On the Intimate German-Russian Relationship

Internationally, we Germans are accused of being dependent on Russia for energy, especially regarding gas supplies. The German-Russian relationship, however, is much older. It is characterized by admiration, mistrust, and fear. Germany exported Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst as Catherine the Great to the Tsarina throne, and we enjoy borscht, Crimean (!?) sparkling wine, and caviar.

Even today, Russians bite into their бутерброд (Butterbrot, sandwich) with an appetite in front of a closed шлагбаум (Schlagbaum, barrier) while waiting for a train to pass.

After all, the cry of terror in Germany's east toward the end of World War II, "Die Russen kommen! (The Russians are coming!)," is at least as old as the year 1813, when Russian Cossacks marched into Hamburg and liberated the city from Napoleonic occupation. The Cossack winter of 1813/14 entered the people's collective consciousness of Northern Germany.

Don't tempt the Russian bear! Napoleon had underestimated the Tsarist empire, but another megalomaniac underrated Russia 140 years later.

On June 4, 1942, on the occasion of Carl Gustav Mannerheim's birthday, Hitler visited the Finnish General. A secret audio recording was made of the table talk or rather monolog of the Führer about Russia, "It is evident they have the most monstrous armament that is humanly conceivable. So if anybody had told me that one country could line up 35,000 tanks, I had said you have gone mad. If one general of mine had declared that the state here had 35,000 tanks, I had said, Mein Herr, you are seeing everything double or tenfold; this is crazy you see ghosts. I have not thought this possible."

Former German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (CDU) said something sagacious the day before yesterday, "After the conflicts in Georgia, Crimea, and the Donbas, nothing was prepared that would have really deterred Putin. We've forgotten the lesson of former chancellors Helmut Schmidt and Helmut Kohl, that negotiations always take precedence, but you have to be so strong militarily that non-negotiation can't be an option for the other side." The Moscow pilgrims Macron, Baerbock, and Scholz have had to learn this bitterly, and further, "The Bundeswehr (Federal Armed Force) is not in good shape."

Have we been too naive? Yep, although you have to give us Germans credit: The defeat in 1945 taught us that war is the worst thing that can happen to a country: In war, there is neither fortune nor star, but what counts most, I mentioned in my recent blog, "The greatest evil in wars always falls on those who are least to blame for it, on peasants, widows, and orphans."

Bertold Brecht, a German writer, communist, and pacifist, wrote in 1951 at the time of the Korean war the poem "Bitten der Kinder:"

BITTEN DER KINDER  Die Häuser sollen nicht brennen,  Bomber sollt man nicht kennen.   Die Nacht soll für den Schlaf sein.   Leben soll keine Straf sein.   Die Mütter sollen nicht weinen.   Keiner sollt töten einen.   Alle sollen was bauen   Da kann man allen trauen.   Die Jungen sollen 's erreichen.   Die Alten desgleichen.

CHILDREN'S REQUESTS  The houses shall not burn,  Bombers shall not be known.   Let the night be for sleep.   Life shall not be punishment.   Mothers shall not cry.   No one shall kill anyone.   All shall build something   Then all can be trusted.   The young shall achieve this.   The old likewise.

Thank you, Berthold, for not forgetting the old. 

Is it so that we humans have learned nothing or do not want to learn?

Post Putin? (©dw)

Although Friedrich Schiller wrote in his "Lied von der Glocke," alluding to the horrors of the French Revolution, the following verses ...

Da werden Weiber zu Hyänen Und treiben mit Entsetzen Scherz, Noch zuckend, mit des Panthers Zähnen, Zerreißen sie des Feindes Herz.

Then women to hyenas growing Do make with horror jester's art, Still quivering, panther's teeth employing, They rip apart the enemy's heart.

... let me make a quick prayer, "O Lord, beware us of frustrated old white men. Instead, call mothers at the helm of governments."

I am seconded in my view by Meryl Streep when she writes, "I do honestly think that if women were running the world, there would be more investment in peace because basically, as women, we do not want to see our children killed. Maybe I am completely idealistic, but until we see women in equal positions of power globally, I just think that we are doomed."

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