Why Achilles heel? Because the Bonn government - once the single-minded champion of European economic union - is paralyzed by problems in its own backyard. It has pumped billions of Deutschmarks and man-years of management into its five new Länder, but they show little sign of surviving without life-support. And Germany's slide into recession, in the west and the east, could jeopardize an early move to European economic and monetary union. David Shirreff reports.
April 01, 1996