The new disorder into which Russia's war in Ukraine has plunged the world determined this year's Römerberg Talks at the Frankfurter Schauspiel, which under the motto "Never again peace?" to be learned and which solutions are conceivable.
The diagnoses of the scientists and authors present and connected sounded dramatic as expected.
Kerstin Holm
Editor in the Feuilleton.
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The historian Karl Schlögel called Putin a petty, vile dictator and mass murderer who set up a neo-imperial, new-totalitarian, state-capitalist-kleptocratic system that overwhelmed the think tanks.
He was seconded by the writer Viktor Erofeev, who recently left Moscow, who drew Putin's personality as an opportunistic backyard fighter who, even as a secret service agent, despises all morals and who only cares about defeating opponents.
However, Erofeyev also noted that the post-heroic nature of Western European societies convinced Putin of their weakness.
According to the Russian, the contrast between many Europeans and Ukrainians is that the latter are willing to die for European values.
The narcissist destroys the object of his desire
The writer and psychoanalyst Jurko Prochaska joined in from Lemberg in western Ukraine, who reported in elegant, accent-free German that Lemberg, with around 300,000 internally displaced persons, is currently probably the largest refugee city in the world where war injuries and trauma are treated.
Prochaska explained why this war was inevitable.
On the one hand, Putin is leading him to distract from internal problems, such as corruption.
And as a malignant narcissist who has made the "final solution" to the Ukraine question his life's work, he destroys the object of his desire if he cannot conquer it.
But it is also an ideologically justified war by an authoritarian ruler against democracy and a test of which system is more sustainable.
in the guilt complex
Prochaska believes that what made many Germans feel connected to Russia as a result of the Second World War was fear.
The cosmopolitan author also demands more civic responsibility from his Russian acquaintances, who – unlike friends from other countries – have failed to express concern and solidarity towards him.
According to Prochaska, who modified an idea previously expressed by Schlögel, opponents of Putin should also understand that this war is also contaminating Russian culture and will change the way we view it in the long term.
to express concern and solidarity towards him, more civil responsibility.
According to Prochaska, who modified an idea previously expressed by Schlögel, opponents of Putin should also understand that this war is also contaminating Russian culture and will change the way we view it in the long term.
to express concern and solidarity towards him, more civil responsibility.
According to Prochaska, who modified an idea previously expressed by Schlögel, opponents of Putin should also understand that this war is also contaminating Russian culture and will change the way we view it in the long term.
Art historian Charlotte Klonk explained how Ukraine's successful visual propaganda helped to mobilize support for financial and military support in actually pacifist societies.
Destruction and atrocities committed by the Russian army were being broadcast in real time, and the only response from the Russian side was blocking the media and claiming that they were fake.
The conflict is also turning into a "participatory war" thanks to the bot of the Ukrainian public prosecutor's office, to which one can report the possessions of Russian oligarchs.
Since Russia's oligarchs no longer have any influence on Putin, the confiscation of their assets primarily serves to legitimize the sanctions by populists, explained the economist Adam Tooze, who was on board from New York.
But for a solution to the conflict he only sees bad options, says Tooze.
who finds it significant that the United States has revived Ukraine's WWII-era lend-lease program.
America does everything below the threshold of entering the war - supply arms, train, provide logistical support - only other soldiers fight and die.
However, there is no precedent for the declared goal of defeating Russia, i.e. a nuclear power.
The Brit believes there will eventually be a "dirty deal".
How and when that will happen depends on the impressive will to fight of the Ukrainians, who are defending their sovereignty against the nuclear power Russia and who are underestimated by everyone and apparently further underestimated by the old pacifist Habermas, said Tooze.
The political scientist Nicole Deitelhoff therefore formulated it more cautiously: Russia must not win this war and Ukraine must not lose it.