[...] According to him, unification was "a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe." He warned of the German tendency to be "uppity" and then explained with refreshing but, as it turned out, suicidal precision, that he wasn't really "against giving up sovereignty in principle--but not to this lot. You might as well give it to Adolf Hitler, frankly."
quoting Nicholas Ridley, Margaret Thatcher's Minister of Finance (who was dismissed after these remarks, even though Thatcher herself felt similarly)
the author seems to partly agree with this view, at least the point that the burden of on Germany to quell the very valid fears of their neighbours (and the world)
interestingly enough, it seems that the citizens of other European countries were in usually favour of reunification, even if their leaders weren't