By Katya Adler BBC, Berlin

Until recently Germany was not a big player in the field of international diplomacy.

Weighed down by the legacy of its World War II past, Germany has spent years keeping a low profile on the world stage.

In European affairs, Germany has traditionally put up the cash - it is the largest net payer in to EU coffers - but let France, its post-war close ally, take centre stage.

The significance for Germany of this souring of transatlantic relations should not be underestimated

And while its constitution forbids Germany from participating in any offensive military action, successive governments have allowed the United States to set up 95 military installations around the country.

But Germany is no longer content to play the role of the obedient and silent partner.

The reason? Gerhard Schroeder, the recently re-elected German chancellor, who represents a new generation of German leaders.

No apologies

He is the first German head of government not to have first-hand experience of World War II.

He has re-introduced into German society the concept - for some radical - that it is OK to be German and to voice your opinion as a German, and that there is no longer any need for Germans to apologise for their post-war existence.

Schroeder's government is losing popularity

He has certainly made no apology for isolating Germany from its international allies, particularly the US, by opposing military action against Iraq.

Critics say this was a cynical move, aimed purely at a domestic audience - the only way Mr Schroeder could win votes from Germans grappling with spiralling unemployment, miserable economic prospects and painful reforms.

Opposition criticism

But it worked, enabling him to scrape a victory from September's election after lagging in the opinion polls for weeks.

Conservatives condemn the damage to US ties

Germans are extremely wary of war. Recent surveys show that more than three-quarters of the country oppose a war with Iraq.

But the conservative Christian Democrats in political opposition persistently criticise Mr Schroeder's anti-war stance.

They say it puts Germany in an impossible position, pitting it against many of its allies in the European Union, in Nato and on the United Nations Security Council where Germany currently holds a seat.

Even more uncomfortably for Germany, it is the council's chairman for the month of February - in the very weeks when the United States may decide to declare war on Iraq, with or without the Security Council's backing.

Overwhelming desire

The Christian Democrats are also angry that German-US relations have been damaged as a result of Chancellor Schroeder's opposition to a military strike.

United States Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently dismissed Germany - and its war-reluctant ally France - as "a problem" and as the spent powers of "old Europe".

The significance for Germany of this souring of transatlantic relations should not be underestimated.

Anti-Americanism is not the familiar sentiment in Berlin that it is in Paris.

Western Germany certainly has held the US in very high, almost reverential, regard following its support during the Cold War which split Germany in two.

There is no popular wish in Germany to defy the United States. But there is an overwhelming desire to avoid war.

Germans remember all too well what war means.