Exhibition at German Historical Museum charts Germans' mania for saving

While the European Union gears up for another of its endless post-crisis bouts over spending, debt and deficits, Berlin’s German Historical Museum has turned a microscope onto the mania for saving in Europe’s largest economy. “Merkel’s bullying”, “Queen of austerity”, “German dogma”: headlines from around the EU greet visitors to the baroque pile on the leafy Unter den Linden boulevard that houses the museum. All are relics of Berlin’s insistence that eurozone members stick to strict limits on debts and deficits at the height of the currency bloc’s post-2008 financial blues. Politicians and the public have been puzzled by the rage from other nations, while Spaniards, Italians and above all Greeks have cursed Berlin for soaring unemployment and slashed government services. “These attacks meet with little understanding in Germany. Why is this conflict so highly charged emotionally?” questioned museum chief professor Raphael Gross.