German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/19,
pp. 1378-1379.
Herr President. Right honorable colleagues.
The atomic power Russia has attacked the Ukraine. Putin’s
military victory is very probable – at an enormously high price. What then
comes? A country twice as large as Germany in guerrilla war, repressions,
terror, long-term destabilization on the EU’s eastern border – dramatic prospects.
Many of you wish for a defeat of Putin. Yet what would then
come? Insight? A return to the international community? Transfer of power to a
peaceful successor? Unimaginable! Putin has gone “all-in”. If he loses, it can
all the more become a nightmare: Revolt of the Russian people, revolt of the
military, power struggle in the state apparatus. A defeat of Putin is
incalculable because Russia is an atomic power.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have let slip a historic
opportunity. Europe and we Germans after the Second World War did not manage to
build an order of peace which integrated Russia. In 1990, we received a second
opportunity and we did not use it. Putin made us an offer, yet we did not agree
to it. We were not capable of understanding and accepting the security
interests of the Russian Federation. We credited these as a matter not desired
to be understood. Now it is too late for that. Now we again have war in the
middle of Europe – an aggressive war which by no means is to be excused, not
even by the ignorance of the West in the past 25 years.
What does this mean for Germany? We have crashed hard on the
ground of reality. The brutal politics of power is back and sweeps the
viewpoint ethic from German policy. Germany has no alternative. The Federal
government must now change course in the direction of power politics. Power
also means possessing military capability. Germany no longer has this
capability; everyone here in house knows that. The Bundeswehr cannot defend our
country and it cannot fulfill Germany’s obligations in the alliance. What we
now require is the greatest armaments offensive since the Second World War. That
is not to be achieved in a year, and not with the in fact necessary 100 billion
euros.
Yet the Federal government is also responsible for
sharpening the awareness in our people for a new defense capability. Ladies and
gentlemen, the military service obligation in Germany must be reactivated.
When, if not now? Defense capability is the price of our freedom.
I thank you.
[trans: tem]
