Anne Will: Rags fly between Ralf Stegner and Hedwig Richter

TV debate
“Broken tank pacifism” of the SPD? Ralf Stegner doesn’t want to let that sit with “Anne Will”.

Prepare for peace – What lessons does Germany draw from the turning point? “Anne Will” discussed this question with her guests on Sunday evening. It quickly got heated. Especially between history professor Hedwig Richter and the SPD member of the Bundestag Ralf Stegner flew the shreds.

Guests at “Anne Will” were:

In order to make himself heard, Richter also liked to call in on Sunday evening. “Of course there is a lack of political will behind it,” Stegner interrupted when he explained that his party would not stand in the way of better equipment for the Bundeswehr, but that this could not be implemented “overnight”.

Ralf Stegner sees no fault in the SPD

The role of the SPD must be classified with a view to the state of the Bundeswehr, Richter found. From her point of view, the Social Democrats had long “operated on a broken tank pacifism,” she said. The attitude prevailed among the Social Democrats: “There is somehow the Bundeswehr and we also have to invest in it, but it shouldn’t work.”

When Will once again formulated the accusation of a lack of political will directly at Stegner, he finally replied: “The defense ministers of the last 16 years were not Social Democrats, but Christian Democrats.” Attaching to the SPD that the Bundeswehr is in a bad state is accordingly “somewhat shortened”.

It rattled again between Richter and Stegner after Will quoted from the “2016 White Paper on Security Policy and the Future of the Bundeswehr”. Among other things, it said that Russia was openly questioning the European peace order.

Historian Richter: Politicians should have acted earlier when it came to Bundeswehr equipment

He was bothered by “the nine-times clever” who always said they knew everything, Stegner noted. Putin’s war of aggression last year surprised many. In his view, the response to the offensive was “very sensible” by supporting Ukraine and also ensuring that energy prices did not plummet.

“It’s not that everyone knew everything better,” Richter intervened. By 2014 at the latest, however, politicians should have acted with a view to equipping the Bundeswehr. In a democracy, it’s not just about looking at polls, it needs “courageous politics,” according to the historian.

Stegner didn’t leave it that way. Nobody spoke of surveys, he explained. Elsewhere, he explained that it is important that the democratic majority is retained in society, so that parties like the AfD do not grow.

“Historians always know what was wrong when they look backwards”

Richter not only wanted courageous politicians to have better equipment for the Bundeswehr. The historian also called for more open, clearer communication. The turning point means concrete changes for the population and this should also be communicated. “There will be unreasonable demands on us,” said Richter.

Drastic words that Stegner quickly put into perspective: “One shouldn’t pretend that science knows what to do!” said the SPD man. “Historians always know what was wrong by looking backwards,” he added.

Hard to believe: Richter and Stegner actually agreed on one point on Sunday evening. Both vehemently rejected Colonel André Wüstner’s choice of words, who recently spoke of a “war economy”.

“That’s a term that doesn’t work!” Stegner explained, and Richter also said that she didn’t think the choice of words was “right” because it sounded like enthusiasm for the war, which she really didn’t think was predominant.

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