May 11 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet approved Germany's part in a $1 trillion emergency rescue package to stabilise the euro on Tuesday.
Following are extracts from Tuesday's German newspapers on the euro zone crisis:
BILD (Mass circulation)
Front page headline: "We are Europe's fools again!"
"Yes, the euro is a godsend. Yes, the euro is a guarantor of our peace and wealth. Yes, leaving the euro should never be an issue for us Germans.
But the "rescue umbrella" for the euro is a failure for Europe. It is what the fathers of the euro, above all Helmut Kohl, did not want... Angela Merkel, the "Iron Chancellor" has rolled over and we are taken to the cleaners.
"We Germans have made sacrifices for a stable euro for the last 10 years with wage restraint and no pensions' rises. We have paid the price while others have been partying at our expense... Now the Chancellor is telling us some of the truth: there will be no tax cuts in the next two years. That is the shocking message: others have notched up debts and we must tighten our belts. Europe's road into the Transfer Union is leading us into decay!"
SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG (Centre-left)
"750 billion euros is a huge amount.. it commands respect and possibly fear."
"Fear is fuelled by a broad lack of understanding about what is happening on financial markets.. but we are experiencing things that can be explained... World states have lived over their means for a long time.
"It is no peculiarity of the euro that its states, just like other countries, are indebted. It is stupid to maintain that member states who agreed the 750 billion euro promise have fatally shot the euro. Actually, they have found normality."
"At the time, politics dictated that something came together that did not fit economically. A comparison with German reunification is appropriate...things won't be so economically comfortable for the Germans from now on, just as West Germans aren't as comfortable as they were before reunification.
"It is more important what happens in the next few days than what happened on Sunday night. Will it succeed in agreeing rules, just as there were financial rules for the East and West when they were growing together?.. Will Angela Merkel's Germany find its role next to the crowing France of Nicolas Sarkozy?
"Above all, how seriously and sustainably will the indebted countries consolidate their state finances. And also: what incentives for growth will they have? If all this works, financial markets will get involved and must not fear for the euro."
DIE WELT (centre-right)
Comment from Joerg Eigendorf
"Let us imagine that Angela Merkel had stood firm in the night until Monday. The chancellor would have said no to the desires of European neighbours to dig a grave for the independence of the European Central Bank. And she would have insisted on strengthening the stability pact.
"You wouldn't even want to imagine what would have happened then. It is quite possible that such a steadfast position would have meant the end of the euro. The consequence would have been chaos in the whole of Europe. And we Germans would have been once again guilty.
"Precisely that shows the dilemma that Chancellor Merkel and Germany are caught up in. We cannot push through our culture of stability in Europe. Germany stood practically alone in the night to Monday when the rescue of the euro was being debated. The euro zone is dominated by countries for whom currency stability is not so important. And leading the opposition is President Nicolas Sarkozy, whom the weakened chancellor could little oppose. With a devastating result: what seemed yesterday set into stone is today no longer valid. Nothing symbolises that more strongly than the loss of the central bank's independence. The power division between monetary and financial policy in Europe is history.
"It becomes ever more difficult to believe in the euro project. If the government leaders draw the appropriate lessons from this crisis, then this community of destiny could still become a stable currency union. The condition for this however would be a fundamental change of attitude in all the countries. More probable is that politicians will fail to breathe deeply and take strict budget deficit cutting measures and the consequent reforms of the stability pact. Then even the 750 billion euros would soon no longer be sufficient. Therefore nothing has been won with the rescue package, except for some time. No one can say how much."
FINANCIAL TIMES DEUTSCHLAND (Business) "The wording in the Lisbon Treaty -- no State was liable for the debts of another -- has been reinterpreted as a "no-bailout clause" and brought to the people."
"The German government and parliament are legally free to support Greece, Malta or even Kyrgyzstan. The current orientation of German European Union and its debt policy is wrong and unsustainable, but that unfortunately doesn't mean that the new policy solves the problem."
"The newly found solution consists of a separate debt fund for EU countries, a credit line that is guaranteed by the more creditworthy countries. All that should mitigate the problem at first, but it won't make it disappear. Especially since the whole programme comes with restrictive austerity policies for the countries whose access to capital markets is closed. In sum, the problem deepens the economic crisis. One can only hope that the protests in Athens, Thessaloniki and Patras are so severe that the Greek government comes clean on their inability to pay. However, a Greek bankruptcy would entail enormous costs and sacrifices for the people. Such a solution will be avoided for as long as possible, in part because it is against the banks, insurers and savers, and keeping these three groups clear of the financial disaster is the government's highest priority."
(Reporting by Sarah Marsh, Madeline Chambers, Christopher Lawton; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)