United in Mutual Annoyance What's Gone Wrong with German-US Relations?

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http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,766826,00.html

There are honors that are not awarded for past accomplishments. Instead, they convey the hope that, at some point in the future, the person honored with the award will actually earn it. Such was the case in 2009, when United States President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. At that point, Obama had only been in office a few months and hadn't accomplished anything significant in terms of world peace.

On Tuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be in Washington to discuss a number of pressing issues with Obama, but she will also use the opportunity to pick up the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, America's highest civilian honor. The only other German politician to receive the award was Helmut Kohl, Germany's chancellor between 1982 and 1998. She will be given the award at a state dinner held at the White House, and Obama will deliver the award speech himself. Merkel will be accompanied by her husband, Joachim Sauer, a rare occurrence meant to highlight the importance of the event.

More than anything, though, Merkel's Freedom Award is freighted with many hopes and expectations. Compared with where things stood just a year ago, people in Washington regard Merkel with much more skepticism today. "The prevailing view in Washington is that friendship with the United States is no longer necessarily Germany's top priority," says Fiona Hill, a Europe expert at the influential Washington-based Brookings Institution. Indeed, Americans want the old Merkel back.

Obama and Merkel have not established a close personal bond, but that's not the only problem. When it comes to important issues, Germany and the United States have never stood farther apart during Merkel's two terms as chancellor as they are at the moment. Merkel's reputation in Washington has been hurt by Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power by 2022, Berlin's abstention in a United Nations Security Council vote on imposing a "no-fly" zone in Libya and the country's economic and financial policies.

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1. America?

We should take lessons from Merkel