As an American it was hard to relate to the fear of being ruled by Germany by stealth which it came up in the TV series Victoria because her husband Prince Albert was German - it seems fairly deeply rooted xenophobia? or something if it still gets brought up.
Another detail near the end of the war: King George wanted to give his cousin Tsar Nicholas asylum after the Bolshevik Revolution but chose not to for political reasons.
There's a question mark you left out in your quote because I was wondering what to call it but to express it as you ask - a sentiment by some in the country (UK) expressing a resentment or paranoia over another country (Germany) potentially having control somehow over what happens in the first country(UK) when there appears to an outsider (me) to be very little control by Angela Merkel (or whomever is in charge of Germany at this moment) of what the UK is doing or Brexit would not be happening ( at any and all costs from what I'm reading about the process favoured by the ruling party in the news)
That Brexit is happening doesn't mean Germany has no influence over the UK. Just not enough to prevent Brexit; "very little" is not the only alternative to "absolute".
