star editor-in-chief
A year that taught us to fear – Gregor Peter Schmitz looks back on the year
The star-Year-end booklet
© star
The star-Editor-in-chief looks back on the year 2023 – and the year-end issue. He sees crises and wars. But also people who give us hope.
Another year is coming to an end, and once again I feel the need to pause for a moment and take a deep breath. And again I think: What a terrible year. In 2020 and 2021, the coronavirus kept the world in suspense and killed at least seven million people. At the beginning of 2022, Russia’s brutal attack on the Ukraine everything in one fell swoop. And where are we today? The war in Ukraine is about to enter its third year and has become a grueling, casualty-laden trench war in an increasingly exhausted country, with no end in sight. On the world stage, the big players are more hostile towards each other than they have been in decades. Heat waves, fires and record rainfall remind us that the climate catastrophe is no longer a dystopian vision of the future, but has long since begun.
And all of this was suppressed in our perception by the barbaric attacks by Hamas on Israel on October 7th – never since 1945 have so many Jews been so brutally murdered in one day. Yes, Israel and its people have experienced great solidarity since then. But all over the world, people of the Jewish faith are once again living in deep fear. Anti-Semitism, often disguised as criticism of Israel, breaks out openly in many places. Even in the middle of Germany, Jews are taking down their doorbells and hiding their skullcaps and Star of David because they don’t want to be recognized and have lost trust that this country can protect them. I find that shameful. And the Israeli army’s brutal response to the Hamas massacres has brought incredible suffering to the civilian population of the Gaza Strip. This year taught us fear again.
We subtitled our 2022 special issue “Turning of Times” – Chancellor Olaf Scholz used this term to define the dimension of the challenges and it became the “Word of the Year”. In 2023, the new Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has thrown another cumbersome term at the Germans’ feet: the country and its people must achieve “war-fighting capability.” In a conversation with my colleagues Benedikt Becker and Miriam Hollstein, Pistorius takes stock of his first year in office and his attempts to make Germany and its often ridiculed army sufficiently defensive for this harsh world (page 20). Andreas Hoidn-Borchers is dedicating himself to another, no less important challenge. 2023, he writes, “could prove to be the year in which something crucial is shaken.” Because trust in democracy and the party system is collapsing “at a gallop”, the poll numbers for the AfD of over 20 percent nationwide are a disturbing sign (page 32).
2024 will not be an easy year either
But Hoidn-Borchers also asks: “Did tens of thousands freeze to death in their icy apartments in the winter? Did BASF and Bayer have to stop production? Are there masses of ragged and emaciated people standing on the streets begging?” The answer is of course a triple no. At the end of this year we must not forget this either: many things went well, the often criticized politicians solved some tasks better and more efficiently than expected, we are entering the winter more relaxed than a year ago, inflation is falling, the economy is recovering Kick. That should give us confidence despite all our despondency. We will be able to use them. Because let’s not kid ourselves: 2024 won’t be an easy year either. We should have our courage and determination together.
If you now look back on 2023 with this issue, you will see: There are also moments of joy and people who give us hope. I wish you a peaceful turn of the year, confidence, courage and always moments in which this life just feels good.