Germany is first of all as das Reich der Mitte (the central realm) truly central in a geographical sense; halfway between Paris and Moscow, Rome and Stockholm, London and Bucharest, Madrid and Helsingfors it is basically different from the marginal states in the European framework, as, for instance, Ireland, Portugal, Greece or Norway. The German people, not unlike the Russian, has furthermore the proclivity to think through to the bitter end every accepted thought, coming from within or without, and to deduct every ultimate conclusion from such an ideology."

"We Germans have learned from history. We are a peace-loving, freedom-loving people. For us, love of our native country, love of freedom, and the spirit of being a good neighbor always belong together."