Berlin does not feel like an imperial city. … Yet while the German capital has deliberately eschewed the trappings of imperial power, the fact is that Berlin is increasingly the de facto capital of the EU. Of course, the EU’s main institutions—the commission and the council—are still based in Brussels. But the key decisions are increasingly made in Berlin. … This steady accretion of power to Germany is greeted with ambivalence in Berlin. For obvious historical reasons, postwar Germany has never sought a dominant role within Europe. After reunification, the goal was always said to be “a European Germany, not...