Even the famously myopic British media now report what Mrs Merkel says as a matter of some note.
This partly reflects the fact she has been around for ten years, longer than any other European leader. But there is another reason, which goes to the forgotten heart of the debate about the European Union. Who is boss? Who is in charge? Whose word counts? And how to deal with the obvious, the natural answer to those questions ever since the unification of Germany in 1871.
We don't talk about it, but it matters more than most of the froth and flotsam about this debate.
It is both right and proper that in this country the debate about EU membership is about our prosperity, security and without being too pompous, our destiny.
But in or out of the EU will not change the fact that the UK will continue to exist on the edge of a large continent with which we have long had a mingled history of occasional splendid isolation and equally irritated engagement.
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