An ability to surprise is not, perhaps, the first thing people typically associate with Germans. But looking at the direction our country has taken since Russia launched its war of aggression against Ukraine, maybe we Germans have managed to surprise even ourselves. Only two years ago, billions of cubic metres of gas arrived from Russia to Germany through Nord Stream 1 and other pipelines. Russian fossil fuels made up a large share of our energy consumption. Today, we’ve cut this down to zero. Only two years ago, the idea of Germany delivering tanks, air-defence systems and howitzers to a war…