Germany’s debate on war role very self-centred but decisions needed

A year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Germans are still debating what role they should play in the war, and what the goal should be, writes Helmut K Anheier

A woman with angel wings in Ukrainian colours stands in front of the Old Opera House in Frankfurt, Germany. Several thousand people commemorated the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine at a rally in downtown Frankfurt. Picture: Boris Roessler/dpa via AP

TWO months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Jürgen Habermas, perhaps Germany’s leading public intellectual, published a commentary that triggered one of the country’s most ferocious political debates in decades. Habermas asked how Germany should position itself in the widening Russian-Ukrainian war. Germans still have not reached any agreement on an answer.

At the start of the war, German chancellor Olaf Scholz was subject to a barrage of open letters, each signed by hundreds of leading public figures. Some took a hawkish position, advocating more forceful and active engagement on Ukraine’s behalf. Others were dovish, pushing for a settlement that would permit Russia to claim some kind of victory and spare Europe from a widening and prolonged conflict.