The historian Heinrich August Winkler calls for a comprehensive parliamentary review of Germany’s foreign policy toward Eastern Europe. He argues that a parliamentary inquiry or commission is justified to scrutinise the country’s Russia policy during the Putin era.
When examining Germany’s support for Ukraine, Winkler gives a harsh verdict on former Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). He says that Scholz’s “turning‑point” speech, while a “big step forward” left Germany “behind its means” in providing the assistance required. The historical judgment on Scholz’s actions, Winkler predicts, will likely be “too late and too little”.
Under Lars Klingbeil the Social Democrats distanced themselves from Gerhard Schröder’s Russia policy, yet Winkler notes that a critical reassessment of the second phase of Ostpolitik and of Egon Bahr’s role is still overdue. Bahr, who rose to great influence during Willy Brandt’s tenure, had labelled civil‑rights movements such as Poland’s Solidarity union a “threat to world peace”. Winkler also holds the EU parties accountable for the Merkel era, in which Nord Stream 2 was decided and implemented, stating that “neither CDU nor CSU has a justification for political self‑righteousness”.
Regarding Germany’s internal stability, the historian’s assessment is mixed. At the end of the Weimar Republic there was a “negative majority against democracy”. The present German state is farther removed from the street clashes of 1932, yet it has not yet seen a far‑right party as popular as the AfD. Winkler compares this to the German National People’s Party of the late Weimar era-a party that in early 1933 had a decisive part in the power transfer to Hitler.
