Germany's Shift from Wolf to Lamb

choi

Josef Joffe, Germany's Shift from Wolf to Lamb; Thirty years after reunification, Europe's biggest power no longer dreams of a Fourth Reich -- but also punches below its strategic weight. Wall Street Journal, Oct 31, 2020 (in the Sarturday's "Review" section).
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ger ... to-lamb-11604065609
https://thenewstalkers.com/vic-e ... t-from-wolf-to-lamb

Excerpt in the window of print: The worry among the neighbors now isn't overreach but underreach.

Note:
(a) The author is German.
(b) "Prince Otto of Bavaria, a critic of Prussian ambition"

Otto of Bavaria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_of_Bavaria
(1848-1916; severe mental illness; was son of Maximilian II [reign 1848-1864], and the younger brother of Ludwig II [1864-1886], both of Kingdom of Bavaria; section 1 Childhood and youth: Wilhelm I was proclaimed German Emperor on 18 January 1871 at the Palace of Versailles))


(c) "After trouncing mighty France in eight weeks in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, Prussia pounded 25 German principalities and statelets into a new German Reich."
(i) The French were to blame for starting the Franco-Prussian War. See Ems Dispatch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ems_Dispatch  
("dispatch was an internal message from Prussian King Wilhelm I's vacationing site [Bad Ems] to Otto von Bismarck in Berlin, reporting demands made by the French ambassador")
(A) Mad Ems offers thermal mineral spring bath or spa, and because of this, is a UNESCO site. See Great Spas of Europe (Germany). UNESCO, undated
https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5934/
(B) I fail to find out why the place name was "Ems" at the time of Ems Dispatch. In other words, I can not find the origin or meaning of the place name Ems. Germany has a river Ems but the place of EMs is on another river.
(C) German-English dictionary:
* Bad (noun neuter): "bath"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Bad

The English noun bath is from Old English bæth, a Germanic language.
(D) Bad Ems
https://www.thomasgraz.net/glass/gl-1392.htm  
("The predicate 'Bad' was added to its name in 1913")
(ii)  Franco-Prussian War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War
says the war lasted July 19, 1870 - Jan 28, 1871 (slightly more than 6 months). The end date is the fall of Paris after a four-month siege (starting Sept 19, 1870). The War ended with Treaty of Frankfurt signed on May 10, 1871.

I google and find nothing that says the War was eight weeks long. However, from the start of the War to the capture of Napoleon III on the second day of Battle of Sedan (Sept 1-2, 1870) it took 45 days. The place name Sedan shares, in English, the same pronunciation with that of the same spelling for a vehicle.

Austro-Prussian War, also known as Seven Weeks' War, lasted June 14–July 22, 1866 -- four years earlier.
(iii) "Prussia pounded 25 German principalities and statelets into a new German Reich"
(A) Austro-Prussian War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Prussian_War
(June 14 – July 22, 1866; or Seven Weeks' War; "a war fought in 1866 between the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia, with each also being aided by various allies within the German Confederation. * * * In order to prevent 'unnecessary bitterness of feeling or desire for revenge' [on the part of Austrian Empire] and forestall intervention by France or Russia, Bismarck pushed King William I of Prussia to make peace with the Austrians rapidly, rather than continue the war in hopes of further gains")

There is a map in section 3 (heading: Alliances) indicated allies of Austrian Empire (red; its allies pink) and Kingdom of Prussia (Prussian blue; its allies in light blue), respectively (Duchy of Schleswig (on the north) and Duchy of Holstein are both painted yellow (and neutral) -- without labeling them in the map. (Kingdom of Prussia overran most of Austrian allies during the war -- except the four south German states of Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Württemberg and Bavaria -- and annexed them afterwards.) Here is a map of Austro-Prussian War where some allies of each side are labelled:
Europe 1866: Outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War. OmniAtlas, undated
https://omniatlas.com/maps/europe/18660614/
(from north to south: S = Schleswig; H = Holstein; HA = Hanover; M = Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Prussia's ally); O = Grand Duchy of Oldernburg (Prussia's ally); EH = Electorate of Hesse; ; S = Kingdom of Saxony; H Grand Duchy of Hesse; B Grand Duchy of Baden; W = Kingdom of Württemberg)  Unless otherwise indicated ("Prussia's ally"), in the parentheses they were allies of Austrian Empire, though Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein were also neutral (actually pawns).

Austrian Empire was bigger in geographical size than Kingdom of Prussia, so the latter could not possibly absorb the former.
(B) German Confederation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Confederation
(1815-1966; "created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, which had been dissolved in 1806 [by Napoleon Bonarparte]" )
broke up after Austro-Prussian War, into North German Confederation,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_German_Confederation
four south German states and Austrian Empire.

The four German states would join North German Confederation to form German Empire -- though retaining their kingdoms under the Empire -- after Franco-Prussian War.

Austrian Empire became
Austria-Hungary
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungary
(1867-1918; "in the aftermath of the Austro-Prussian War * * * [a] union between two monarchies, the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary")
(iv) German Empire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Empire  
(from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the November Revolution in 1918
(A) On the eve of German Empire was North German Confederation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_German_Confederation
that was dominated by Prussia , plus four southern German states (consisting of Baden, Hesse-Darmstadt, Württemberg and Bavaria).
(B) Nazi Germany
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Germany  
(1933-1945; "The Third Reich, meaning 'Third Realm' or 'Third Empire,' alluded to the Nazis' conceit that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918)" )


(d) " 'We don't want a united Germany,' growled Britain's Margaret Thatcher: 'We beat the Germans twice, and now they are back.' Italy's Giulio Andreotti jibed, 'I love Germany so much that I preferred two of them.' "
(i) Statements of British Prime minister Margaret Thatcher in her official capacity:
(A) "We don't want a united Germany"

Michael Binyon, Thatcher Told Gorbachev Britain Did Not Want German Reunification. Times of London, Sept 11, 2009
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/artic ... ication-vwjg8nq375j
https://www.commondreams.org/new ... erman-reunification
("Two months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Margaret Thatcher told President Gorbachev [in Moscow in 1989] that neither Britain nor Western Europe wanted the reunification of Germany [as well as breakdown of the Warsaw Pact] and made clear that she wanted the Soviet leader to do what he could to stop it")
(B) "We beat the Germans twice, and now they are back."

On Dec 8, 1989, a month after fall of Berlin Wall (Nov 9, 1989), at the beginning of a European Community summit in Strasbourg, France.
(ii) Giulio Andreotti
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulio_Andreotti
(1919 – 2013; 3-term Prime Minister of Italy 1972–1973, 1976–79 and 1989–92)

(e) "Prussia's 21st-century heirs burnish their Beemers and Benzes, not their tanks. Germany is no longer on probation. The Berlin Republic stands for peace über alles. Given Europe's past horrors, Teutonic meekness is hardly the worst outcome."
(i) Beener
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/beemer
(ii) German-nglish dictionary:
* über alles: "above all"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/über_alles
   ^ (preposition): "above, over, beyond"
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/über
   ^ alles (pronoun masculine): "all, everything, everybody"
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alles
(iii) teuton (n; etymology: Latin Teutoni, plural" (singular masculine: Teutonus) ): "a member of an ancient probably Germanic or Celtic people [origin unsure, per en.wikipedia.org]"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Teuton

Oxford dictionary (Lexico.com) says Teuton was "a member of a people who lived in Jutland in the 4th century BC." The en.wikipedia.org indicates Teutons were a tribe.