Sir: In an article appearing in the Campaign for an Independent Britain paperwork, German Chancellor Angel Merkel was recently asked why Germany had been so keen on European integration.

The answer was that Germany was keen to atone for the part it played in the Second World War. So ashamed has the country been of the Hitler years that anything smacking of German nationalism has been taboo since 1945.

Germany has been uneasy about the European Central Bank buying Spanish and Italian debt. T

The party whose name dare not be spoken in Germany, Alternative fur Deutschland, is rising in the polls and has gained support in several regional elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg.

An opinion poll found that over 20% of the electorate would consider voting for this party in the next German federal elections in 2017.

This might see a change in the EU's most powerful member and has profound implications for the whole EU project.

Wendy Hands,

Upton-upon-Severn