A Reader’s Opinion by Mikhail Balzer
For our balcony dweller, who has been in self-imposed exile in his apartment for 30 years and has been a pacifist since his youth, the concern is growing that, in the event of war (pardon: still euphemistically referred to as a “defensive situation” – although it is clear that Germany will not be entirely innocent in the cause of the defense), he may be forced to leave his apartment.
A horror scenario that has been haunting his dreams and inducing bizarre and over-the-top thought patterns in recent times. What is likely responsible for his nervousness and neurasthenic weakness, which, however, is not a rare phenomenon in pre-war times, but a warning sign.
For himself, he has decided, together with the clever cat Murr III, to hold out heroically in his ancestral apartment, rather than exchanging it for the uninviting prospect of a dingy shelter (the illusion of a radiation-protected bunker, which he, in contrast to his wife, did not fall for). Could it come to this in the event of a war, if the deterrent effect of so-called “frightening nuclear deterrent weapons” failed and they were then used in accordance with the natural course of a war, as they would be in the event of a desperate situation for one of the parties involved?
Examples of the use of forbidden or banned war means can be found in history – the initial situation only needs to appear desperate enough for one of the parties!
Could it come to forced evacuations due to a genuine or perceived nuclear threat? Who could say that today?
In this context, the newly formed structures of the German Bundeswehr for “defense in the interior” are also worth mentioning. If, in the event of a “crisis or war scenario” the unseemly “duty to one’s fatherland” is demanded, would he have to give up his beautiful apartment? To accommodate military personnel or to store some brand-new, dangerous items, or even as a makeshift hospital far from the front lines?
At these, perhaps absurd, concerns of the balcony dweller, it should be noted that there are indeed examples of such, seemingly unprecedented, events in history. The somewhat time-critically inclined reader is also kindly referred to the “Operations Plan Germany”.
Thus, the question arose, which party he could possibly vote for as a convinced pacifist on the day of the Bundestag election, February 23. Following his misanthropic-skeptical nature, he approached the problem from the negative end, as it were. Especially, he found it particularly unpleasant when he realized that such war-preparatory plans were being propagated by “party officials” of a once-green, erstwhile peace party; interestingly, by people who, not so long ago, had boasted of not knowing anything about Germany; and who, it seemed, harbored a strong grudge against all East Germans or pretended to have great gaps in their knowledge of history.
However, not only under these did our balcony dweller find new, riskier military adventures being promoted. Most representatives of two self-styled “Christian” sister parties also support far-reaching missile systems for Ukraine. The chancellor candidate and former high-paid “Schwarzfels manager” wants to deliver the Taurus missiles to Russia, issuing an ultimatum. What the term “ultimatum” means in this context can be read in Golo Mann, in relation to the outbreak of the First World War. Another character, who wants to use the Taurus like a “Miesewetter” against Russia, mobilizing negative emotions like grudge and fear against Russia, did not give much hope.
The red-social democratic party, on the other hand, has forgotten all pacifist traditions of earlier years and has largely transformed into a war-preparatory party under the unofficial leadership of one of its ministers. Our balcony dweller once joked that one should no longer call it the “Ministry of Defense” but rather the “Ministry of War.”
Even the mistrustful, Bundestag-defeated chancellor still held out, refusing to deliver the Taurus, which had been so heretically demanded by Ukraine and in a YouTube children’s clip (on YouTube) so heart-wrenchingly.