OVERLOAD – Putin and the Germans

No country could have been better prepared. No country knows more about wars of aggression. No other country has examined its own history so vocally. But when Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, the model students of the school of “coming to terms with the past” presented a confused picture. Never at a loss for fine words, but unpredictable in its actions, Germany has been unnerving its allies and confusing its enemies ever since the war in Ukraine began.

And the Germans themselves? They are all over the place: some know exactly what needs to be done at any given moment, whilst others indulge in eternal polemics; some still have not emerged from their state of shock. Not to mention the prophets who, with weird enthusiasm, are once again discussing geopolitics as if this were a game of chess.

 Times of war are times of truth, says the philosopher Bettina Stangneth. Quite simply, the Germans do not live up to the image of themselves that they want to portray. Despite their propensity for self-reflection, they are not even capable of truly looking at themselves in the mirror. But when a major economic power is preparing to deploy one of the biggest armies in the world, the world will rightly ask itself why the Germans have such trouble proving themselves to be reliable partners.