Johann Thießen was born in Russia in 1954 and has been practicing as a gynecologist in Kassel since 1991.

Since 2006 he has headed the national team of Germans from Russia and has been its national chairman since 2018.

Ralph Euler

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung, responsible for the Rhein-Main section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

  • Follow I follow

Mr. Thießen, war against Ukraine, hatred of the West and NATO, threat of nuclear weapons – would you have believed Vladimir Putin capable of that two weeks ago?

The situation has gotten worse and worse over a long period of time, but hardly anyone expected such a horror scenario.

Even the people of Russia are shocked by this war, right in the middle of Europe, right on our doorstep.

Perhaps we in Germany and in the West as a whole, in our striving for a peaceful Europe, for a strengthening of democracy, overlooked or didn't want to see how the disaster had crept up.

Around four million Germans from Russia live in Germany, around 260,000 of them in Hesse alone.

You are the federal chairman and the Hessian state chairman of the Landsmannschaft der Deutschen from Russia, which represents almost 30,000 of them.

How do their members react to Putin's breach of international law?

I cannot speak for all Russian Germans in Germany.

But many of those who have come together in our 14 national groups and the 120 local and district groups are appalled by Putin's actions.

Many have friends and relatives in Ukraine or have even lived there themselves.

I came to Germany in 1991, my ancestors come from the Ukraine and were deported from there after the start of the Second World War.

My mother dreamed of beautiful Ukraine until her death.

What is happening there is incomprehensible to all of us.

The Landsmannschaft represents Germans from Russia and Ukraine.

Are there differences between them in their assessment of Putin?

Yes.

Some families - the man comes from Russia, the woman from the Ukraine, or the woman comes from Russia, the man comes from Germany - are split.

Many Germans from Russia tune in to the Russian state television stations and fall for their propaganda.

The Landsmannschaft is trying to counter this with their networks and information.

Does that mean there are also tensions among the Russian-Germans?

This was especially true before the war broke out in Ukraine.

I know of marriages that have broken up because of it.

But now it's different.

The invasion of the Russian troops in the Ukraine is condemned by a very large majority.

The suffering that Russian soldiers inflict on the most vulnerable - the elderly, women and children - is unjustifiable.

That is why the Landsmannschaft and many individuals also support or organize fundraising for the people of Ukraine.

But doesn't everyone think so?