He abandoned any claim to formerly German lands in Poland; he abandoned the beloved mark for the euro.
As the crisis worsened, political calculations had to take a back seat to the more basic task of ensuring the stability of the euro currency that replaced Germany's beloved mark.
Lent is for reflection, change, and remembering in hope that while we are from ash and will return to ash, we are God's beloved, marked with the sign of the cross; we are remembered and loved.
Germans were not eager to give up their beloved Deutsche mark at the time.
Next year, for example, it looks as though they will lose their beloved D-mark for the untested euro.
The Faustian bargain Germany made for unification was giving up its beloved Deutsche mark for the euro.
And recent opinion polls suggest that Germans loathe the prospect of losing their beloved D-mark a shade less than they used to.
Germans like to believe that they made a huge sacrifice in giving up their beloved D-mark ten years ago, but they have in truth benefited more than anyone else from the euro.
Germans, still smarting from the replacement of their beloved Deutsche mark with the euro, harbor deep suspicions that European unity boils down to them perpetually handing out their hard-earned money, an inerasable debt for the horrors of Nazism.
