Leadership by powerful states is considered crucial to the success of regional integration. Since the European Union (EU) entered a ‘polycrisis’, many eyes have therefore been on Germany. But does the German political elite see itself as a leader in Europe? To date, whether German political elite members have cast off their much-cited ‘leadership avoidance reflex’ has not been empirically investigated. Based on an original elite survey, this article therefore investigates the extent to which Germany conceives of itself as a leading power in the EU. The findings show that the time of a ‘leadership avoidance reflex’ is gone. Instead, there is a high level of agreement across EU policies that Germany should take on a leadership role. However, the study also exposes a gap between leadership aspirations and perceived reality, especially when it comes to Germany providing a vision for the future of Europe. In contrast to previous research, the article therefore argues that it is not the lack of desire for leadership, but the inability to realize such a role that keeps Germany from taking the lead in Europe.

中文翻译：

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领导力抱负与现实：德国在欧洲的自我概念

强国的领导被认为对区域一体化的成功至关重要。自从欧盟（EU）进入“多边危机”以来，许多人的目光都集中在了德国身上。但德国政治精英是否认为自己是欧洲的领导者？迄今为止，尚未对德国政治精英成员是否摆脱了他们常被引用的“领导回避反射”进行了实证研究。因此，基于一项原始的精英调查，本文调查了德国在多大程度上将自己视为欧盟的领导大国。调查结果表明，“领导回避反射”的时代已经一去不复返了。相反，欧盟政策高度一致认为德国应发挥领导作用。然而，该研究也揭示了领导力抱负与感知现实之间的差距，尤其是当谈到德国为欧洲的未来提供愿景时。与之前的研究相反，文章因此认为，德国无法在欧洲取得领先地位的原因不是缺乏领导欲望，而是无法实现这种作用。