The German Navy's Lack of Power Projection

This past weekend Solomon asked why, of all the European Powers, Germany has the weakest navy in terms of power projection.

It's not that the German navy hasn't been thinking about it.

In 1994 Germany had trouble with the withdrawal of its troops from UNISOM II in Somalia. The navy thought a new type of ship could prevent future problems. The ship had such a priority that the navy said it should be fully operational before the year 2000.
The idea from MTG Marinetechnik GmbH -the company that has been established by the German government as an independent centre of excellence in 1966 to design German surface warships- was the Taktische Konzept Mehrzweckschiff (TKM), a 20,000t ship.
The ship would have had a range of 7,500 NM, room for 700 personnel from the army, ro-ro capability and room for 271 vehicles, 8 helicopters, 2 landing craft and a 70 bed hospital with 2 operating rooms. The cost for this all would be between 500 and 620 million Deutschmark.
For comparison it's interesting to know that HNLMS Rotterdam (12,750t) was 265 million Guilders (about 237 DMark).
In 1995 the plug was pulled by the politicians, mainly because of the huge cost of the ship.
The navy, however, hadn't given up on the idea.

In 1998 the Weizsäcker-commission was formed, with the intruction to give the goverment advice about the future of the German armed forces. This commission adviced to get a 'transport and deployment support ship'.
This became the ETrUS (Einsatz Truppenunterstützungsschiff) project. In 2003 it was removed from the Navy's plans, mainly because of costs. Most likely it would have been a further development of the Rotterdam/Galicia class.

The navy, however, was still not giving up and in 2007 news came that Joint Support Ships were to be included in the 2009 plan for the navy.
This resulted in inclusion of these Joint Support Ships -most likely a LPD/LHD- in the Zielvorstellung Marine 2025+ (Navy Plan 2025+).
However, a final decision is not expected before 2016.

So why is it taking Germany so long to get an amphibious capability?
Because Germany doesn't have a real naval tradition. Historically their focus has always been on the army and they therefore lack the marines that are usually associated with these type of ships.
This army-centric thinking also dominated during the Cold War and still exists today. Besides that, the army and air force are seeing these amphibious ships as a threat to their dominance in the 'lift' role.