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"I'm not Kaiser Wilhelm": Scholz draws a price comparison to the First World War

2022-05-22T13:34:57.343Z


"I'm not Kaiser Wilhelm": Scholz draws a price comparison to the First World War Created: 05/22/2022, 15:19 By: Magdalena von Zumbusch Chancellor Scholz on his will to keep Germany out of a war: I'm not Kaiser Wilhelm." © Political-Moments/Imago Scholz would like to keep Germany largely out of the Ukraine war. He emphasized this several times: In one session, he probably even made a comparison


"I'm not Kaiser Wilhelm": Scholz draws a price comparison to the First World War

Created: 05/22/2022, 15:19

By: Magdalena von Zumbusch

Chancellor Scholz on his will to keep Germany out of a war: I'm not Kaiser Wilhelm." © Political-Moments/Imago

Scholz would like to keep Germany largely out of the Ukraine war.

He emphasized this several times: In one session, he probably even made a comparison to the First World War.

Munich – Chancellor Olaf Scholz is taking a cautious course in dealing with the Ukraine war.

At the beginning of the war, the chancellor was skeptical about the delivery of arms – especially the provision of heavy weapons to Ukraine.

But then things got moving in April.

Nevertheless, he is falling short of Ukraine's wishes. The Ukrainian ambassador Melnyk, for example, has repeatedly criticized the chancellor for his course - recently, for example, he described him as a brakeman.

Scholz reluctant to war in Ukraine: "I'm not Kaiser Wilhelm"

At the end of April, the Chancellor justified his caution with a comparison to the First World War.

At a meeting of the coalition committee, Scholz said that he would not be the chancellor who accidentally let Germany slip into war: "I am not Kaiser Wilhelm," he said, according to

Der Spiegel

.

The quote was confirmed to the German Press Agency from coalition circles.

Some historians ascribe a large part of the responsibility for the outbreak of the First World War to Kaiser Wilhelm II, but ultimately there is disagreement about the role of Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Some of the Kaiser's speeches speak in favor of a warmongering role, such as an appeal to the German people on August 6, 1914. The original recording is not available, but Wilhelm II made a post-recording a few months before the end of the war, which SWR 2 published.

Chancellor Scholz is certainly still a long way from similar warmongering, as excerpts from the speech show:

“But now they want to humiliate us.

We are required to watch with folded arms as our enemies prepare for treacherous raids.

[...] The sword must now decide.

In the midst of peace, the enemy invades us.

So let's take up arms!

Any hesitation, any hesitation, would be a betrayal of the fatherland.

It is a question of the existence or non-existence of our kingdom, which our fathers founded anew.

To be or not to be German power and German nature.

We will fight back to the last breath of man and horse.

[...] Onward with God, who will be with us as he was with the fathers.”

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The Australian historian Christopher Clark also sees no parallels to the outbreak of the First World War in the Ukraine war and in view of Germany's risk of becoming involved in the war.

"I don't see a strong analogy there, quite the opposite," Clark told the German Press Agency.

Before the Russian attack at the end of February 2022, however, there were parallels.

"The cat-and-mouse game of mobilizing troops reminded me a lot of the winter of 1911-12, when there were repeated mobilizations and counter-mobilizations along the border between Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire," Clark said about the phase shortly before the Ukraine conflict escalated due to the Russian attack.

However, there are crucial differences - for example, that Europe was then binary divided into two large alliances.

In the Ukraine war, on the other hand, Russia was, in his view, “pretty isolated”.

Others see important partners standing by Russia's side, even if this is not publicly announced.

The great power China in particular has repeatedly expressed solidarity with Russia: the Chinese Foreign Minister even spoke of a “rock-solid friendship”.

In 2012, Clark published a famous study "The Sleepwalkers" in which he describes how the great European powers slid into the First World War in 1914.

(mvz with dpa)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-05-22

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