Among the many moving images from last weekend’s ceremonies marking the centenary of the end of the first world war was that of Frank-Walter Steinmeier laying a poppy wreath at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. It was the first time a German head of state had taken part in the annual commemoration and was a touching act of reconciliation, complementing the poignant embrace between Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel in Compiègne, where the Armistice was signed.

In Germany the centenary was accompanied by a number of other November anniversaries. As well as the end of hostilities on the western front in 1918, there are the series of events that fall on November 9 and toll through German history: the fall of the monarchy in 1918; the Kristallnacht attacks on the Jewish population in 1938; the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It has made for an emotionally weighty few weeks.