Germany should take the lead in a geopolitically self-confident Europe and make the Ukrainian cause its own. The danger in Germany though is that such words are sometimes confused with the actions that they would require. Some of Scholz’s formulations have been quite brilliant, as when he said that the European Union is the antithesis of imperialism and autocracy, also his notion of the European Union as geopolitical.
The question is whether Germans observe it as a turning point or whether they make the turn themselves. Was that not a clear statement about the meaning of the conflict? Will they take that second chance?ĭER SPIEGEL: Shortly after it broke out, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the war as a " Zeitenwende ," a turning point. If Russia is behaving as the Germans did in 1941, then the Germans now have a second chance to respond to fascism. As Germans accept the debate on Putin's terms, they can miss the obvious point: If we care about the comparison, we have to note right away that it is Putin's Russia that is behaving more like Germany in 1941: Moscow, like Berlin then, claims that a neighboring people and state do not exist Moscow, like Berlin then, is fighting a war of aggression Moscow, like Berlin then, is carrying out eugenic, deportation, and mass killing policies. Even if Germans are not convinced by this, Putin's bold claim is meant to immobilize Germans by forcing them to debate one another.
Russia attacked Ukraine claiming that it was defending itself as it had defended itself against the Nazis starting in 1941.
The point is to give Germans an excuse for looking away and doing nothing. He wants to trigger the German reflex that Russians must be victims and Germans must be aggressors. Putin is also seeking to exploit the historical memory of Germans. Of course, this contradicts the actual history of the Second World War, in which Stalin chose to ally with Hitler, and in which Ukrainians actually suffered more than Russians, by any measure. Snyder: In Russia, his intention is to build a cult of innocence: No matter what we do, it must be justified, because we are always the righteous victim. They are absurd, but they make World War II the point of reference.
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