Germany Russia Ukraine War

Opinion | Putin is forcing Germans to get real about the military - The Washington Post

Ever since Adrian Hurtado decided to join the German army instead of going to university, he’s had to put with up with constant derision. “In Germany, soldiers are either murderers or idiots, Nazis or ridiculous,” the 21-year-old <a href="https://www.tichyseinblick.de/meinungen/jeder-muss-seinen-beitrag-leisten/" target=_blank>writes in a recent blog post</a>. He relates how, arriving in uniform one night at a Berlin train station, he was trailed by a drunk thug shouting “soldiers are murderers.” “Every one of my comrades has experienced scenes like this,” Hurtado notes.

Can his country afford to leave it at that? Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is forcing Germans to reassess their long-held ambivalence toward military power. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s call for a “<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/042dd1c2-89ef-4ab7-b2df-79c880bb68a0https://www.politico.eu/article/olaf-scholz-germany-foreign-policy-turning-point-zeitenwende/" target="_blank">turning point</a>” (Zeitenwende) in German foreign policy, including a dramatic and expensive upgrade of the armed forces, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/24/germanys-pacifists-hate-war-they-dont-understand-price-peace/" target="_blank">is running head-on</a> into pacifist attitudes shaped by the horrors of the Nazi era. A key Scholz ally <a href="https://www.fes.de/index.php?eID=dumpFile&amp;t=f&amp;f=75010&amp;token=70fdeac838fa69b928ee58a8c47cf6f046e2dc15" target="_blank">addressed</a> the issue head-on in a much-noted speech this month: Lars Klingbeil, one of the co-leaders of the Social Democratic Party, called for a “new relationship” between society and the armed forces.

That’s going to take a lot of work. A <a href="https://www.t-online.de/nachrichten/deutschland/militaer-verteidigung/id_92290038/sondervermoegen-fuer-die-bundeswehr-das-denken-die-deutschen-.html" target=_blank>recent survey</a> showed that voters who back Scholz’s Social Democrats were also the least enthusiastic about his promise to create a special 100 billion euro fund for the Bundeswehr (as the German military is known). That doesn’t come as much of a surprise. In 2019, when Scholz’s predecessor Angela Merkel, who had long presided over a <a href="https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/bundeswehr-etat-ukraine-krieg-100.html" target=_blank>defense budget</a> that hovered between 1.1 and 1.4 percent of gross domestic product, finally promised to gradually lift expenditure toward the 2 percent asked of NATO members, many Social Democrats <a href="https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/verteidigungspolitik-zwei-prozent-sind-die-falsche-richtungsgroesse-spd-ruettelt-an-nato-zielen/24123956.html" target=_blank>reacted</a> with outrage.

Chronic underfunding seems to have aggravated the low esteem with which many Germans regard the Bundeswehr. A few years ago, it emerged that a tank unit had been forced to use <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/germany-s-neglected-soldiers-forced-to-use-broomstick-as-a-gun-glnqbndf6" target=_blank>broomsticks</a> instead of guns for training. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/17/world/europe/germany-military-sexual-assault-racism.html" target=_blank>Stories about sexual assault</a> and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/bundeswehr-remains-under-fire-for-far-right-extremism/a-56964218" target=_blank>scandals involving right-wing extremism</a> in the ranks haven’t helped. A <a href="https://www.bundeswehr.de/resource/blob/5036360/dd413dbbd10610484755c6f4fbfbaa93/download-fober-128-data.pdf" target=_blank>poll taken in 2020</a> showed that fewer than half of respondents had heard anything positive about the military in the media.

This dismal reputation has had a dire effect on the military’s ability to find new personnel. In 2018, the Bundeswehr <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ffc33796-23ce-11e9-8ce6-5db4543da632" target="_blank">reported</a> that it had managed to attract just 20,000 recruits, an all-time low. Its efforts to fix the problem through advertising ended up generating only more controversy. In 2018, commentators <a href="https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article181286174/Multiplayer-at-its-best-Bundeswehr-Werbung-bei-der-Gamescom-loest-Kritik-aus.html" target="_blank">poured scorn</a> on the military’s efforts to woo recruits by advertising at Gamescom, a video game trade fair that attracts around 350,000 visitors each year.

In 2019, when the Bundeswehr tried to boost its image by adorning buses in the university town of Marburg with ads featuring upbeat slogans on a camouflage background, many locals <a href="https://www.op-marburg.de/Marburg/Mehrheit-vom-Stadtparlament-kritisiert-offiziell-Bundeswehr-Werbung-an-Bussen" target="_blank">expressed contempt</a>. A Green Party leader called for the ads to be removed, while another sneered that “our children really don’t need to be exposed to appealing images of armed service.” A Social Democrat politician sniffed: “It’s sad that we’re doing advertising for killing.”

The picture is not entirely grim. Most Germans continue to support the Bundeswehr despite the vocal opposition from the minority who don’t. Trust in the armed forces has <a href="https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/377235/umfrage/umfrage-in-deutschland-zum-vertrauen-in-die-bundeswehr/#:~:text=Umfrage%20in%20Deutschland%20zum%20Vertrauen%20in%20die%20Bundeswehr%202022&amp;text=Laut%20dem%20Eurobarometer%20hatten%20im,das%20Vertrauen%20im%20Sommer%202020." target="_blank">remained</a> steadily above 70 percent, and the vast majority of Germans <a href="https://www.rnd.de/politik/bundeswehr-aufruestung-mehrheit-der-deutschen-laut-umfrage-dafuer-OAZSUENMLHDSJRIY6XWCULFIKI.html" target="_blank">approve</a> of the enormous cash boost Scholz wants to give to the military. Yet one doesn’t have to look far to see evidence that such support may be skin-deep.

The gulf between the public and the armed forces is now so wide that even long-standing military traditions are now alien to civilians. Bundeswehr soldiers still stage the Grand Tattoo (Grosser Zapfenstreich), a ceremony that goes back to the early 19th century, on special occasions (often in honor of selected civilians). Yet when the army tried to use the ceremony last year to honor <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/gesellschaft/angehoerige-von-gefallenen-bundeswehrsoldaten-in-afghanistan-alles-ist-wieder-voll-da-a-e9753cc4-fccd-409e-82a6-58f2832b1284" target="_blank">the 59 German soldiers</a> who died serving in Afghanistan, some critics <a href="https://www.merkur.de/politik/zapfenstreich-afghanistan-fackel-nazi-zeit-verteidigungsministerium-reichstag-berlin-91051763.html" target="_blank">denounced</a> it as a “Nazi ritual.” Military leaders responded with <a href="https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/zapfenstreich-fuer-afghanistan-veteranen-verteidigungsministerium-enttaeuscht-ueber-kritik-a-71583203-915a-4d11-97a9-9e2da50112f8" target="_blank">indignation</a> — illustrating their own failure to understand just how detached their culture had become from society.

At least they are trying to adapt. Yes, the Bundeswehr is still a little clumsy with its use of social media: Its <a href="https://twitter.com/bundeswehrinfo" target=_blank>Twitter account</a>, for example, has just over 137,000 followers, compared with the <a href="https://twitter.com/USArmy" target=_blank>U.S. Army’s 1.8 million</a>. But the military has begun to establish more direct contact with the public through events such as Bundeswehr Day, which recently drew <a href="https://www.bundeswehr.de/de/aktuelles/meldungen/das-war-der-tag-der-bundeswehr-2022-5451090" target=_blank>an estimated 15,000 visitors</a> in Warendorf.

It will take more than an infusion of cash and a few PR events to heal the troubled relationship between Germany and its military. Someone once observed that Prussia was not a country with an army but an army with a country. Modern Germany has become a country that would rather not have an army at all. It’s time that changed. One of the most powerful democracies in the world, Germany can become a force for good. It just needs to believe it.

Katja Hoyer, an Anglo-German historian and journalist, is the author of “Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871-1918.”

Katja Hoyer

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Putin is forcing Germans to get real about the military

Book review of "Resistance: The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939-1945" by Halik Kochanski - The Washington Post

Book review of "Resistance: The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939-1945" by Halik Kochanski

Summer, 1940. A deep sense of despair descended over Europe as country after country fell to Nazi Germany’s rapacious conquest. Wherever they went, the occupiers imposed painful markers of their presence. Public buildings were draped in blood-red banners bearing the swastika. Orders were barked at civilians. German street signs appeared. “Foreign occupation changes every detail of one’s whole life,” a Czech soldier wrote. “You are no longer master of your own country, no longer at home in your own home.”

But what could be done to defy such overwhelming force? The German onslaught had overrun the professional armies of Poland and France in a matter of months. Resistance from ordinary people seemed futile, even suicidal. Most Europeans did not dare fight their occupiers; they tried to learn to live with them: “If we cannot sing with the angels we shall howl with the wolves,” as a Czech journalist put it.

But even at this moment in history, when Nazi victory seemed certain and permanent, some men and women found it in themselves to fight back. The intriguing question of why they did so — “Why resist?” — runs like a red thread through Halik Kochanski’s comprehensive new book, “<a href="https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B09KMFL1KV&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_FA6N1HTE73KHV3BWNER7&tag=thewaspos09-20" target=_blank>Resistance: The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939-1945</a>.”

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In her unflinching and sober account of the response of ordinary people under occupation, Kochanski shows that there is no straightforward answer to the question of why some Europeans chose to resist the Nazis while most did not. Broadly, she argues, the responses depended on the type of occupation imposed: “What Hitler wanted from France was for the French to remain silent while he prepared for war against Britain, and to permit the economic plundering of the country.” In Poland meanwhile, the population was regarded as Untermenschen — subhumans to be exploited and then exterminated. To Western Europeans, “Why resist?” was a question of principle, while to Eastern Europeans it became one of survival.

At least in the early phases of the war, resistance in Western Europe was less risky. As a result, small-scale forms, such as the use of symbols, were widespread. Many Dutch people wore orange blossoms to support the House of Orange; some Norwegians wore paper clips on their lapels in allegiance with King Haakon; French resisters carried the Cross of Lorraine as key fobs. Such visual defiance may seem ineffective, but it helped maintain tension between the occupiers and the occupied and rarely ended in prison sentences, never mind executions.

Meanwhile in Eastern Europe, partisan action began well before the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, and it drew a devastating backlash not just for those involved but for passive civilians too. In Poland, Maj. Henryk Dobrzanski, known as Hubal, refused to surrender after the Polish defeat in 1939 and gathered a volunteer force that destroyed an entire German battalion in March 1940. But Nazi retaliation was swift and brutal. Anti-partisan units killed more than 1,200 people, including civilians whose villages were targeted whether they had supported Hubal or not.

While the efforts of resisters everywhere in Europe were admirable in bravery and spirit, decades of postwar mythmaking have also obscured many uncomfortable historical realities. Kochanski takes an uncompromising new look at many of these dearly held ideas without taking away from their importance “to the concept of the nation state in the post-war years.”

In order to rebuild, postwar France, for instance, needed to believe that it had practically liberated itself under Charles de Gaulle, the leader of Free France. Indeed, his agents provided vital intelligence — for example, where air power might be deployed most effectively — but “these activities were only valuable when the Allies were nearby,” Kochanski writes. Industrial sabotage and the dismantling of railway lines were making the Germans aware of their vulnerability, but Kochanski shows that they were “more of a nuisance than a war-changing activity.”

“Resistance” also challenges our images of friend and foe in World War II. “Who is the enemy?” is a pertinent question, given that the compliance of internal collaborators was often as much of a problem to the resistance as the Germans themselves.

For Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Czechoslovakia, countries that had gained independence after World War I, there was another dimension to the struggle: Their fight was for autonomy — against whoever compromised it. After 1943, when the war began to turn, this conundrum raised the question: “Was the greater enemy the retreating Germans or the advancing Soviets?”

This dilemma had serious repercussions for postwar views of what resistance had achieved. In the West, where the defeat of Nazism restored independence, democracy and a chance to rebuild national dignity, the resistance was associated with liberation. But in the East, where Soviet occupation replaced the German one, things were very different. As one devastated resistance fighter put it, “As the smoke cleared from the battlefield it began to emerge that we had suffered a huge national defeat.”

A nuanced and dispassionate study, “Resistance” nonetheless pays tribute to those who “were determined to thwart the designs of the Germans, to harass them, to deny them the opportunity to ever assert total control over the peoples of Europe.” Ideas of independence and dignity were at the heart of the struggle — worth fighting and even dying for. Dutch resister Erik Hazelhoff spoke for many when he said: “In the life of every person there are moments when he says to himself: ‘Tja, this won’t do.’ And then he does something.”

Katja Hoyer, an Anglo-German historian and journalist, is the author of “<a href="https://read.amazon.com/kp/embed?asin=B08VJJZMWK&preview=newtab&linkCode=kpe&ref_=cm_sw_r_kb_dp_WQXH3PBCTJEF3BC0PRD7&tag=thewaspos09-20" target=_blank>Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire 1871-1918</a>.”

The Underground War Against Hitler, 1939-1945

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Ukraine Russia War

Opinion | European leaders still can’t shake the urge to appease Russia - The Washington Post

It felt like a historic occasion when the leaders of Europe’s largest states, Germany, Italy and France, finally visited Kyiv on Thursday. Air raid sirens howled as their night train pulled into the Ukrainian capital. French President Emmanuel Macron <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/06/16/message-of-european-unity-leaders-of-france-italy-and-germany-visit-kyiv/?sh=182ea339a762" target=_blank>spoke</a> of “a message of European unity.” But behind the warm words, there was also plenty of cold calculation as Europe’s leaders push to end the war as soon as possible.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, none of the European Union heavyweights had seen fit to visit Ukraine. Macron, who <a href="https://tass.com/world/1460595" target="_blank">boasted</a> that he has spent “at least a hundred hours” on the phone with Vladimir Putin, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/frances-macron-says-will-travel-ukraine-only-if-trip-is-useful-2022-04-11/" target="_blank">declared</a> that he would travel to Kyiv only if he felt it was “useful.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/opinion-olaf-scholz-in-kyiv-winning-back-a-bit-of-trust/a-62163129" target="_blank">spoke dismissively</a> of not wanting to “join the queue of people who do a quick in-and-out for a photo opportunity.”

But the Thursday visit didn’t turn out to be particularly “useful” to Ukraine, which has been pleading desperately for more weapons; nor was it much more than a photo op. Apart from six additional <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20220616-live-ukraine-troops-boosted-by-fresh-western-arms-shipments-pledges" target=_blank>howitzers</a> from France, all the European leaders offered was <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/european-leaders-arrive-in-ukraine-as-kyiv-renews-calls-for-more-military-support-11655367940" target=_blank>support</a> for Ukraine’s bid to become a member of the E.U. at some point in the future.

But how large the Ukrainian state will still be if it joins is anyone’s guess. The visitors made it clear that they want the war to end as soon as possible —  and that they expect Kyiv to make concessions to make that happen.

Italy, which gets 40 percent of its imported gas from Russia, had already begun to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/russia-ukraine-latest-news-2022-05-20/card/italy-circulates-4-point-peace-plan-h2o9EfwULf6P1mwDbjdn" target=_blank>circulate</a> a peace plan that would implicitly compel Ukraine to give up political control over Crimea and Donbas. Both Italy and Germany have also begun to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/germany-italy-approved-russian-gas-payments-after-nod-brussels-sources-2022-05-20/" target=_blank>undermine sanctions</a> against Russia by allowing their energy companies to open ruble accounts to pay for gas and oil, thus helping to fuel Putin’s war machine.

Macron, who had been widely criticized for recently declaring that Russia shouldn’t be “humiliated,” doubled down on that notion. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/16/world/europe/ukraine-eu-macron-scholz-zelensky.html" target=_blank>He said</a> that the harsh terms imposed on Germany after its loss in World War I had been “a historic mistake” that “lost the peace because [France] wanted to humiliate Germany.” The implication is that if Russia is not treated with leniency now, it will commit far worse crimes in the future, just as Germany did in World War II.

Macron’s analogy is particularly ill-suited since it assumes that Russia has already lost the war. But this could not be further from the truth. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61675915" target=_blank>According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky</a>, Russia controls one-fifth of his country. British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace <a href="https://mind.ua/en/news/20243232-ukraine-will-get-enough-weapons-to-win-the-war-ben-wallace" target=_blank>has said</a> that Russia outnumbers Ukraine in artillery fire by 20 to 1 in some areas. By contrast, Germany was defeated in 1918 and forced to accept terms that cost it <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/map/german-territorial-losses-treaty-of-versailles-1919" target=_blank>13 percent of its territory</a> in Europe. Nobody can or will make such demands on Russia. Macron’s analogy is wrong in every way, and he knows it.

Behind the desire to end the conflict soon lies the false assumption that this will allow Europe to resume business as usual. Russia is a crucial <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/13/trade-rupture-between-russia-germany-could-cause-financial-shock-sp-global.html" target="_blank">trading partner for Germa</a>ny. Macron wants an end to the painful side effects of the war that are threatening to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/22/people-feel-suffocated-cost-of-living-tops-french-concerns-before-election" target="_blank">unravel</a> his new tenure as president, and his Italian counterpart Mario Draghi, too, is <a href="https://cepa.org/italy-begins-to-tire-of-war-in-ukraine/" target="_blank">struggling</a> with the fallout from the sanctions. The trio sees a swift end of the war as necessary if they are to form a new axis of economic and political power in continental Europe after Brexit.

But this realpolitik approach is not only morally wrong, it is also shortsighted. Putin has notoriously <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna7632057" target=_blank>argued</a> that the collapse of the Soviet Union, of which Ukraine was a constituent republic, was “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” He has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/world/europe/putin-speech-russia-ukraine.html" target=_blank>made it clear</a> that he seeks to undo this “catastrophe.”

If Putin is appeased now, as he was in 2014 when Germany and France failed to freeze the conflict in Ukraine, he will simply take the time to regroup. Bowing to economic pressures undermines the entire concept of deterrence. Germany long dismissed <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/ukrainealert/putin-will-use-weaponized-pipeline-to-blackmail-europe/" target=_blank>warnings</a> that Moscow might try to leverage its deep dependence on Russian natural gas, thereby emboldening the Kremlin. Now Germany, Italy and France seem prepared to make the same mistake again.

With Poland, the Baltic States, Finland and Sweden seriously concerned about their security, the soft Western European approach is also likely to exacerbate tensions within the E.U. The German government, <a href="https://www.gmfus.org/news/berlins-neglects-east-central-europe-its-own-peril" target=_blank>in particular</a>, remains tone-deaf to their concerns.

Russia, meanwhile, shows little sign of concern. During the Kyiv visit, former prime minister Dmitry Medvedev <a href="https://twitter.com/MedvedevRussiaE/status/1537362614715564033?s=20&t=2GR_XWLCPLeRzvFRCfTAWw" target=_blank>sneered</a> at the European leaders, calling them “fans of frogs, liverwurst and spaghetti.” Yet even as Moscow continues its indiscriminate bombing and shelling of Ukrainian civilians, Russia’s politicians are still treated as rational actors by those who seek peace at all costs.

Putin cannot, and will not, give up his claim on Eastern Europe. The supposed realpolitik of Europe’s most powerful countries is both shameful and ill-considered. France and Germany, of all countries, should know that an ambitious dictator can never be appeased.

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European leaders still can’t shake the urge to appease Russia

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz Hosts Austrian Counterpart Karl Nehammer

Bloomberg

Opinion | Reactivate the air raid sirens. Germany needs to wake up. - The Washington Post

Air raid sirens were part of my childhood.

Every Wednesday at 1 p.m., their eerie howl permeated the East German town of Strausberg where I grew up. The purpose of these weekly drills was to keep us alert, to remind us that no matter how peaceful things appeared, nuclear war was always just one bad decision away. Germans — in the East and the West — knew that the fault line of the Cold War was right underneath their feet.

Katja Hoyer

London and Berlin

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Reactivate the air raid sirens. Germany needs to wake up.

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Germany has made a stunning turnaround on Russia. It will take courage to make it last.

Germany takes a first step toward renouncing Russian gas. But how long can it hold out?

Germans are asking: Where’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz?

Germany has become a weak link in NATO’s line of defense

Germany’s anxiety about nuclear energy is leading to nonsensical policy