In 1862, Otto von Bismarck told Disraeli of his plans to provoke a war and unify Germany’s independent states under Prussian leadership. Shocked by Bismarck’s frankness, the British prime minister warned Austria: “Take care of that man; he means what he says.”

Disraeli’s warning foretold Germany’s unification, but it is also historic because it might be the last time a British prime minister immediately and accurately understood a German leader’s intentions.

To the British, Germany is deceptively familiar. It is a trading nation, whose people work hard, play football and drink beer – even if, sometimes, we find their directness rude, and they find our avoidance of confrontation dishonest.

But it also remains a place of many paradoxes. As our politicians and diplomats negotiate Brexit, we need to understand them better, because Germany remains the EU’s most important decision-maker.

The first thing we must get our heads around is that the EU is not, as Nicholas Ridley put it, a German plot to “take over the whole of Europe”. The mundane truth is that Germany has no grand vision for the EU’s future.

Instead, Berlin’s European policy tends to be reactive and, although many Germans deny this, it is always driven by Germany’s national interest.

As a result it often ends up dictating policy to other member states. It was not Germany that wanted the euro, for example, but France: it was a condition of President Mitterrand’s support for German reunification in 1990.

Yet during the eurozone crisis it was Germany that refused to cancel Greece’s debts and imposed brutal austerity policies on Athens. The bailouts agreed – for Greece, Portugal and Ireland – covered the liabilities of German banks in those countries.