Who could have anticipated such a twist in Germany’s fraught relationship with its dark past? The German government is coming under increasing pressure to break free of the constraints of German guilt. And it is Turkey that wants the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to deliver the reversal.
On a visit to Germany earlier this month, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, standing next to Scholz in Berlin, claimed that Germany was too absorbed by historical remorse to grasp the reality of the Middle East. Before his arrival in Germany, Erdoğan had called the Hamas terrorists “freedom fighters” and said that Israel’s legitimacy was in doubt due to its “own fascism”. Scholz had staunchly resisted calls to cancel the visit, but made clear before Erdoğan’s arrival that he considered the president’s view of the conflict “absurd”.
What followed was an awkward visit that highlighted how tricky the navigation of German foreign policy has become. Erdoğan is fully aware of his leverage in Berlin: almost 3 million people in Germany are of Turkish heritage. Ankara provides close to 1,000 mosques in Germany with imams. Turkey is a vital partner in Nato’s support for Ukraine, providing drones and keeping the Black Sea open for grain exports. And Germany, most importantly, wants Turkey to control irregular migration in the Mediterranean to avoid another refugee crisis.
The two leaders avoided a public falling-out in Berlin, but back in Ankara, Erdoğan told Turkish news outlets that the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was clearly in a “crusader mindset”, and that was also true for “the other one”, referring to Scholz. Erdoğan is known for his disregard for diplomatic decorum, so Scholz decided to simply shrug off the remark.
Still, the episode points to a bigger problem. Germany’s almost unconditionally pro-Israeli stance brings Berlin into conflict with many of its essential partners. Only last year, the vice-chancellor and economic affairs minister, Robert Habeck, travelled to Qatar to purchase large quantities of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to make up for sanctioned Russian gas. Qatar is Hamas’s most important backer. The Gulf emirate is also deeply invested in German brands such as Volkswagen, Porsche, Siemens and Deutsche Bank.
There’s more: in the spirit of “de-risking” and diversifying the German economy’s overdependence on China, Scholz has been courting the rising powers of the so-called global south, including Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa. These nations take different positions on Hamas terrorism, but all of them see the Palestinian struggle in terms of their own postcolonial history. South Africa’s parliament even voted to close the Israeli embassy, while the president, Cyril Ramaphosa, accused Israel of war crimes and acts “tantamount to genocide”.
The faultlines between the west and the global south had already become obvious last year in the reactions to Russia’s war in Ukraine, when many countries refused to take sides. Now Israel’s war in Gaza threatens to deepen these divisions. Germany, with its dogged insistence on Israel’s right to self-defence, even in the face of Gaza’s devastation, finds itself in an increasingly tough spot.
What is behind the German posture? Let’s be clear: the German political establishment is not captive to an oppressive mindset that limits its ability to speak out against Israel. This is a dangerous conspiracy theory that needs to be debunked.
The idea that Germany suffers from an overdose of Vergangenheitsbewältigung – the German term for dealing with the Nazi past – is not new. The extreme right has claimed for decades that Germany is overly politically constrained by national shame. In that vein, the far-right party AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) dismisses Germany’s culture of remembrance as a mere Schuldkult (cult of guilt). AfD, polling at about 20% nationwide, wants to de-emphasise the darker aspects of our heritage and focus on the bright side of our history.
Surprisingly, the originally hard-right refutation of our historical responsibility has become popular on the other side of the political spectrum. “Free Gaza from German guilt” is now a popular slogan shouted by leftwingers on pro-Palestinian marches in Berlin.
When the hard right, the left and an autocrat (who denies Turkey’s genocide of the Armenians) combine forces, you know there is something wrong. Let’s be clear: German politicians do not need to wrestle free of history to navigate the debate on the Gaza war. It is a myth that Germany is uncritical in its support of the Israeli government.
When Israel used excessive violence in earlier Gaza wars, Germany raised public concerns. Berlin has constantly criticised the expansion of settlements. More than a decade ago, the then foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, called the situation in Hebron (in the occupied West Bank) “apartheid”. Berlin has supported the Palestinian Authority with over €1bn, and is among the top donors to Unwra, the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees.
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There was never any love lost between either the Merkel or Scholz governments and Benjamin Netanyahu. Angela Merkel knew he was working with Donald Trump to kill off the nuclear deal with Iran behind her back. And that he was lying about his acceptance of two states. Nobody involved with the Middle East dossier in Berlin trusts Netanyahu. Politicians in Berlin roll their eyes at the suggestion that they are in Israel’s pocket.
So what accounts for the dogged support Berlin extends to Israel in its war against Hamas? You must look beyond immediate crisis. Germany’s foreign policy establishment has suffered a deep shock, indeed the second one, after last year’s realisation that Russia could not be appeased by diplomatic overtures, pipeline deals and “change through trade”. Germans had been told they were “surrounded by friends”, as Helmut Kohl put it. They woke up ill-equipped to face a world of sworn enemies. Russia pulverised decades of German Ostpolitik when it attacked Ukraine, and with it the European postwar order.
Similarly, Germany had pushed for diplomacy to deal with Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions. Berlin was a major sponsor of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement with Tehran. Germany refused to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terror organisation to save the deal.
Then the Gazan member of Iran’s axis of resistance attacked Israel on 7 October. The Jewish state is trapped in a pincer movement between Hamas and Hezbollah – and the possibility of a wider war. This is an existential crisis for Israel.
The cornerstones of Germany’s foreign policy have crumbled. Engagement with Russia and Iran has failed. This is the view from Berlin: these two powers must be stopped, and that includes the destruction of Hamas. This is the reason for Germany’s staunch support of Israel’s war against Hamas, notwithstanding the deep distrust of Netanyahu – and the wish to see him gone as soon as hostilities end.
Joerg Lau is an international correspondent for the German weekly Die Zeit
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