Subtext: Germany Threatens Europe - NYTimes.com LONDON - Stubborn, domineering, downright unfriendly. All the old stereotypes about the Germans are rising to the surface as frustration grows over their refusal to sign what they regard as a blank check to their less disciplined European neighbors. It seems only fair to add resilient to the list. It is hard not to admire Chancellor Angela Merkel's stolid refusal to adopt policies she opposes in the face of growing pressure from partners and allies to act to salvage the euro zone. As she said in her latest pronouncement on European policy on Tuesday: "We cannot become involved in things which will - I am firmly convinced - lead to an even bigger disaster than we have today." But will the Germans live to regret what some regard as their intransigence in the face of a deepening crisis, or will their insistence on fiscal probity turn out to be the key element in an eventual recovery? Commentators and experts are divided. "Start the engines, Angela," The Economist implores in its current edition, stating in an editorial: "even if her strategy has paid some dividends, its cost has been ruinous and it has run its course." In another forthright assault on German policy, Niall Ferguson, the British historian, and Nouriel Roubini, the American economist, accuse the Germans of failing to learn the lessons of history. In an article published in Germany's Der Spiegel and the Financial Times, they lament the failure of the German public to grasp that "the dire state of affairs in Europe today is inviting a repeat of precisely the crisis of the mid-20th century that European integration was designed to avoid." "We find it extraordinary that it should be Germany, of all countries, that is failing to learn from history," they wrote, referring to a 1930s banking crisis that led to the breakdown of democracy in Europe and the rise of the Nazis. In the face of such onslaughts, it is easy to understand the German reaction described by Charles Grant in an IHT Global Opinion article: "When "Anglo-Saxon" commentators criticize Germany for imposing excessive austerity, the response can veer toward paranoia." Others have come to Germany's defense, even if that sometimes includes a nod in the direction of Germans" stereotypical tendency towards authoritarianism. Urging critics not to isolate Germany, Gideon Rachman wrote in the Financial Times that the demands being made on Germany might make economic sense. However, "isolating and berating Berlin, while trying to force the country to underwrite the finances of the whole of the eurozone, is a politically dangerous course." Of course, nobody questions modern Germany's democratic credentials. Only in the wilder fringes of the Greek press has Chancellor Angela Merkel been compared to Adolf Hitler. But the picture that emerges from the world's press is of a stubborn Germany, whose actions threaten the world," Mr. Rachman writes. "The rise of far-right nationalists in Greece or the Netherlands is deeply regrettable," he concludes. The rise of the far right in Germany would be a disaster. Hans-Werner Sinn, head of economics at Munich University, argues that it is unfair to put the burden on Germany to bear the weight of the euro crisis. In an IHT Global Opinion article he writes, "Should the euro fail, Germany would lose over $1.35 trillion, more than 40 percent of its G.D.P. Has the United States ever incurred a similar risk for helping other countries?" He said it was wrong to argue that Germany, having benefited from the post-war Marshall Plan, now owed it to Europe to undertake a similar rescue. Almost seven decades on, it seems there is no getting away from the World War II allusions. Perhaps it is worth recalling the title - if not the deeply anti-German sentiments - of Noel Coward's wartime song: "Don't let's be beastly to the Germans."