Editorial
“How can this war end?” he asks star in its latest edition. Gregor Peter Schmitz on peace scenarios and hate in the digital age.
There are books that you have to read. There are books you want to read. And then there are books that you read, for example because they are in the school canon – and then want to read them again and again. “Nothing New in the West” by Erich Maria Remarque is such a book for me. It is about Paul Bäumer, only a few years older than I was when I first read it, drawn into the First World War full of naïve passion, quickly turned into an animal, fatally wounded shortly before the end of the war, “on a day that was so calm and was so quiet that the army report was limited to the sentence “There was nothing new to report in the West”.
The Nazis hated this novel, as did warmongers of all stripes. Almost everyone who knew the war loved the book. It has just been remade, not very well, the film looks like James Bond in the trenches at times, but it vividly shows the horrors of war. He was nominated for an Oscar nine times, probably also because of the timing. You could just cut some scenes next to current pictures from Ukraine and you would hardly see any difference.
One year Ukraine war
After reading this book, no one can seriously say that war is the solution to anything. I felt the same way. And yet I catch myself with sentences like: The war must be prolonged, for example by supplying arms to the Ukraine. That’s what reason says, because a peace now would mean untold suffering for Ukrainian citizens, would reward the aggressor Putin – there is less a parallel with the First World War than with the fight against Hitler in the Second World War. But what does the heart say when you say such sentences? For almost a year we have been living in wartime. While we know that a solution may be further than ever, we need to think about how this conflict could end. Keeping this in mind is not capitulation and not downplaying aggression. It helps us not to lose hope.
A year of war also means a year of human suffering. Thanks to donations from readers, the Stern Foundation has so far been able to help the people affected with over one million euros. In Germany, for example, together with the German Children’s Fund, we distributed 2,400 school satchels including basic equipment to refugee boys and girls to make their arrival in their new everyday life a little easier. In addition to working with larger aid organizations such as Caritas and Care, it is important to us to support smaller organizations whose work our reporters have been able to experience. An example of this is the Ukrainian organization “Proliska”. Help us to continue to help.
digital hate
Last week I was a guest on the talk show. After Brokstedt’s terrible knife attack, the topic was migration. In spite of all the criticism of the act and of migration failures, I allowed myself to point out that by no means all migrants are potential violent criminals, and that statistically there is no explosion of violence in Germany. After that, a digital hate storm broke over me, culminating in the sentence that I was wished “really seriously that it happens to you or your family personally”. Others looked forward to a “tribunal and the day of reckoning for all enemies of Germany”.
After this experience, I still can’t imagine the hatred many “non-organic Germans” have to endure every day. But unfortunately guess.
Cordially you,
Gregory Peter Schmitz
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
