Introduction : the drama of 2005 and the future of German politics / Eric Langenbacher -- The tipping point : the 2005 election and the deconsolidation of the German party system? / David Conradt -- The extraordinary Bundestag election of 2005 : the interplay of long-term trends and short-term factors / Hermann Schmitt and Andreas M. Wüst -- The grand coalition : precedents and prospects / Ludger Helms -- From high hopes to on-going defeat : the new extreme Right's political mobilization and its national electoral failure in Germany / Lars Rensmann -- Angela Merkel : what does it mean to run as a woman? / Myra Marx-Ferree -- Merkel's EU policy : "Kohl's Mädchen" or interest-driven politics? / Dorothee Heisenberger -- The change in government and transatlantic relations / Jackson Janes -- Honecker's revenge : the enduring legacy of German unification in the 2005 election / Jeffrey Kopstein and Daniel Ziblatt -- From the outside in : Angela Merkel and the CDU / Clay Clemens.