GREECE'S seemingly interminable wrangling with its creditors over resolving its unsustainable debt demonstrates many characteristics that are strongly reminiscent of the years of psychological attrition between East and West Germany before reunification in 1990.

Financial and political polarisation between Greece and Germany - the most vocal debtor in the euro area and the largest (and most vulnerable) creditor - displays significant similarities to the tensions between the two halves of the German nation split by the aftermath of the second world war. In divided Germany, the two German states formed in 1949 eventually came together again after 41 years of separation. This was a result of the fading of the post-1945 geopolitical force field - the superpower confrontation between the US and Soviet Union, each one shielding its respective client state West and East Germany - that had kept them apart.

Germany and Greece can be seen, too, as mirror images. In line with Europe's fluctuating fortunes over the past seven decades, the former prospered and became a model nation and creditor. The latter declined and became a case study for mismanagement.