One could have bet that "Zeitenwende" would be the word of the year.

It was close.

After all, it largely turned German politics upside down, or rather: brought it to its senses.

Other things weren't so obvious.

For example, what the “watershed” trigger, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, would all unearth or set in motion.

First of all, there are Vladimir Putin's errors: Ukraine did not collapse militarily, as he thought.

The Russian troops did not march into Kyiv within a few days.

In return, they committed the most serious crimes against the Ukrainian population in the area that they had temporarily occupied;

their leadership has made grotesque tactical errors.

The West stands together

The West, Putin's great demon, has not allowed itself to be divided, but has stuck together like it hasn't done in a long time.

Whether it was the EU, NATO or the G7, he reacted to the Russian aggression with unparalleled and necessary unity and determination.

The West has imposed sanctions on Russia that will set its economy back by years, if not decades, and has provided military aid to Ukraine's survival.

Nothing can change about that.

The sanctions must remain in force and weapons must continue to be supplied.

Putin miscalculated and failed to achieve his goals;

he is the big loser of 2022. That does not lessen the suffering of Ukrainians and the destruction caused by Russian terrorist attacks.

But even the most unscrupulous – and overestimating his own powers – despot has its limits if the opponent is not willing to submit and the democratic world does not abandon him.

Xi is also a loser

The Russian president isn't the only one who looks like a loser.

The abrupt about-face in the Chinese leadership's corona policy is an admission of a major failure.

Leader Xi Jinping's aura has been damaged, as has the regime's legitimacy in general.

The claim that China's ruthless isolation strategy to contain the virus was vastly superior to Western measures was crude propaganda.

Many Chinese no longer believed the communist rulers, fought back and took to the streets.

They're fed up with the bullying and the bullying.

In Iran, too, many young people have taken to the streets and are still doing so.

They no longer want to accept the denial of freedom and the arbitrariness of the state by the Islamist regime.

There was no ambiguity about its authoritarian-repressive character beforehand, and the brutal crackdown on demonstrators only demonstrates its nefarious nature once again.

It cannot wash itself clean of that.

Under George W. Bush, Iran was placed on an axis of evil;

that was controversial.

But goodness does not emanate from the country.

It is too early to predict the demise of the West

The farewell to the democracies of the “political West” is often sung.

It's true: internally, they have to defend themselves against all stripes of extremists and those who hate democracy;

their procedures and institutions are called into question, see America.

From the outside, the democracies are being challenged by authoritarian rivals.

But their attractiveness and efficiency are not what the prophets of the West's decline and the dictators' interpreters suggest.

Democracies will survive the confrontation with the authoritarian model of rule if they stand up and fight for their values ​​and basic principles - credibly and resolutely.

Petty quarrels among themselves must be avoided.

By the way: the expectation that China will soon overtake the USA economically has been mooted for the time being.

Russia's war of annihilation and rivalry with China do not spell the end of intra-Western conflicts of interest.

Europeans are right to complain about Washington's protectionism in the form of huge subsidies for companies that produce in America - even if the goal of introducing climate-friendly technologies is a noble one.

They blame the Americans for the high prices they are allegedly charging for their gas exports.

However, it is the large European dealers who demand surcharges and make a lot of money.

Politics should bring together

Americans, for their part, are dissatisfied with the level and nature of European support for Ukraine;

the Republicans are already banging on the drums accordingly.

In fact, for the first time ever, the total aid pledged to Kyiv by the EU and its member countries has surpassed that of the US (and Germany is the main donor in Europe).

In other words: It is not the time for a policy that ultimately divides, but for one that is geared towards a maximum balance of interests and pools strengths - transatlantic, European, bilateral.

The well-known rhetoric of outrage is superfluous anyway.

Three days after Russia's attack, Chancellor Olaf Scholz outlined the historical dimension of what happened and its significance for Germany in the Bundestag: If the past thirty years are not to remain a historical exception, "then we must do everything we can to strengthen the cohesion of the European Union and to preserve the strength of NATO".

Relationships with friends, partners and other like-minded people around the world need to become even closer.

What Scholz said on February 27 remains valid.

These are good resolutions that should not only guide German politics, but you in particular.

The turning point is a permanent foreign and security policy mandate.

For the whole country and the whole society.