“Don’t mention the war!” It’s 80 years since the end of the Second World War, and the number of brave veterans keeps on shrinking – but for a great many Britons (including me), our idea of Germany remains rooted in the event.

For anyone who grew up in post-war Britain, that’s hardly surprising. From the 1950s to the 1970s, the war dominated every aspect of our culture – from TV to cinema, from comic books to playground games.

Naturally, I was always eager to join in these wargames, and always on the British side. I never told a soul that my father had been born in Germany during the war and had come to Britain as a boy, with a new surname.

As a journalist since the early Nineties, I’ve reported from all over Germany , and I’ve discovered a very different country from the British ima

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