Destroyer of worlds: wrecking villages and an entire economy.

Germany has a history of clinging to lost causes: its ‘inevitable’ transition to wind and solar is just the latest example. As Berlin was overrun by the Red Army in April 1945, Hitler and his loyal aides and commanders kidded themselves that the Reich might soon ride again.

The Fuhrer and his newly wedded wife, Eva literally went out in a blaze of glory, rather than face capture and humiliation of the kind dished out to his Italian mate Mussolini. (There’s always something a little poetic about captains going down with sinking ships, even if the captain in question was a deranged monster, responsible for destroying Europe and tens of millions of innocent lives.)

A few generations on, Germans are watching history repeat.

This time it’s their position as Europe’s industrial and manufacturing superpower that’s facing, deliberate and self-inflicted annihilation. Germany’s…