Germany seems to be softening its stance on Brexit, and not a moment too soon.

“Given Britain’s size, significance, and its long membership of the European Union, there will probably be a special status which only bears limited comparison to that of countries that have never belonged to the European Union,” Michael Roth, Germany’s minister of European affairs, said last month. Mr. Roth’s comments mark a departure from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s declaration, made shortly after the Brexit referendum in June, that Britain would...