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href="https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/07/30/38f7-j30.html">wsws.org</a>
<h1 class="reader-title">Germany’s military-academic complex
publishes war manifesto</h1>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">9-12 minutes</div>
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<p>On July 20, the German daily <em>Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung</em> (FAZ) published a guest article by 22
academics and soldiers. The statement can only be
described as a war manifesto of the German
military-academic complex.</p>
<figure>
<p><img
src="https://www.wsws.org/asset/54ef723e-a394-4f71-bce7-cab82061ee68?rendition=image1280"
class="moz-reader-block-img" width="802" height="451"></p>
<figcaption>German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, center, arrives
for a visit of the ‘Joint Operations Command’ of the
German armed forces, Bundeswehr, in Schwielowsee near
Berlin, Germany, Friday, March 4, 2022. (AP
Photo/Michael Sohn)</figcaption></figure>
<p>The piece argues for a continuation of the murderous
proxy war in Ukraine, denounces any “desire for an early
ceasefire and political solution” as “dangerous,” and
calls for “the standard and quantity of Western arms
deliveries” to be increased.</p>
<p>The appeal underlines the aggressiveness with which
German imperialism is supporting the NATO proxy war in
Ukraine. The authors explicitly state that there is “no
room for maneuver” for a “ceasefire” or a “diplomatic
solution” in Ukraine. They assert that in order to avert a
Russian “dictated peace”—that is, to defeat the Russian
army in Ukraine—“the firepower and counter-attack
capability in particular” of the Ukrainian military has to
be “massively” strengthened. The aim of the war must be
“to gain time for the sanctions to take effect,” and thus
to limit Russia’s “military power” over the long term.</p>
<p>To justify this agenda, the newspaper draws on the
standard propaganda of the NATO powers and turns reality
upside down. The Kremlin regime “systematically planned
and prepared the war in Ukraine for several years” and
aimed at “destroying Western societies, democratic
political systems and international institutions,” assert
the authors. Russia, they continue, is striving for a
years-long “war of attrition” in Ukraine, and wants to
trigger a recession in Germany “by shutting down the
supply of natural gas.”</p>
<p>If the war is ended by a “hasty ‘diplomatic solution,’”
the authors state in truly Orwellian fashion, “further
serious war crimes and destruction are threatened in
Ukraine.”</p>
<p>In reality, it is the Western powers, including Germany,
that are pursuing a destructive imperialist great power
policy with the war in Ukraine, having “systematically
planned and prepared” the conflict. The NATO powers
encircled Russia following the dissolution of the Soviet
Union and massively built up and modernised Ukraine’s
armed forces after the pro-Western coup in 2014. They
intentionally provoked the Russian invasion. Now they are
using the war to weaken and ultimately subjugate the
resource-rich country so that it can be exploited and
controlled by the imperialist powers.</p>
<p>The “Manifesto of the 22” articulates this unequivocally.
According to the authors, the war in Ukraine “represents
the beginning of a new era, the consequences of which are
still not understood by many.” They continue: “The failure
of the Russian troops” and “the enormous losses inflicted
on the Russian professional army” provide Germany and its
allies with “opportunities for influencing further
developments that must not be wasted.”</p>
<p>The war offensive is directed not only against Russia,
but also against China. The article deplores China’s
“barely veiled sympathy for Russia’s position,” which
shows that “we are at a point in time where the democratic
states are facing an alliance of powerful authoritarian
regimes that seek to eliminate the liberal, rules-based
international order, which rests on collaboration in the
solution of global problems.”</p>
<p>Indeed, under the guise of “freedom” and “democracy,” the
imperialist powers are preparing for a third world war
against the nuclear-armed powers Russia and China. NATO’s
new Strategic Concept states, among other things, that it
will “individually and collectively supply the full
spectrum of armed forces needed for deterrence and
defence, including for high-intensity cross-dimension
warfare against peer competitors possessing nuclear
weapons.”</p>
<p>The danger of a third world war fought with nuclear
weapons does not prevent the signatories of the war
manifesto in the FAZ from demanding that the decisions of
the NATO summit in Madrid be “swiftly implemented.” Behind
the madness are definite imperialist goals. Above all, the
ruling class in Germany sees war as an opportunity to put
its long-developed war and great power plans into action.</p>
<p>Specifically, the paper demands that the German Armed
Forces “play a leading role” within the framework of the
NATO alliance, and “swiftly” implement a military strategy
“for Poland and the Baltic States,” as well as for the
entire “Baltic Sea Region.” In addition, a strategy must
be developed that “points beyond the immediate war.” Given
the “massive mistakes” and “humiliating losses” on the
Russian side, it would be “negligent” to fail to utilise
the “options” presented by the “current Russian weakness,”
the authors argue.</p>
<p>The historical implications of this programme are as
clear as they are far-reaching. By marching once again
into Eastern Europe and waging war in Ukraine in order to
defeat Russia, the German military is reviving its war
goals in the First and Second World Wars. It supports and
arms the political heirs of those forces that cooperated
with the Wehrmacht and the SS in the war of annihilation
against the Soviet Union.</p>
<p>Then as now, a class of academics plays a central and
repulsive role in advancing and ideologically masking the
war policy of the ruling class. Among the signatories of
the war appeal are German professors and chair holders at
the universities of Kiel, Bradford, Bonn and Potsdam, as
well as high-ranking officers and professors at the
military universities in Hamburg and Munich. In addition,
there are members of various geopolitical think tanks and
militaristic training academies. Six signatories alone are
associated with the Institute for Security Policy at the
University of Kiel (ISPK), which is close to the German
Navy.</p>
<p>Many of the authors have been ever-present in the media
since the beginning of the war, put forward to spread the
poison of militarism. Among the most prominent are Carlo
Masala (University of Munich) and Sönke Neitzel
(University of Potsdam), as well as the NATO military
planner and DGAP fellow Heinrich Brauß, the Austrian
analyst Gustav Gressel (European Council on Foreign
Relations) and the propagandist for German nuclear weapons
Maximilian Terhalle (London School of Economics).</p>
<p>Former General Klaus Wittmann, one of the authors,
recently demanded a “Ukrainian counter-offensive” with
German tanks in the southeast of the country in the
right-wing Springer press.</p>
<p>Since 2013, the Socialist Equality Party (SGP) and its
youth organisation, the International Youth and Students
for Social Equality (IYSSE), have warned about the
transformation of universities into centres for militarism
and war propaganda, as occurred prior to the First and
Second World Wars. At that time, the SGP and IYSSE were
the only political organisations to oppose the
militaristic conspiracy in the state apparatus and showed
how the end of Germany’s “military restraint” was
systematically prepared by leading political, military,
media and academic circles.</p>
<p>From the publication of the programmatic paper “New
Power, New Responsibility,” to the issuing of a new German
Armed Forces white paper and the relativisation of the
crimes of the Nazis by Humboldt University Professor Jörg
Baberowski (“Hitler wasn’t vicious”), we demonstrated the
role of professors and academics in the return of German
militarism. Christoph Vandreier, long-time spokesman of
the IYSSE in Germany and the current chairman of the SGP,
explained in his book <em>Why Are They Back?</em> that
“the ruling elite in Germany must relativize and
trivialize the greatest crimes of human history in order
to revive the goals of two world wars.”</p>
<p>At Berlin’s Humboldt University, which plays a central
role in this, the IYSSE is at the forefront of the fight
against the attempts of the university administration to
suppress criticism of right-wing extremist and militarist
positions. The positions of Baberowski and Herfried
Münkler—according to which Germany must become the
“disciplinarian of Europe,” and the Nazi war of
extermination must be seen as an understandable reaction
to the violence of the Bolsheviks—correspond to the policy
of the ruling class.</p>
<p>Under conditions of the concrete danger of nuclear war
and the largest German rearmament programme since the fall
of the Nazi regime, leading government politicians pay
tribute to a Ukrainian ambassador who denies critical
aspects of the Holocaust before a global audience. The
German government’s stated goal is to dominate Europe
militarily and make the EU “a geopolitical player” under
Berlin’s leadership.</p>
<p>Only a powerful international anti-war movement of the
working class can halt the drive to World War Three and
prevent the historical crimes of German imperialism from
being eclipsed by new ones. The strikes, mass protests and
social unrest that have developed all over the world since
the beginning of the war in Ukraine show that the basis
for such a movement is already in the making.</p>
<p>The war-mongering professors and generals are also aware
of this. “The next two years will be very difficult,” they
conclude in their manifesto. “It is with great concern”
that one must state “there are repeated calls for a
political solution or a ceasefire.” In order to counter
the foreseeable social and political eruption, “a
concerted action by all relevant social and political
forces” is required.</p>
<p>The working class must oppose the war conspiracy and the
“concerted action” of the ruling class with its own
programme. The SGP and its sister parties in the
International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)
will do everything in their power to arm the fight against
war, militarism and social misery with a socialist and
internationalist perspective. The task of building these
organisations now assumes the utmost urgency.</p>
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