Three days had just passed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that Sunday, February 27, 2022, when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took the floor of the German parliament for a historic speech. “Our world after the Russian invasion is not the same,” said Olaf Solz, ushering in the end of one era and the beginning of another, with a new compass being the lifting of the red line for not sending weapons to war zones.

Germany was asleep

Just hours before the Russian invasion of New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres met with the Russian ambassador, urging him one last time that Russia should not proceed with a full-scale attack on Ukraine. The hours were passing and it was already almost four in the morning in Germany. Most top politicians and officials were literally caught sleeping. Germany at dawn was no longer the same, she was called to make decisions that would change her too without wanting to. This is because Germany is not a military power. But the Russian president finally sent an army to Ukraine with the aim of changing the borders.

The last time Slobodan Milosevic attempted something similar was in the 1990s with the aim of creating a “Greater Serbia” in the Western Balkans. Things are different now, the sizes are different. The largest geographical country in the world, Russia, a nuclear superpower, is essentially challenging the United Nations Charter signed after the end of World War II. This is the view of the American historian and professor at Yale Timothy Snyder. The UN Charter was written on the painful experiences of the imperialist Third Reich and Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.

Chancellor Olaf Solz in his historic speech referred to Russia’s intentions to “wipe an independent country off the map,” referring to an affront to security principles in the post-war world under the Helsinki Final Act. Putin, according to Soltz, has been “marginalized by the international community”.

Billions for the German army

The German turn known as the “Zeitenwende” also marked a new beginning for the German army, which is being upgraded with a Special Fund of 100 billion euros. A year after its announcement, there is an increase in orders from the armaments industry. And Ukraine meanwhile, for a year now, has been equipped with German military systems. According to surveys, the majority of Germans agree with the German change of attitude on the issue of sending weapons to war zones. The fact is, however, that the debate in Germany about sending Leopard tanks to Ukraine was divisive. Although initially the chancellor followed the “no” of the left wing of the Social Democrats, he eventually backed down.

A few days after the meeting of 50 countries at the American base Ramstein a decision was made: Germany will send heavy tanks to Ukraine. In the meantime, and while throughout the year the US was constantly launching the shipments of more and more heavy equipment systems, the discussion also began about fighter aircraft.

“I can only say that all the talk about fighter jets is about types that Germany doesn’t have at the moment, so it’s an issue that is more about other countries,” new German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told DW. “Fundamentally, the war in Ukraine is a war in which absolutely nothing can ever be ruled out. But this is probably not the case for Germany’s fighter jets,” he added. It should be noted that Poland and the Netherlands have already offered Ukraine F-16s, provided that the allies also agree.

The German citizens on the side of the Ukrainians

On a social level, however, the Germans showed solidarity with the Ukrainians. Over a million Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Germany. Many have also fled to neighboring Ukraine. German private individuals donated more than one billion euros from their own pockets to help Ukrainian refugees. However, the generosity of the German state does not keep pace with the generosity of ordinary citizens, according to a study by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Thus official German state aid to Ukraine, calculated on the basis of GDP, amounts to a third of the amount Germany transferred to the US in 1990 and 1991 during the Second Gulf War. At that time the economically powerful West Germany, although it had no influence on global security policy, had engaged in so-called “checkbook diplomacy” promoting its economic interests. Three decades later, although Germany is sending heavy tanks to the Ukrainian front, it seems that it still cannot give up its old, beloved habit: to pursue its interests exclusively with money.