Der Zeitgeist

Former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany. 😄
 

Germany will send at least one company of Leopard 2A6.
 

Somewhere Eisenhower is spinning in his grave right now. 

Germany will send at least one company of Leopard 2A6.
 

We should all learn from Der Zeitgeist, who throughout all this noise stayed calm and basically said "it'll happen, just be patient".  Many of us, like me, were losing our minds and it's clear we should've just been more patient.

Scholz actually HAS taken this stance. He spelled it out dozens of times since shortly after the beginning of the war. The problem is that nobody believed he was honest with that and/or ridiculed that stance as that of a coward.

Oh, FFS.
 

Germany will send at least one company of Leopard 2A6.
 

Germany will send at least one company of Leopard 2A6.
 

Awesome, it means it will be equipment form BW stock! Hopefully it will also mean no more block for industry selling what they have on their hands.

Germany will send at least one company of Leopard 2A6.
 

Germany will send at least one company of Leopard 2A6.
 

Scholz actually HAS taken this stance. He spelled it out dozens of times since shortly after the beginning of the war. The problem is that nobody believed he was honest with that and/or ridiculed that stance as that of a coward.

Scholz actually HAS taken this stance. He spelled it out dozens of times since shortly after the beginning of the war. The problem is that nobody believed he was honest with that and/or ridiculed that stance as that of a coward.

"The Scholz effect"

"The Scholz effect"

Yes, Morawiecki is criticized for it here as well. Do not make it harder for pro-tank public in Germany (not that it would have any visible influence over Scholz anyway, but I agree it is very unfortunate). Worth to note this was ad-hoc response from interview by one of newspapers, not singled out intent on a specific conference. So we will need to see if they will indeed pursue it as policy.
I think typically NEXTA took it out of context. Probably every other country will fill the receipt for this  military fund for their part, and PM just mean they will fill theirs as well. Nothing extraordinary that allies didn't agreed upon before. However he could be more cautious with timing and wording.

No no. There's this EU mechanism for financing support for UA from which countries can be reimbursed for some of the various costs they took. AFAIK PL has already filled receipts for around 2.2B Euro, though actually got back about 50M. The voices that "we are sending too much, what about our own defense" are heard a bit louder lately, I'm guess this is directed at silencing them.

Oh, FFS.
 

Careful what you wish for. Schmidt wasn't exactly a friend of Ukraine.

Yup, Wehrmacht last stand at the streets of Berlin was indeed illogical to the core, and very "ungerman" I would say.
One of the main thoughts from this book by Sönke Neitzel we and @Der Zeitgeist mentioned was how even strongly left-leaning sailors from Hamburg and Koln actually believed in Hitler. They were absolutelly convinced that his generals and officials were morons and corrupted, and entire NSDAP ideology was empty, yet they all still followed their Fuhrer judgment.
Fortunatelly Russia is still not Germany in 1945. There is internet, society is largely passive and rather oportunistic than ideologically-driven. I am not even sure if complete defeat in Ukraine would necessarly made Putin fall- he would be much weakened, no doubt, but they seem to have no alternative now and his grasp on power is firm. Hell, Russia is so large and indifferent that he could sold Kamchatka to the USA and if only share profits with enough goons, Russians would probbably largely accept it.  A lot of this nationalistic zeal is fake, albeit unfortunatelly growing more real every month.

Nobody knows what the official government stance is right now or if there even is an official government position. I watched the Bundespressekonferenz today and it was completely ridiculous. 
My current theory is that it's mostly domestic intra-SPD pressures on Scholz. 
Scholz himself doesn't seem to have any problem with taking the international criticism and is happy to play the official European Anti-Tank villain, as this keeps him out of trouble with the SPD electorate and also nicely shuts up Mützenich and the rest of the left wing of his party. When Germany eventually does send Leopard 2s, not even the most pacifist SPD guys will say a word because Scholz was simply forced to do so by the warmongering Americans and Poles. Everyone's happy. 😊

I think in these cases, it's always helpful to remember that we're not here as representatives of our respective governments. I feel no need to support or defend Scholz's behavior simply because I'm not the one being adressed when people here are criticizing Germany.
I find that providing some context especially on domestic political realities in a country can be quite important to understand what's going on, especially since these things are often lost in translation through the international media.

Nobody knows what the official government stance is right now or if there even is an official government position. I watched the Bundespressekonferenz today and it was completely ridiculous. 
My current theory is that it's mostly domestic intra-SPD pressures on Scholz. 
Scholz himself doesn't seem to have any problem with taking the international criticism and is happy to play the official European Anti-Tank villain, as this keeps him out of trouble with the SPD electorate and also nicely shuts up Mützenich and the rest of the left wing of his party. When Germany eventually does send Leopard 2s, not even the most pacifist SPD guys will say a word because Scholz was simply forced to do so by the warmongering Americans and Poles. Everyone's happy. 😊

Maybe that's because a behaviour in military matters that is characterized by visible slowness and restraint is exactly how most Germans like their country to approach these matters.
I've said it before, many pages ago in this thread:
The Federal Republic of Germany is not a country with any kind of military decisiveness, whatsoever. Military restraint has been the guiding principle of our foreign policy since the country existed. Sure, other countries might wish that we should finally "grow up" or "become normal" or whatever, but the idea that someone looking for leadership in military policy would ask Germany, of all places, is entirely naive. That's just the way it is.