Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishThe United States gave Germany its democracy and its constitution. It supported German reunification when France and Britain had their doubts. It has some 35,000 troops in Germany, dedicated to the defense of Europe.But President Trump and his administration now see Europe as an adversary, NATO as a burden and Russia as a friend. Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk have thrown their support to a far-right party with neo-Nazi members that wants to undermine the German government and supports Russia’s aims in Ukraine.Germany, perhaps more than any other country in Europe, feels adrift, orphaned and even betrayed by its closest ally. But if Germans have been pushed out of the nest, they are also beginning to respond, amid deep soul searching and questioning about the future — both their own and Europe’s.The biggest indication that shock is giving way to action came this week, as the lower house of the German Parliament voted to loosen the country’s long aversion to debt so that it could begin rebuilding a military and a domestic infrastructure that had fallen into neglect.It was a groundbreaking step, given taboos about German militarism. Still, it is one that Germans and other Europeans know they must take to adapt to new hostility coming from both Russia and the United States.Joschka Fischer, a former foreign minister, radical leftist in his younger days and now a Green party stalwart, said, “I always had a complicated relationship with the United States, which was far from perfect, but the U.S. was always the shining city on the hill.”“But now,” he said, “we’ve lost not only the power that protected us, but also the guiding star in the sky.”Europe must rearm in response, he said. German leadership is essential to do that, though many on the continent are still insistent that Europeans must, as Mr. Fischer put it, “continue with our close alliance with the U.S., while becoming as strong as possible to deter Russia.”He, like many others, sees a period of vulnerability before Europe can better fend for itself.For Norbert Röttgen, a member of Parliament for the center-right Christian Democrats, the rupture with Washington is already profound, with consequences both urgent and far-reaching. “This is the end of the European peace order,” he noted.“We’ve come to the conclusion that we have to do European security on our own,” Mr. Röttgen said, “and it’s an emergency, because we have war in Europe.”Europeans are in different stages of adaptation to what they fear is the loss of their American ally. “The initial shock has given way to a sense of mobilization,” said Thomas Bagger, a top official at the German Foreign Ministry.“It was a sudden feeling of being on our own, a bit orphaned,” he said. “But now there’s a bit more of a self-confident line. There is an understanding that Europe is now what’s left of the West, and that’s especially important for Germany.”The sense of betrayal by Washington is perhaps strongest among Germans who grew up in the first decades after World War II. “There’s no other country in Europe that is as much a product of enlightened postwar American policy as Germany,” said Mr. Bagger, born in 1965. “So the shock is deeper here.”Germany embedded itself after the war in the European Union for domestic prosperity and in NATO for security, and Germans developed almost a religious belief in the importance of an international community of shared values — and worked to strengthen it.Confronting an American administration that says there is no international community but only nation states competing for prosperity and power “is an existential challenge for Germany,” Mr. Bagger said.At the same time, he agreed with Mr. Fischer that Germany should not break with Washington or do anything to speed the rupture. “It will take time to replace the U.S. in defense and development aid,” Mr. Bagger said. “We’ll still work for the best but no longer base our future on the assumption that things will go on as before.”The Trump shock can be seen as salutary, too, shaking Germany out of its long complacency, argued Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German ambassador to both the United States and Britain.If NATO has become larger and stronger in response to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his invasion of Ukraine, then the antagonism of Mr. Trump, Mr. Vance and Mr. Musk to the European Union will only strengthen the continent’s cohesion, he said.“If there was ever a chance for Europe to get her act together on security, it’s now,” Mr. Ischinger said.As for Germany, there is the feeling that the trusted and generous Uncle Sam “is now suffering from dementia and doesn’t recognize us or our huge mutual interest,” Mr. Ischinger said. “I always thought we have enough homegrown anti-Americanism in this country without adding to it.”The Trump antagonism is “serving the interests of those who would love to see more anti-Americanism here, including our Russian friends,” he said.The willingness of an incoming German government to spend huge sums to modernize Germany’s military is a direct and appropriate response to Washington, Mr. Ischinger said. “For the first time in many months, people can say we did something.”There is a quieter worry about the European balance of power. The U.S. engagement in Europe was an important balm to anxieties about the power of a reunited Germany, and those anxieties may return, said Jan Techau, a German former defense official and an analyst at the Eurasia Group.“The question of who was the big boy in Europe was answered by the U.S.,” he said. “But what happens when the U.S. retreats and the question of the European hegemon raises up again? It will make European politics much more complicated.”“There’s no real way to replace the U.S., despite all the European talk,” he said. Mr. Techau, too, worries about “an open window of vulnerability” in any transition away from integral U.S. involvement in European security.“If we get a dirty deal on Ukraine and an escalation of the trade war and Putin probing or escalating hybrid warfare in Germany and Trump decides to withdraw some American troops,” Mr. Techau said, “then it will really start to dawn on people that we are alone out there, and alone in Europe as a nonnuclear power.”Of course, for some Germans a break with Washington would provide a sense of liberation, too. There were always conservatives who felt, like Mr. Vance, that America was too disruptive as a beacon of modernism; on the left, there was a desire to get out from under the capitalist behemoth.In last month’s federal elections, more than 34 percent of Germans voted for parties with strong anti-American sentiments. And in a poll this month, only 16 percent of Germans said that they trusted the United States as an ally, compared to 85 percent for France and 78 percent for Britain. Some 10 percent said they trusted Russia.Germans like to debate and delay decisions, but then they act with thoroughness, said J.D. Bindenagel, a former American ambassador to Germany who teaches at the University of Bonn.“Germans feel abandoned and betrayed, and they know they’re weak in terms of defense and can’t walk away immediately,” he said. “But when you break trust it’s hard to reestablish. They’re not going back.”
