Home Front, the new BBC Radio 4 programme recorded in The Mailbox in Birmingham, which goes out on weekdays at lunchtime, charts day by day the events of 100 ago.

From the first days of a war, which some thought would be over by Christmas, to the bitter end four years later.

Young men following the call to defend their country. Germans becoming the enemy, not just on the battlefield but also at home. And then the horrendous loss of life in the trenches.

It shaped a whole generation, then – and still does today.

If you stand on the corner of Hagley Road, in Edgbaston, with Highfield Road to your left and Plough and Harrow to the right you can follow the footsteps of one particular chapter of history.

To your left, JRR Tolkien’s house, where he stayed when he was a pupil at King Edwards.

To your right, first the Oratory, where the fathers looked after him after his mother’s early death.

And the Plough and Harrow Hotel where he stayed the last night with his young wife before going to war.

Looking down the road you see two towers. Perrot’s Folly and the Edgbaston Waterworks. Whilst never conclusively proved, they could well have inspired his Two Towers in the Lords of the Rings.

But what is undeniable is that the First World War shaped Tolkien’s subsequent writings.

And he was not alone. From Robert Brooke’s “that there’s some corner of a foreign field that is forever England” to John McRae’s “In Flanders fields the poppies blow”, the First World War has left an indelible mark in every sphere of British consciousness.

Not so in Germany. For them, 1914 was simply the beginning of a 31 year nightmare which ended in 1945.

The 1918 settlement provided the backdrop and the seeds for the rise of Hitler and the National Socialists.

The Second World War wasn’t just another war, it was worse than any other war that had gone before. It had at its heart the extermination of an entire race.

After 1945, for a German, there could no longer be any glory in wearing a military uniform.

The immediate post war generation took a deep look into its collective soul and found itself wanting. From the first Federal German Republic, to Willy Brand kneeling in front of the war memorial in Poland to the fall of the Berlin Wall and German unification, it was the story of a nation coming to terms with its past.

And it has done so. Since 1989, for the first time in its entire history the national boundaries of the German state have been concurrent with the notion of being German.

The Chancellor Angela Merkel once observed that modern Germany was forged by the experience of the Holocaust, its relationship with America and held together by its membership of the European Union. I was thinking about this at the memorial service in Birmingham Cathedral on August 3.

The Dean recounted her own family experience, two representatives from the German churches were present, and the cathedral was filled with members of armed forces, wearing full uniform.

Hundred years on, it is the attitude to the armed forces which is a most striking difference. On the surface, there is little difference.

We fought together in Afghanistan as an international force. If you go the NATO HQ you will find German and British officers shoulder to shoulder. German navy ships and commanders come to flag officer sea training (FOST) to be inspected and signed off. Our soldiers are wearing uniform in public and we are pleased to see them.

Look just a little closer and the picture changes. The name of every British soldier who gives his or her life is mentioned in Prime Minister’s question time.

We know about the circumstances of their deaths and their home coming is marked by public participation and a show of respect.

The Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal, as well as more recent military charities like Help for Heroes, annually raise massive amounts of money.

In Germany, it was not until 2010 that dead soldiers were named.

In April of that year, after 46 German soldiers had died in Afghanistan, the then Defence Minister zu Guttenberg spoke for the first time of the country being involved in a “war”.

He and the Chancellor attended their first military funeral. She gave a speech which ended with “I bow my head for you, Germany bows for you”.

With that speech, she broke with the strong German inhibition against linking national gratitude with dead soldiers. The Defence Minister expanded on the theme and talked of “our country’s brave heroes, inspiring pride”.

Such language was unprecedented in modern times. Equally surprising was the almost uniform praise that greeted the speech.

And yet, it remains true that the German people and their politicians prefer their soldiers to dig wells rather than fight.

In 1916, the British and the French, with the assent of the Russians, entered a secret agreement which divided the spoils of the collapsing Ottoman Empire. Known as “Sykes-Picot”, it created the states of the Eastern Mediterranean such as Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

Some of these boundaries now look like falling apart. Decisions from the First World War are touching us today.

Germany, as part of the EU and NATO, acts in concert with others. Some argue this doesn’t amount to much but there is a clear sense of that whatever it does, it will not give leadership.

At the weekend, General Sir Richard Shirreff, until recently the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, launched a withering attack on the UK government’s response to Iraq. He said: “There was a lack of strategy, a lamentable loss of nerve, and a terror of committing legal, lethal state power to protect national interest if there is the slightest possibility of combat.”

The commemorations of the First World War are also a chance to understand each other as the nations we have become.

For the UK, its armed forces remain as much a part of its definition today as they were 100 years ago. This is not so in Germany.

* Gisela Stuart is Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston and sits on the Defence Select Committee