Later that night, however, in conversation around the dinner table, he discovered that his new neighbours also had German heritage. So, he politely inquired whether they spoke the language. No, he was told. On their arrival in England, escaping the Nazis, their grandparents had forbidden German ever being spoken in the house. It was, he recalled, a chastening moment. “We have a responsibility for our history,” Mertesacker suggested. “We – the new generation of Germans – have to show everybody that we are honest, that we do not shy away from it and that we will teach our kids to do things properly.”