After having taken a look at the Hermannsdenkmal last week, I stayed overnight in Detmold, the nearest town. It’s a small, provincial place which, despite its exceptionally well-preserved old centre and attractive castle, has never quite made it into the big leagues of German day-trip destinations. That honour seems – in terms of medieval cities – to be have been reserved for Lübeck, Münster and Bamberg.

Yet, as I found out, the Detmolders are not disheartened, and are making a concerted effort to use the attention that the two-thousandth anniversary of the gigantic Varusschlacht – you know, the one from the start of Gladiator –has focused on the area to try and parley their neat little old-town into a big tourist attraction.

If you talk to German literature students about a chap called “Hermann”, you’ll realise that Germany has a problem with heroes.

Whenever Great Britain gets into trouble, for example, there’s a sleeping King Arthur hiding out somewhere in Cornwall who will come to the rescue; and when he doesn’t show up, Churchill will fill in for a few years.
Or when America isn’t doing so well, everyone remembers how George Washington beat impossible odds – and the British – to found the world’s leading democracy. And when more is needed, they elect Barack Obama.
And France, despite the concerns of its neighbours, is still quite happy to honour Napoleon and charge visitors a few Euros to see his final resting place in les Invalides.