2024-10-20 14:03:00
Anne Applebaum accepts the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. She is critical of the call for “never war again”. The real lesson of German history must be different.
Frankfurt/Main.
At the end of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the American-Polish journalist and historian Anne Applebaum was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. “In an era in which democratic achievements and values are increasingly caricatured and attacked, his work becomes an extremely important contribution to the preservation of democracy and peace,” reads the certificate he received in the Paulskirche.
An award winner whose opinion you can compare yourself with
Applebaum’s acceptance speech was a decisive call to continue supporting Ukraine with weapons. Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, president of the German Book Trade Association, which awards the prize, admitted that her clear position on this point had already attracted criticism.
How can you award a peace prize to someone who asks for arms supplies? “This is the culture of the peace prize,” said Schmidt-Friderichs: “We can compare ourselves with the opinions of the prize winners. We should grow from them.” There was much applause for his stand in the packed Paulskirche.
The historian Applebaum, born in Washington DC in 1964, is married to Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski. He has written books such as “The Gulag” (2003), “The Iron Curtain” (2012) and “The Allure of Authoritarianism” (2021). In 2004 she was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. Applebaum is the winner of the 75th Peace Prize. The honor includes a cash prize of 25,000 euros.
Criticism of blind pacifism
“The awarding of the Peace Prize is perhaps a good time to point out that the call for peace is not always a moral argument,” says Applebaum. “It is also a good time to point out that the lesson of German history cannot be that Germans must be pacifists. On the contrary: For almost a century we have known that the appeal to pacifism in the face of an aggressive dictatorship often means nothing. different from the pacification and acceptance of this dictatorship.”
“Anyone who calls for ‘pacifism’ and wants to cede to Russia not only territory, but also people, principles and ideals, has learned absolutely nothing from the history of the 20th century,” Applebaum said. The phrase “Never again!” blind you to reality.
“The real lesson from German history”
“To stop Russia from spreading its autocratic political system, we must help Ukraine win,” Applebaum said. “If we had the opportunity to end this terrible cult of violence in Russia with a military victory, just as a military victory ended the cult of violence in Germany, then we should use it.”
It is unusual for the Germans to be asked to supply weapons. “But this is the real lesson of German history,” Applebaum said: “Not that Germans will never be allowed to wage war again, but that they have a special responsibility to defend freedom and to take risks in doing so.”
Anticipated and foreseen disasters
The speech of praise for the Peace Prize winner was delivered by a Nobel Peace Prize winner: Russian opposition activist Irina Scherbakova. The Russian historian is a founding member of the human rights organization Memorial, now banned in Russia and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.
Applebaum’s work was “a leading indicator” and nearly all of his books were “prescient.” Applebaum “has diagnosed and predicted impending catastrophes and has been warning for years about the dangers posed by the Putin regime,” Scherbakova said. “If such voices had been listened to more in the West, it would have been possible to stop Putin much earlier.”
Only a thin line separates the lie from the truth, Scherbakova said. Autocrats and propagandists constantly worked to blur this line. Applebaum’s work helps ensure that it continues to exist. “He warned us like few others that what begins as a story line can lead to a real first line.” (dpa)
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