Olympic champion Wasmeier horrified by Chancellor Scholz: "What he's doing is shameful"

Created: 04/25/2022, 11:58 am

Markus Wasmeier is not satisfied with Olaf Scholz.

© Falk Heller IMAGO / argum

The war in Ukraine also moves double Olympic champion Markus Wasmeier.

He helps where he can.

And he makes a clear announcement to the Federal Chancellor.

Schliersee - Markus Wasmeier is upset.

The war in Ukraine and the suffering of the people he has known for years have been on his mind for weeks and almost 24 hours a day.

"My phone is empty after four hours, it glows," he reports.

Messages keep coming that “concern you”, combined with questions about how things are going for those he doesn’t hear from: “Are you still alive, are you not alive anymore?

That is very stressful.”

Wasmeier, double Olympic champion in Lillehammer in 1994, isn't one to whine.

He tackles.

He helps with all consistency and a motivated group of supporters, wherever he can.

Consequent.

Only one, he thinks, doesn't really go along with it.

The Chancellor.

"I'm sorry for what Scholz is doing, it's shameful.

I'm ashamed of what's going on in front of the Ukrainians," Wasmeier told SID.

Olaf Scholz should speak plain language "and not rumeier".

Wasmeier has been dealing with Ukraine for a long time: "Many friendships were formed"

Wasmeier can afford the criticism.

He has been in the subject for more than a decade.

In 2009, at the suggestion of a Ukrainian neighbor, he organized a festival in his open-air museum in Schliersee, where Ukrainians could present and live out “their culture, dance, clothing and handicraft”.

"From this," he reports, "many friendships have developed."

And when friends called for help, the former ski star didn't hesitate.

For years, Wasmeier has been to Crimea, which was annexed in 2014, and the embattled Donbass. He organized 20 ambulances and equipped hospital wards.

But now the cries for help have reached a whole new dimension.

Since Russia instigated the war in Ukraine, Wasmeier and his helpers from the “Ukraine-Hilfe Schliersee” have not had a moment’s peace: “A lot has come our way.”

Wasmeier organizes donations and relief supplies

Wasmeier didn't think long.

“Please, please help us”, the friends would have begged him, “and then you start.” Twice he has already driven 3.5 tons of aid supplies he had collected or financed from donations via Slovakia to the Ukraine.

Shortly after the border, the Ukrainians take over the logistics.

On "Tuesday or Wednesday" there will be a transport with a total of 18 tons, mainly with medical equipment.

Help is not a one-way street.

Wasmeier and the committed supporters from the active association "We help people" quickly got 54 people from the "closest circle" from the Ukraine, meanwhile Schliersee has taken in a total of 200 refugees.

They have even set up a citizens' office in the community to organize things like going to the authorities or looking for a place to live.

Wasmeier himself accommodated a couple with two children.

Wasmeier "proud" of the Schlierseer - and praises Baerbock

What the people in Schliersee achieved, how they sometimes "burn", that, says Wasmeier, "makes me proud".

Working together motivates him, motivates everyone - and yet there are of course "ups and downs".

After all, they all suffer.

The women and children from the Ukraine are understandably always "totally exhausted" when they get bad news from home, says Wasmeier.

The motivation is still unbroken.

It takes 12 to 15 hours for the relief supplies to arrive at their destinations in the Ukraine, says Wasmeier and reports happily: "Then I always get photos," for example of the hospitals supplied.

But "the best thing" is when the children come together in his museum twice or three times a week: "When you see how they play and laugh, you know: everything was done right."

Now, Wasmeier wishes, only the Chancellor should finally show a "clear edge" - such as Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the FDP defense expert, or like, "who would have thought it", Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock.

Because the Ukrainians, says Wasmeier, “they are fighting for us”.