That was close.
A diplomatic conflict between Berlin and Kyiv dragged on for more than three weeks, which would have put a considerable strain on cooperation even in peacetime.
But now that Ukraine is at war with Russia, the tussle between Presidents Steinmeier and Zelenskyy has been doubly unfortunate.
So it's good that the two finally picked up the phone and, according to the President's Office, cleared up the irritation.
Steinmeier and Scholz were therefore invited to Kyiv.
That was the gesture that Scholz in particular was waiting for.
Even if Germany may not support Ukraine militarily to the extent that the Ukrainian people fighting for their freedom and survival and their political leadership would like, Berlin is clearly on Ukraine's side: with money, with weapons, with the reception of refugees.
Berlin could not accept that its head of state, who was supposed to take part in a trip to Kyiv together with the presidents of the Baltic states on a Polish initiative, was told that it was not welcome.
What was Zelenskyy up to?
What exactly prompted Zelenskyy to declare the president of a friendly state an undesirable person in April has not yet been worked out.
That's going to take time.
In war there are more urgent things.
Steinmeier himself has now recognized that during his time as foreign minister he looked all too benevolently at Russian President Putin and ignored many warnings from Ukraine and other Eastern European countries.
However, Selenskyj will probably not deal too intensively with coming to terms with the past at the moment.
Rather, he wants to put pressure on the largest and economically strongest country in Europe, which can gradually deliver more militarily than it initially claimed, so that it provides as much aid as possible.
The end of the World War can now be commemorated in Kyiv without German-Ukrainian dissonance.