Symbolic blow
Mr Scholz’s apologists are keen to play down the importance of the new, temporary Schengen controls and stress they are in line with EU law.
Some controls were already in place at German borders with, for example, the Czech Republic. They are “smart controls” in the form of intelligence-led spot checks rather than fully-fledged border posts.
What Berlin does matters in Europe. Germany is the EU’s richest member state. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, is a former CDU minister.
The new controls are at the borders with France, Luxembourg, Denmark and the Netherlands.
These are long-standing Western member states and mostly founder members of the EU and Schengen, unlike Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic and non-EU Switzerland, where there are already checks.
This is not the death of the Schengen zone but it is a symbolic blow to one of the EU’s most cherished achievements.
Migration is hugely divisive at EU level and the risk of copycat moves in other member states is real, which could put Schengen under more pressure.