German Metamorphosis and the Human Condition

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine I have been reflecting on the "conditio humana" and I am amazed at Germany's ability to cope with the metamorphosis the country I have been living in for decades is going through. I am beginning to doubt whether we are capable of learning from history.

Last February 27th the Bundestag held an extraordinary session on a Sunday in which it approved the investment of one hundred billion Euros in the defense of the country. This is a similar turnaround to the German exit from nuclear power after the tsunami in Fukushima. Not only that, but Germany is sending armaments to Ukraine, also unprecedented since World War II. One comes to the conclusion that nations need external events to make internal changes that seemed long overdue.

The diplomatic move last week is also astonishing: Chancellor Olaf Scholz travels to Israel and on Saturday Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meets with Putin and then flies to Berlin to brief Scholz. The Jewish historian Yuva Harriri states in The Guardian that Putin has lost the war before he started it and, at the same time, states that Germany must take the lead in this conflict. I don't know yet exactly what to think about this assertion.

Also surprising are the postings on LinkedIn of so many German companies wanting to withdraw from the Russian market and even universities like mine, RWTH Aachen, deciding to cut scientific collaboration with Russia. Or the city of Munich, which fires its theater musical director for being Russian and for not distancing himself from Putin. Or the Berlin Opera, which fires none other than Anna Netrebko .

And I do not fail to mention the generalized xenophobia towards any Russian in many countries and in particular in Germany, which, because of its recent historical past, seems to me to be very serious. I have seen this with several Russian women I know who are victims of serious offenses and even fear for their lives. One of them has a grandmother in Ukraine who is also struggling for survival.

We are all wondering what is happening at "the speed of light" (as the President of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen, recently said). It is surprising that 70% of the German population is in favor of the measures taken for the defense of the country. Scholz did not fail to mention in his speech the nation and that Kiev is a 2-hour flight from Berlin . The current media coverage favors certain reversals. Let us also not forget that it was "yesterday" when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. It is part of the human condition to have a great historical memory that is difficult to erase.?

Let there be no doubt that I condemn this war aggression by Russia which is totally unjustified. We must also be aware that at this point in time, the information that reaches us is in part intercepted, and no one should rule out the possibility that public opinion is being manipulated. Moreover, we should be very attentive to our sources of information. I like to read authors with a historical perspective, such as Ray Dalio , author of the book "The Changing of World Order".?

It is clear that many "just for sinners" are paying. We see moments of great pain and great human solidarity. Yesterday I was contacted by a Ukrainian lawyer who drove from Torrevieja to Poland to look for refugees and got stuck in Stuttgart with a broken down car. And who is the winner in all this? Unfortunately the arms dealers, let's not forget.

Viktor Frankl, a survivor of Auschwitz, said in a great speech in Vienna: "In all nations there are two kinds of people, the respectable and the unrespectable". He then went on to say that he was incapable of hate.?

Thus I come to the great desire that I wish to share at the end of this writing: that neither people nor nations should allow themselves to be carried away by hatred. It is the great temptation of the moment. Blind revenge. True dialogue is possible only when information is shared and an attempt is made to understand the other's point of view.