In her 2019 New Year speech，German Chancellor Angela Merkel mentioned a key issue regarding Germany’s increasing responsibilities. As US President Trump favors unilateralism，“certainties of international cooperation are under siege，and Germany must assume more responsibilities to safeguard its own interests”2441006. Germany begins its two-year term as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council on January 1，2019—this is the sixth time that Germany takes a non-permanent seat in the Security Council，providing it with a convenient platform to assume more responsibilities on a global scale. The federal government reiterated its call for “Europeans to take their fate into their own hands” contained in the Coalition Agreement of March 2018，whose key message is “distancing itself from the US and focusing on Europe”2441007. More specifically，this means that Germany will join forces with France to make the EU strong enough to withstand the pressures resulting from the decline of the transatlantic relationship. This intention can also be gleaned from the speeches of German representatives at the 55^th Munich Security Conference in February 2019. But the world is cruel：Germany’s aim of strengthening Europe alongside with France remains more self-delusion than reality；this can clearly be seen in the Aachen Treaty and the disputes about the Nord Stream 2 project. Germany apparently is not able or，perhaps to some extent，also not willing to cut its dependence on the US.