Remembrance of the fallen, and the fall of a wall. How we remember the past defines the future.
Look at London, then at Berlin last weekend, and you will understand the intense debate in Europe's richest country - does it dare to lead again?
A wave of red flowers laps against the walls of an ancient fortress, a brass band echoes the demolition work of the trumpets of Jericho with the addition of unbiblical balloons.
The toll of bells and then a silence broken only by the cry of gulls to honour those who died.
In Germany there are not many memorials to the fallen, but I found one at the Brandenburg HQ of the modern German army.
It was rescued from a demolished East German barracks; no-one was sure of its exact dates. Maybe post-WW1, maybe earlier.
An ornate Pikelhaube, the distinctive Prussian helmet, lies between a wreath of oak leaves and an unsheathed dagger.
Over these emblems a giant German eagle crouches, fierce and protective, wings outstretched.
I ask Cpl Stephen Giese, 21, who has been in the German Army a year and a month, what he thinks of those Germans who died in the two world wars.
"I'm very proud of how they served the army considering the circumstances and knowing that the war was probably lost anyway.
"I think today you can't approve of it, but their courage and steadfast duty is impressive," he said.
It is a welcome relief from the two-dimensional world of the tabloids where heroes are always on the right side and their opponents are bad, or mad, and always cowardly. His reflective, thoughtful approach to war is very German.
Looking forward
But the young soldier is also determined that his country's past should not hamstring its future.
"It is part of the education [of a potential officer] to be sent overseas. I think it is our job and our duty to protect the liberty and democracy of our own country and I'm ready to do so.
"I think there are regions in this world where it is necessary to fight, because talking isn't enough or people wouldn't agree on talking.
"But the first step should always be a verbal exchange and no fighting."
In Berlin, history is never far away.
A short walk from the celebrations at the Brandenburg Gate is the Holocaust Memorial, itself not far from the unmarked spot where Hitler's bunker once was.
The memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe is overwhelming and unsettling, as it is meant to be.
You walk down an uneven surface, deeper and deeper into rows of looming stone blocks. They mark the pitiless murder of millions from many countries by the leaders of one country.
If nations define themselves, and their sense of history, by what they choose to remember, and what they choose to forget, then Germany is unique.
It chooses to remember with dogged determination its darkest sins, rubbing its own face in the mess of its past, to teach itself a lesson.
But history does not stand still.
Ever since the fall of the wall there has been a debate about when Germany can become a "normal" country.
It is sometimes rather more philosophical than political.
But now the debate has reached a tipping point - what more can the richest and most powerful country in Europe do in a very uncertain world?
Time to move on
Earlier this year German President Joachim Gauck made a rare political intervention.
He said the country could not continue to hide behind its past.
He warned that there were "people who use Germany's guilt for its past as a shield for laziness or a desire to disengage from the world".
Forcefully, he added: "At this very moment, the world's only superpower is reconsidering the scale and form of its global engagement.
"Europe, its partner, is busy navel-gazing. I don't believe that Germany can simply carry on as before in the face of these developments."
The foreign minister and the defence minister have followed suit, arguing that Germany should do more.
The times, some say, demand it.
BBC News - Time for German military to take more active role?
