His acceptance speech, in which he made a plea for dismembering his native country, received hefty applause from German President Joachim Gauck and other government officials. This diplomatic affront occurred only a few days after the German Foreign Minister and his Chinese counterpart had signed a "Common Declaration," in which Berlin declared its intentions to enhance its "strategic partnership" with Beijing.

On the one hand, this declaration has resulted from the fact that, because of China's economic strength, Germany, for the time being, needs a certain form of cooperation, not only to satisfy the business interests of its enterprises, but also to get support in solving the Euro crisis. On the other hand, the applause for Liao's recent anti-Chinese invectives shows that Berlin still considers Beijing as its rival to be combated, on a long-term basis.

New - pre-term - elections have been scheduled for late November. According to Barcelona, the break with Spain must come, even if it means violating prevailing law. Catalan separatists have been receiving German support for a long time. The German Green Party is in the same European Parliamentary caucus as the secessionist parties. Their umbrella organization has published maps in which the majority of European nations have been broken up into smaller entities - including a nation Catalonia.

According to their map, Germany had annexed Austria, the German-speaking region of Switzerland and several other territories. Cooperation with Catalonia as the "Partner Nation" in 2007, at the prestigious Frankfurt Book Fair, provided the separatists with an appreciable boost. German federal state Baden Wuerttemberg's special cooperation with Catalonia provides economic support for its secessionist efforts - and points to Europe's breakup into an economically successful core and poverty-stricken, hopeless marginalized zones, just as has crystallized under Euro zone pressure.

Modern Berlin presents a more welcoming face, and has become a magnet for tourists and teenagers. Yet while the German capital has deliberately eschewed the trappings of imperial power, the fact is that Berlin is increasingly the de facto capital of the EU. Of course the EU’s main institutions – the commission and the council – are still based in Brussels. But the key decisions are increasingly made in Berlin.

Will Greece have to leave the euro? Ultimately, it will be Germany’s call. Will politicians support further bailouts for southern Europe? The vital debates will take place in the Bundestag in Berlin – not in the European parliament. Who does the International Monetary Fund call about the euro crisis? The most important conversations take place with the German government and the European Central Bank in Frankfurt – not the European Commission.

This shift in power from Brussels to Berlin has been accelerated by the euro crisis. Naturally, the German chancellor Angela Merkel still has to go to summits in Brussels and strike deals. She was there only last week. But the euro crisis means that Ms Merkel is now incomparably the most important leader at the table.

This steady accretion of power to Germany is greeted with ambivalence in Berlin. For obvious historical reasons, postwar Germany has never sought a dominant role within Europe. After reunification, the goal was always said to be “a European Germany, not a German Europe”. That instinct to try to submerge German interests within a general European identity remains powerful. But exasperation with rule-breaking and fiscal incontinence elsewhere in Europe is making the Germans less shy about insisting on the need for a more “German” Europe. The price of German financial assistance is, increasingly, going to be the acceptance of rules and laws designed in Berlin.

That kind of power can lead to arrogance.

The seven, all members of a body called the National Commission for the Forecast and Prevention of Major Risks, were accused of negligence and malpractice in evaluating the danger and keeping the central city informed of the risks.

More than three years later, much of the once-beautiful medieval city is still in ruins and thousands of people have been unable to return to their homes. Defense lawyers said earthquakes could not be predicted and even if they could, nothing could be done to prevent them.

"If an event cannot be foreseen and, more to the point, cannot be avoided, it is hard to understand how there can be any suggestion of a failure to predict the risk," defense lawyer Franco Coppi said before the verdict was delivered.

"The rapid increase of illegal immigration in the past years, growing despair over the ailing economy and a loss of trust in our political leadership have fueled public anger and given way to dangerous populism in the country," says Loukas Tsoukalis, head of Greek think-tank Eliamep.

In September, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, included a stark warning in his annual 'state of the union' address, saying that the euro crisis was contributing to the rise in extremism. "Something must happen quick," says Judith Sunderland from Human Rights Watch, who is author of a report called "Hate on the Streets: Xenophobic violence in Greece."

And with austerity budgets, a collapsing health system, political infighting and rising xenophobia all conspiring to allow pest and disease control measures here to slip through the net, the mosquitoes are biting back. Already malaria, a disease eliminated from Greece in 1974, is not just returning with visitors and migrants - as it does from time to time in the rest Europe - but is being transmitted from person to person within Greek borders.

This year's death toll from West Nile Virus, a disease spread by Culex modestus mosquitoes, stood at 16 on October 11. It's a sign of the times that Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), a global medical charity more usually associated with the fight to save lives of babies in sub-Saharan Africa, is now working full time in parts of southern Greece.

In a country visited by 16 million tourists a year and where austerity measures mean up to 30 percent of the population is already struggling to access the healthcare they need, keeping infectious bites to a minimum is an economic necessity.

One could slash private debt by 100 per cent of GDP, boost growth, stabilize prices, and dethrone bankers all at the same time. It could be done cleanly and painlessly, by legislative command, far more quickly than anybody imagined.

The conjuring trick is to replace our system of private bank-created money - roughly 97 per cent of the money supply - with state-created money. We return to the historical norm, before Charles II placed control of the money supply in private hands with the English Free Coinage Act of 1666.

Specifically, it means an assault on "fractional reserve banking". If lenders are forced to put up 100 per cent reserve backing for deposits, they lose the exorbitant privilege of creating money out of thin air. The nation regains sovereign control over the money supply. There are no more banks runs, and fewer boom-bust credit cycles. Accounting legerdemain will do the rest.

This was the prosecution’s argument against Likud activist Moshe Feiglin on Succot, when he and several others were arrested over the course of the holiday for allegedly praying at the Temple Mount.

In court, Feiglin, as could be expected, criticized the lack of publicized regulations regarding Jewish visits to the site and the prohibition on Jewish prayer. He denied, however, that he had prayed out loud – saying he only prayed in his heart. The judge accepted his version of events and ordered that he be released without any conditions or fines.

While the judge’s reluctance to punish a defendant accused of prayer is admirable, it is almost unimaginable that in a civilized country founded on principles of liberalism, democracy and Return to Zion, a court of law would entertain arguments on whether a person was actually praying and therefore subject to penalty, or that the state would accuse a defendant of the crime of prayer – not of directly disturbing anyone with that prayer – but the mere act of prayer itself.

For decades, that was not an accolade that would have sat comfortably on German shoulders. Twice in the 20th Century this city was the crucible for devastating wars that ripped Europe apart. But now - as Europe's paymaster - it is where the future of the Eurozone will ultimately be decided. Leading from behind - the default position of a generation of German policymakers - is no longer an option.

Many European allies would like things to move much faster. There is plenty of frustration that Germany has been reluctant to embrace a comprehensive solution to the Eurozone's complex problems. A year ago, Poland's foreign minister Radek Sikorski came to Berlin to make a speech that was much remarked upon. "I fear German power less," he said, "than I am beginning to fear German inactivity."

The billionaire investor and philanthropist George Soros has been even more emphatic. Germany, he said last month, should lead or leave. But leadership is a tricky business. Where does the right balance lie between offering help in the Eurozone and dictating terms?

As the German model of fiscal rectitude has spread across Europe, so have the clichés of a Fourth Reich and the German jackboot. To put it bluntly, Germany has a bit of an image problem abroad. Because Greece does not really need to be lent more money - it needs to be given some, either in the form of direct transfers or by writing off some of the debts it owes to countries like Germany.

Neither would go down well with the audience in Potsdam, as Germany heads into an election year.