BERLIN — It has been almost a year since Donald Trump took office, and Germany is still debating what, exactly, his administration means for Europe. Is Mr. Trump just a hiccup in the American political system or an indicator of a chronic disease? Will the trans-Atlantic relationship ever be the same again or is it time Germany and Europe prepared for a post-Atlantic era? But rather than providing insight into the future of the United States, the debate is turning into a Freudian analysis of Germany’s own troubles.

It started in May, when Chancellor Angela Merkel, shocked by Mr. Trump’s first visit to Europe as president, said that “the times we can fully rely on others are somewhat over” and that Europe had to become more self-reliant. Since then, two factions have formed: those who believe Germany can wait out Mr. Trump and then return to normal and those who call for a strategic shift because they think the days of American leadership are over.

The first faction is represented by a group of foreign policy experts who published a “Trans-Atlantic Manifesto,” which appeared in October in The New York Times and the German weekly newspaper Die Zeit. They argue that guarding the trans-Atlantic relationship is crucial to the liberal world order and that a firm trans-Atlantic commitment gives Germany the liberty to act as a leader in Europe without stirring old fears of German predominance. They find supporters in conservative policymakers such as Norbert Röttgen, the head of the Bundestag’s external affairs committee. He, too, stresses that mutual values, not just mutual interests, constitute the trans-Atlantic relationship.

The other side is represented by Germany’s acting foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, a Social Democrat. In a speech at a foreign policy forum in Berlin in December, he stated flatly that “the relations between the U.S.A. and Europe won’t be the same anymore — even when Donald Trump leaves the White House.” He called for Germany to reconceive its strategic posture and to plan for a new era when it could no longer rely on American leadership.