Germany's energy policy remains directly linked to a fantasy world.

This story is old and takes various forms. Two centuries ago, the Brothers Grimm recorded a fairy tale about a certain Karl Katz, a goat herd from the Harz mountains in central Germany. One night, a lost goat leads Karl deep into a cave. Tempted by a stranger, he drinks an elixir and falls asleep. Upon waking, Karl discovers that not hours, but years have passed. The world around him has changed.

The confusion that Karl feels in the fairy tale is now being felt by many Germans. A few years ago, Europe's wealthiest major power entered not quite a sleep, but a certain state of drowsiness. Reunited and reassured by their economic and diplomatic success, Germans sank into a comfortable conviction that their system was working almost perfectly. Government policy began to be driven less by pragmatism and more by self-deception, as German political leaders intoxicated voters with soothing speeches about eternal prosperity with minimal effort and, of course, zero emissions. (...)