Rather than a repressed silence about German suffering in the years following the war, there is almost nothing else in the media coverage of the early post-war decades.

ECONOMIST: Breaking the borders

The chancellor, say the Social Democrats caustically, must at least be congratulated for giving voters the chance to tell him what they think of policies that have brought post-war Germany's highest unemployment for more than six decades.

ECONOMIST: Battling on, for Germany and for Europe | The

This reflects an underlying improvement in Britain's economic performance over the past two decades, after relative decline during most of the post-war era.

ECONOMIST: Living standards