Germany

- Jenny Hill

"Scotland stays British!" proclaims Germany's most popular newspaper. For Bild, like every other paper and TV news programme here, there is only one top story this morning - and on the whole only one response.

"I'm hugely relieved," said one politician. "It prevents further fragmentation of Europe."

The government agrees - though the official line is less exuberant.

"We have always respected the fact that this referendum was called and that the central government in London agreed to this. And now we respect the outcome of it as well," said Angela Merkel.

Is she pleased with the result? The German chancellor was coy. "I will not comment on this but just smile."

British Prime Minister David Cameron (R) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel meet during the Nato summit in Newport, South Wales, on 4 September 2014.

German politicians fear a UK referendum on EU membership without Scottish voters could make its exit more likely

Why? Politicians are looking ahead to a possible UK referendum on EU membership. Without Scottish voters, they think Britain's exit from the EU would have been far more likely.

But there are other considerations too. In a leader that ran two days ago, the broadsheet Sueddeutsche Zeitung expressed concern about the economic viability of independence.

On Friday morning the language was somewhat bolder. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine the nationalists were "promising the moon".

Among ordinary Germans, I've yet to find someone who supported independence.

Take Edgar. Every day he stands on the bank of the river Spree, leans on his stick and shepherds tourists on to his sightseeing boat. "Better together," he told me. "Of course they're better together."