Merkel's problem is "hypermorality" -- she wants to be "better" and more altruistic and self-denying than the real would would allow a politician or a country to be and that creates real disasters for her people.
But her dilemma is something that comes very naturally to German politicians since the war. When you consider that the chief critic of "hypermorality" had supported the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s, that could give you a clue as to why "decent Germans" are attracted to a very lofty, self-denying, self-destructive moralism.
I suspect in the not-to-distant future, as Germany is destroyed from within, calls will increase from the “Volksdeutsche” demanding that Poland allow them to reclaim the western parts of Poland that were given to Poland from Germany after WWII.