Against the shame and crime of German participation in the war: Contributions to peace with Russia

This book seems almost an impossibility in today’s Germany. If it were up to the political mainstream, affiliated corporate and GEZ media as well as the de facto synchronized “ science ”, there should no longer be such a plea in book form as “Dialogue instead of weapons”. The orchestrated campaigns against Gabriele Krone-Schmalz and Ulrike Guérot , Sucharit Bhakdi and Daniele Ganser , to name just the most well-known dissidents from the recent crises, are not over yet. Parallel to the defamation, the state is conducting show trials against unwelcome doctors, judges, lawyers, journalists and scientistsbefore. Anyone who publicly takes a view of the war in Ukraine that differs from the official one is dealing with a judiciary of opinions that executes rubber articles on behalf of politicians against members of the opposition, much like McCarthy did in the United States. Because the German public prosecutor’s offices are politically bound by directives .

McCarthy’s persecution of communists forms a direct connection to the proceedings of the conference mentioned. The Berlin conference that he documents took place at the end of March under the title “Dialogue instead of weapons” and was – as the subheading emphasized – “non-partisan against the war”. The history of the conference and the book that resulted from it includes the decision by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and his so-called traffic light government in January 2023 to deliver heavy German Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine. Two former generals of the NVA – Manfred Grätz and Sebald Daum – reacted to this with two open letters, in which they protested against the delivery of German war equipment and Berlin’s blind allegiance to the USA as a vassal – and demanded that all arms deliveries to Kiev be stopped and that armistice negotiations be held immediately. The East German Board of Trustees of Associations (OKV) took up this appeal.

On the initiative of Joachim Bonatz and Rainer Rupp, the OKV invited the military, scientists, artists and peace activists to Berlin on March 27, 2023. communist persecutions? The majority of the 36 contributions in the volume come from high-ranking military officers of the National People’s Army of the time, as well as from other representatives of various East German associations who honor the traditions of the GDR but have very different biographies. Nevertheless, the conference was and is not a product of GDR nostalgia. Some West Germans also took part, including former Bundeswehr officers. If you want, you can watch a recording of the conference that the OKV has put online on its website ( part 1 and part 2).

The conference proceedings published by the meritorious Eulenspiegel publishing group are completed by the two open letters mentioned, the appeal “ Defend freedom of expression! “, finally through the resolution passed at the Berlin conference and a “call to reason”, which was already published on June 22, 2021 – also mainly written by generals and officers of the NVA, but also by former Russian, Austrian and Bundeswehr officers.

documentary character

In a way, the proceedings of the conference have already become history as soon as they appear. Because Olaf Scholz ‘s decision to supply German tanks for the fight against Russia and the Russian military was a prerequisite for the so-called spring offensive in Ukraine, which was announced with great pomp over weeks and months. Without the delivery of heavy weapons, especially from Germany, Kiev would not have been able to assemble another army and send it into battle. The US had signaled to its European vassals that they would send their Abrams tanks , the “allies” would not expose themselves against Moscow alone . That was a ruse , though, which Olaf Scholz fell for . The chancellor announced that the Germans would not be the only ones supplying heavy equipment to Ukraine. No sooner had Berlin’s confident promise to supply Leopards been made than Washington backtracked, claiming that for various reasons, including secrecy, the US could not deliver its state-of-the-art tanks to Ukraine immediately, but could do so within the next year. Instead, the US only provided Ukraine with less powerful armored personnel carriers.

After much back and forth, Ukraine finally launched its “spring offensive” in early June. Without being able to go into the details of the fighting in the Donbass and in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions here, it can be said at this point in time that the Ukrainian offensive has so far – after six weeks – failed across the board . The Russian troops hold their well-fortified positions. For weeks, Kiev had allowed its inadequately equipped and poorly trained soldiers to run senselessly against the Russian lines and die . Now London Kiev is said to have ordered the few Challenger 2 tanks deliveredwithdraw from the front. The despicable reason: the British tanks should not go up in flames in rows like the German Leopard 2 colossi. From the Challenger 2 – as from the Abrams tanks – there should be no disturbing shots. That would be bad for the image (literally) and bad for the order situation of the respective defense industry. How did Lieutenant General a. D. Manfred Grätz wrote in his open letter from January 2023:

“It’s that time again. Feared by countless people, by a minority who have forgotten history or arrogantly disregarded history, who feel called upon to govern the country and follow the transatlantic alliance partner in vassal loyalty, longed for and talked about it, eagerly supported by a media landscape that had been brought into line in a unique way and now officially announced by the Federal Chancellor: Panzer gen Osten!” (p. 12)

As was foreseeable six months ago, the delivery of German tanks turned out to be militarily pointless. Because Sebald Daum, Major General a. D., the author of the second open letter, also clairvoyantly stated in January:

“With this decision, Germany is not only prolonging the deaths in Ukraine, but is becoming a party to the war. At the same time, Russia is increasingly being turned into the enemy of the German people and everything that was once important in friendly relations with Russia, especially in the East and in Germany as a whole, is finally being destroyed.” (p. 17)

Ignored background

Since the Euromaidan putsch, there have been a number of publications critical of the fascist overthrow in Ukraine – mainly in alternative media portals and in book form from small, mostly left-wing publishers. One advantage of the current anthology is that it traces the escalation aimed at war against Russia , which the USA and its NATO/EU vassals have been pursuing since 2013/14, in various longer (eg pp. 145-173) and shorter articles . Bernd Biedermann, Colonel a. D. and died a few days before the conference, in his short contribution.

The peace activist Heinrich Bücker, confronted with state repression , points out in his text that February 2022 is only “the consequence” of the breach of international law that took place on February 21, 2014 – when “the democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown and the existing political conditions were violently eliminated” (p. 40). Without the violent regime change under fascist auspices and US direction of 2014, Crimea would still be Ukrainian today and would exist within the borders of 1991. Without the coup, the number of deaths that has now reached several hundred thousand would not have happened, and without the coup, the population would have beenUkraine has not fallen to an estimated half, if not less, of the 52 million people living between the Carpathian Mountains and the Donbass at the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Germany in “War Mode”

The background to the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine also includes the statement that the Minsk agreements of 2014/15 were not to be observed by Ukraine, which received Western backing for its destructive stance, nor by France or Germany. This fact was by no means hidden from Moscow in the eight years between 2014 and 2022 . But the Russian leadership has repeatedly appealed to the two European guarantor powers to have Kiev implement the commitments it had made. However, nothing like that happened, the terrorist attacks against their own population and the deaths in Donbasswent on. The lawyer and writer Wolfgang Bittner writes:

“A further escalation in Russia’s relations with the Western Allies has occurred, according to a shocking statement by former Chancellor Angela Merkel. In a December 2022 interview, she said the 2014 Minsk Agreement was signed by the West to give Ukraine time to grow stronger. Former French President Hollande and Ukrainian ex-President Poroshenko have confirmed this.” (p. 33)

So it only had to seem logical from Moscow that the German Foreign Minister publicly declared that she wanted to “ruin Russia” and on January 24, 2023 – almost at the same time as the Chancellor’s tank decision – declared on the European stage: “We are waging a war against Russia.” Eva Ruppert therefore rightly maintains that it is

“It is a disgrace and a crime that the nation, which committed unpunished crimes against the Russian military and civilian population during World War II, is now again sending murderous war machines against Russia.” (p. 136 f.)

In his contribution entitled “Freedom of Opinion versus Dictatorship of Opinion”, Hans Bauer, as already mentioned, explains how it could come to this and how it could happen again. The policy of the German government follows the motto “weapons instead of dialogue”. The de facto “ war course ” is only possible under the condition and condition that a large part of the people agrees, “at least offers no serious resistance”. farmer writes:

“How did you manage to make a large part of the people ‘ready for war’? The answer is simple: through the use and abuse of all state powers – the legislative, the executive and the judiciary. With the result: mass manipulation, intimidation, dumbing down. Nothing new. In terms of dimensions and intensity, I think it’s a new quality. And the predominantly dependent media – the so-called fourth estate – play a decisive role in this. The media praise the course of war and promote it in public, preaching enmity in the style of a fascist past.” (p. 19)

The conference proceedings also make clear the loss of confidence in Moscow that US-determined NATO and German policies have led to since 1989/90. If there is ever another chance for an independent German policy towards Moscow, German diplomacy will have to start from scratch . This time it is likely to be more difficult for the Federal Republic, if it still exists, than it was in 1955, when Adenauer traveled to Moscow. In recent years, Berlin has not used the scope that even Bonn knew how to use during the Cold War. Not to mention Berlin, the capital of the GDR, at this point. The governments have Merkel for that(retrospectively) and Scholz almost irreparably damaged relations with Moscow on almost every level (sanctions) through their manic Russophobic policies. As a result, Moscow will have even less confidence in future German assurances and agreements with Berlin than has been the case up to now.

“Dialogue instead of weapons – peace with Russia”

In the context of this discussion it is impossible to go into all the conference contributions, not even the articles by the already mentioned well-known authors or the texts by Wolfgang Effenberger, Tino Eisbrenner, Liane Kilinc, Anton Latzo, Max Renkl or Jürgen Rose – just to name a few other well-known names.

For this I quote from the resolution that was passed at the Berlin conference. It states, among other things:

“In the great danger that our people are currently in, we no longer have time to argue about party-political differences and different orientations. Instead, we must focus on what unites us!”

And further:

“The future of our children and grandchildren and the preservation of human life on our planet require that Germany and its economy do not fall victim to a policy of Western ‘rules-based order’ that wants to ‘destroy’ Russia and is preparing for a war against China.”

The war in Ukraine had been planned for the long term and had actually started in 2014 at the latest. As a war party, Germany is contributing to the further escalation of this war at the forefront with arms deliveries, money and military training.

“It is arming, preparing the population for war and persecuting peace activists. With hate and hatred, it fuels hostility towards Russia. The government is violating its oath of office […] This policy is leading to a world war that will know no victors.”

It is now a matter of “stopping the spiral of war” and protesting “against German support to prolong the war”. The conference participants called for an “end of the war course through a just peace guaranteeing the security of Russia and a peaceful anti-fascist Ukraine”.

The resolution ends with the following appeal:

“Let’s not wait until it’s too late again!

We see our event classified as another voice for peace, so that it becomes stronger and gains strength across the board.”

In this sense, the book is indeed to be wished for the widest possible distribution and great impact.

Bibliographic information :

Dialogue instead of weapons.  Bipartisan against the war. Texts from a conference on March 27, 2023 in Berlin. Edited by Joachim Bonatz and Rainer Rupp. Berlin: verlag am park, 2023. 214 pages; €15; ISBN: 978-3-89793-367-5.

More on the topic – The shortened German narrative: Jacques Baud on the origins of the Ukraine conflict