By Oana Lungescu
BBC News, Berlin
Will the European Union’s biggest economy step in to help the club’s most heavily indebted country
That is the billion-euro question topping the agenda when the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, meets Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Friday.
Despite mounting speculation about an EU bail-out, most Germans oppose giving aid to a country that has misreported budget figures for years to hide its mountain of debt.
In one of Berlin’s most popular Greek restaurants, diners are greeted by a fresco of smiling dancers, hands on one another’s shoulders, against a background of Aegean blue.
But that idyllic image has been shattered.
While tucking into mezes and moussaka, many here show little appetite for Greece cooking the books and Germany footing the bill.
‘European problem’
“The European Union should help to save the euro,” said an elderly man, “but it’s hard to explain to unemployed people in Germany why Greeks retire at 63 and Germans retire at 67”.
“I think they have to help because if Greece falls down then all of Europe is falling down”
Dimitrios Karanfilidis
At another table, the views were mixed.
Asked if he would pay for Greece, one young man firmly shook his head. His friend, however, described Europe as a community where partners must help if one has a problem.
“Maybe in five or 10 years we will have the same problem here in Germany, and then we will hope that the other partners will also help us,” he said.
The owner of the restaurant, Dimitrios Karanfilidis, would raise his ouzo glass to that.
Mr Karanfilidis was born and bred in Berlin, but his parents - now retired - have gone back to Greece. So he can see both sides of the story.
“The crisis is the problem of Greece and not the problem of Germany,” he says.
“But I think they have to help because if Greece falls down then all of Europe is falling down. And it’s not only Greece - it’s Spain, Portugal, Ireland. It’s a European problem.”
Bond purchase
Chancellor Merkel agrees. She has warned that the euro is in the most difficult phase since its creation.
While welcoming the latest belt-tightening measures announced by Mr Papandreou, she insisted that she would not discuss aid with him on Friday.
But on Tuesday evening she held a closed-door meeting with members of her core cabinet, including Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and the Economy Minister, Rainer Bruederle, where it is believed several options were considered.
One widely-reported plan would involve KfZ, Germany’s state development bank, buying Greek bonds as part of an effort by the EU or the 15 countries that share the euro with Greece.
Significantly, in the next few days, Mr Papandreou will also meet President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and US President Barack Obama.
The Greek prime minister has indicated he might go to the International Monetary Fund if the EU fails to help.
Culture clash
Few doubt that Mrs Merkel will eventually take action if she sees the stability - or credibility - of the euro under threat.
“We cannot solve the problems of the German banks, we cannot solve the problems of the German welfare system, and at the same time pay 25% of the European budget and also pay for Greece”
Michael Fuchs
Christian Democratic Union
But with support for her centre-right coalition slipping before the May regional election in North Rhine-Westphalia - Germany’s most populous state - Mrs Merkel has reassured voters that she will not use taxpayers’ money, nor breach the “no bail-out clause” in the EU’s Maastricht Treaty.
A recent poll shows that 71% of Germans think the EU should not help Greece at all.
You could call it a culture clash. Germans are big savers, not big spenders.
And having reluctantly pledged $600bn (£400bn; 440bn euros) to prop up their own banks and companies, they do not see why they should dig even deeper into their pockets to rescue the profligate Greeks.
“Germany cannot pay everything,” says Michael Fuchs, deputy parliamentary leader of Chancellor Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
“We cannot solve the problems of the German banks, we cannot solve the problems of the German welfare system, and at the same time pay 25% of the European budget and also pay for Greece… This is impossible.”
Mr Fuchs said the message he kept receiving from voters was “be careful, be careful, be careful”.
‘Sell your islands’
This is not just about money, it is about history.
Deeply ingrained in Germany’s collective psyche is that rampant inflation in the 1920s helped bring the Nazis to power.
The Greeks have their own painful memories of the Nazis, who occupied the country during World War II.
“Those who face insolvency must sell everything they have to pay their creditors”
Josef Schlarmann
Head, CDU business association
After the German magazine Focus called Greeks “Cheats in the Euro-family” next to a statue of the Venus de Milo making an obscene gesture, a Greek newspaper responded by dubbing Germans “finance Nazis”.
And in a BBC interview, Greek Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos said Germany should “at least say thanks” for the gold allegedly taken by the Nazis from the Bank of Greece.
In the EU, where the unspoken golden rule is “don’t mention the war”, this sort of remark rings alarm bells.
It shows just how much strain the Greek crisis is putting on the club’s much-vaunted solidarity between rich and poor, north and south.
Yet on Thursday, the German mass circulation daily Bild made more waves with the headline: “Sell your islands, you bankrupt Greeks - and the Acropolis too!”
The unusual advice came from two of Chancellor Merkel’s senior allies - Josef Schlarmann, head of an influential pro-business club in the CDU, and Frank Schlaeffer, a member of parliament and finance expert for the Free Democratic Party, the junior coalition partner.
Both confirmed to the BBC that they wanted to start a debate about what Greece could do to help itself and bolster the euro.
“Those who face insolvency must sell everything they have to pay their creditors,” Mr Schlarmann said.
In his opinion, Mrs Merkel would be ill-advised to promise any financial aid when she meets the Greek prime minister.
It is true that dotted in the blue waters of the Aegean are some of the country’s most valuable assets - 6,000 islands, of which only 227 are inhabited.
But it is unlikely that the German chancellor will offer to buy one.