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Demonstration in Berlin against Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Photo: Florian Gaertner / Photothek via Getty Images
The friend whose mother worriedly asks her whether Germany is still safe or whether she should temporarily seek refuge with relatives in Australia.
The affected Instagram posts.
The yellow and blue lit buildings across the country.
Suddenly foreign policy is everywhere, Russia's attack on Ukraine makes people in Germany concerned and anxious who have not previously been concerned with foreign policy.
This is understandable and important.
Only the previous reactions are so incredibly apolitical.
As Ukrainian men arm themselves and face overwhelming Russian firepower, we are concerned on social media.
As Russia bombs homes and kindergartens, the yoga school sends out emails that they are now putting a candle in the window.
While Ukrainian children are hiding in air-raid shelters, only a few thousand people have come to demonstrations in this country.
Yes, foreign policy is complicated and it is the job of politicians to assume leadership responsibility.
But if we have become more dependent on Russian energy supplies in recent years - even after Russia has already annexed part of Ukraine and waged a war in eastern Ukraine - then German politicians did so because they felt it was in the interest of all of us .
When several federal governments pushed ahead with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline against the warnings of the majority of our EU partners, the USA and foreign policy experts and at the expense of Ukraine, they did so because they had the support of the population for this course.
It is too much to expect every citizen to follow the details of the Iran deal or NATO's new strategic concept.
But when it's about the basics of security in Europe, like now, about war just a two-hour flight from Berlin, then it's not too much to ask to get involved politically instead of just being concerned and changing your profile picture on social media.
If the federal government cannot decide for days whether and why it wants to exclude Russia from the Swift international payment system, it is also because it is not sure whether the German population - all of us - will bear the considerable costs of this decision.
If the Bundestag decides on a motion that does not contain central sanctions, it will do so on our behalf.
When German politicians hesitated for so long, as in the past few days and weeks, to send weapons to the Ukrainians, they did so in the belief that we Germans could not be expected to do anything else.
If you want to change that, you have to raise your voice.
Politicians react to people on the street, namely those who demonstrate not only abstractly for "peace" but also for a different kind of politics.
She responds to calls and e-mails to members of parliament, to pressure from the party's local branch, from trade unions and from business associations.
Yes, in the coming days and weeks it will also be about taking in refugees from Ukraine.
Here we can and must show willingness to help again - perhaps more than ever before.
Ukrainian and international humanitarian organizations also need donations.
But that alone is not enough.
That's too convenient.
We also have to deal with the real world around us, get involved politically, throw out old certainties that everything will be fine if you only emphasize often enough that you are for peace.
If we had not only discussed the Syrian refugees in Germany and Europe in 2015, but also taken a closer look at how Russia specifically bombed hospitals, schools and market places in Syria, we might not be so surprised now.
Instead of empty declarations of solidarity, we owe the Ukrainians not only help for refugees, but a more active policy.
more on the subject
Ukraine refugees in Poland and Slovakia: "I don't think we can ever go back" By Jan Puhl and Steffen Lüdke, Lublin and Vyšné Nemecké
Attack by the Russian military: Kiev is preparing for Putin's next storm Christian Esch and Maxim Dondyuk report from Kiev (photos)
Pictures from Ukraine: A country at war
This will not only be important in the coming days and weeks.
If you don't want to worry about whether Australia is safer in the long term, you also have to reconsider old certainties about German defense spending.
In the coming months there will be a debate about a national security strategy for Germany, which must now also react to the fundamental new order in Europe.
This is an opportunity to reorganize German foreign and security policy, to show that we are prepared to stand up for our security and freedom, our values.
If you want that, you have to get off Instagram and get involved politically.