In late April, a group of well-known German intellectuals published an open letter calling on Chancellor Olaf Scholz not to supply Ukraine with heavy weapons in order not to provoke a third world war. On Wednesday, May 4, a second open letter to the head of the German government appeared in the German media – with exactly the opposite content.
A new appeal initiated by a German politician and publicist, a representative of the Soyuz-90 / Greens party, one of the founders of the Berlin Center for Liberal Modernity (Zentrum Liberale Moderne), included in the list of “undesirable organizations” by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, Ralph Fücks (Ralf Fücks), contains a call for active support for Ukraine in its defensive struggle against the Russian invasion and in “the speedy implementation of the Bundestag resolution on the supply of arms to Ukraine.”
The letter, which was originally published on the website of the newspaper Die Zeit, was signed by 57 public figures, writers, artists, journalists and politicians in Germany. Among them – writers Maxim Biller (Maxim Biller), Herta Müller (Herta Müller), Vladimir Kaminer (Wladimir Kaminer), politician and one of the founders of the Berlin “Center for Liberal Modernity” Marieluise Beck (Marieluise Beck), lawyer and diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger (Wolfgang Ischinger), musician Igor Levit (Igor Levit).
“Every day counts”
Given the “concentration of Russian troops in eastern and southern Ukraine, the ongoing shelling of civilians, the systematic destruction of infrastructure, the humanitarian emergency with more than ten million refugees, and the economic downturn in Ukraine as a result of the war, every day counts,” the appeal says.
Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz
No special military expertise is required to understand that the difference between “defensive” and “offensive” weapons is not a matter of material: in the hands of the attacked, tanks and howitzers are also defensive weapons, since they serve for self-defense, “the authors of the publication believe.
Anyone who wants “peace through negotiations”, follows further, “which will not be tantamount to subordinating Ukraine to the requirements of the Russian Federation, should strengthen its defense capability and weaken Russia’s military potential as much as possible.” This requires “continuous supply of weapons and ammunition to shift the military balance of power in favor of Ukraine. And this requires the extension of economic sanctions on the Russian energy sector as the financial lifeline of the Putin regime,” the letter emphasizes.
“Putin’s goal is to destroy the national identity of Ukraine”
The initiator of the second open letter to the German Chancellor, Ralph Fücks
Anyone who encroaches on “the European world order, tramples on international law and commits massive war crimes must not walk away victorious from the battlefield. Putin’s stated goal was and remains the destruction of Ukraine’s national identity.” Russia’s attack on Ukraine is “simultaneously an attack on European security. The Kremlin’s pre-invasion demands for a redesign of Europe speak for themselves. If Putin’s armed revisionism in Ukraine succeeds, there is a growing danger that the next war will take place on NATO territory. And If a nuclear power gets away with attacking a country that has surrendered its nuclear weapons in exchange for international security guarantees, that would be a serious blow to nuclear non-proliferation.
The threat of nuclear war, the open letter goes on to say, is “part of Russia’s psychological warfare. However, we do not take it lightly. Every war carries the risk of escalation to extreme limits. But the danger of nuclear war should not be averted by making concessions Kremlin, because they will incite it to the next military adventures,” the authors of the letter note.
In opposition to the appeal of the representatives of the German intelligentsia
This open letter is written in opposition to an appeal published a few days earlier: at the end of April, a group of 28 well-known representatives of the German intelligentsia, including feminist, Emma magazine founder Alice Scharzer, writer Martin Walser, actor Lars Eidinger ( Lars Eidinger and others published an open letter calling on Chancellor Olaf Scholz not to supply Ukraine with heavy weapons, as this, from their point of view, increases the risk of a nuclear strike and a third world war. The authors of the letter also called for the surrender of Ukraine. One part of German society took this appeal positively, the other – sharply negative.
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