As a language, German has a near-unique quality to sum up a combination of feelings, conditions and elements in a single word. Add “umbehagen” to a list that would most certainly include zeitgeist, leitmotif and doppelganger. Umbehagen describes the angst, discomfort and malaise being experienced by Germans at changing social and political scenes — the arrival and settlement of more than a million refugees from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere would be one strand of this. And so too would be the rise of the right and Alternative for Germany (AfD), concerns over security and terror, or unsettling and disjointed noises...