In the federal election campaign, the Greens and SPD refused to rule out an alliance with the Left Party.
At the time, politicians from both parties spoke openly about the fact that it would be difficult to come to a common denominator in the fields of foreign and defense policy.
Greens and Social Democrats are relieved these days that this option was not on the table.
Left-wing politicians see it that way too.
"If we were in government now - that would be an absolute catastrophe," foreign policy expert Gregor Gysi told the newspaper "Die Welt" in early March.
Sahra Wagenknecht could not agree.
Three weeks after the start of the war, she also considered it "desirable if there were more forces in the German government that would now focus on negotiations and de-escalation rather than on armaments".
Helen Bubrowski
Political correspondent in Berlin.
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Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Left Party was in a desolate state.
The two new party leaders Janine Wissler and Susanne Hennig-Wellsow have not been able to get the internal dispute under control either. The party recorded heavy losses in state elections in East Germany, and in September they only got into the Bundestag thanks to three direct mandates.
The beginning of the war acted as a catalyst.
The gulf between the pragmatists and the ideologues in the party widened even further, and public insults were exchanged.
The first acknowledgment came in the elections in Saarland: the party lost more than ten percentage points and was kicked out of the state parliament.