The different sides of Wolfgang Schaeuble

There's much to criticize about Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany's outgoing finance minister: It can be said that he is obsessive and spiteful, and that his humor at the expense of Greece often bordered on sadism. That he - and Chancellor Angela Merkel - did very little to resolve the Greek crisis. As we recently found out, Schaeuble favored Grexit up until the end of 2016, and he was actually ready to give Greece 50 billion euros to quit the euro.

Even though he was a keen federalist, he elevated Germany's narrow interests above those of the European Union, and failed to advance a broader political vision for Europe. Even at home, Schaeuble's focus on maintaining a balanced budget kept him away from another, much more important mission: that of bridging social inequalities - particularly the lingering chasm between western and eastern Germany. That failure was partly responsible...