After a detour through Europe's troubled periphery (Bulgaria, Turkey and Cyprus), it's time for our 'Spotlight on' feature to shine a light on Europe's reluctant core - Germany. Did you know that Germans will vote on 22 September to elect a new parliament? Perhaps not: the campaign has so far been 'terminally, terminally boring', as Juliane Mendelsohn puts it, and the fact that outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel will most probably win the election has something to do with that.

But the German model's apparent success also hides increasing tension - social, economic, political. Will Germany always be in a position to - reluctantly but decidedly - captain the European boat? After all, Germany was known as the 'sick man of Europe' less than a decade ago. So what comes next - both for Germany and Europe? We hope this compilation of our favourite articles on Germany, past and present, will hint at some answers; you can see for yourselves here.

(Also, if you're currently living in Germany or a passionate observer of German politics, we'd very interested in publishing your thoughts  - do drop us a line at europe (at) opendemocracy.net!)