Critics say Christine Lambrecht’s minute-long mobile-phone address, dealing with war in Europe, ‘shamed’ the German nation
By Our Foreign Staff 2 January 2023 •
Filmed on the streets of Berlin amid chaotic new year’s celebrations, a video address from the German defence minister posted on social media drew criticism on Monday for its tone-deaf message.
Barely audible above the sound of exploding fireworks, Christine Lambrecht reflected on a year ending with “war raging in the middle of Europe”.
The conflict in Ukraine had led to “a lot of special experiences” and the chance for “many encounters with great and interesting people”, Ms Lambrecht said in the clip posted on her personal Instagram account.
Ms Lambrecht’s new year’s address failed to “hit the right tone” and made the war sound like an “exciting professional experience”, the Tagesspiegel daily wrote.
The minute-long message, filmed on a mobile phone, “shamed” Germany, the Bild daily said.
Ms Lambrecht, a member of German chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats, has faced strong criticism in the media for her response to the Russian invasion and Germany’s sluggish support for Ukraine.
The minister was mocked in Jan 2022 for her announcement that Germany would send 5,000 helmets to Kyiv, when Ukraine was asking for heavy weapons to ward off Moscow.
At a regular press conference, a spokesman for the defence ministry declined to comment on the “private video” put out by Ms Lambrecht. He would only say that “no official resources” were used in the production of the clip.
After two years during which fireworks were banned because to the pandemic, revellers in Germany once again took to the streets to set off thousands of rockets and firecrackers.
The scenes in Berlin provided an uneasy backdrop for Ms Lambrecht’s video at the same time as the Ukrainian capital was the target of Russian airstrikes.
This round of anarchic celebrations led to dozens of injuries and at least one death, with fireworks also aimed at emergency service workers across Germany.
The scale of the chaos left Nancy Faeser, the German interior minister, “stunned and angry”.
Anyone attacking the police or rescue workers “must be punished with the full severity of the law”, she said.
“Ms Lambrecht’s new year’s address failed to “hit the right tone” and made the war sound like an “exciting professional experience”, the Tagesspiegel daily wrote.”
Pathetic and disgusting in its total lack of empathy. Especially when you consider what Germany did to Ukraine in WW2. Almost half the entire Soviet losses were Ukrainians; including 3m Jews, gays, disabled and gypsies murdered by Nazis only 10 years after Russian naziism murdered up to 6m Ukrainians in the Holodomor.
Germany feels no shame for this, has never paid reparations to Ukraine, yet kisses RuZZian arses at every opportunity.
Germany is appalling, yet it spent $2.2 bn in military support to Ukraine, compared to £4.3bn from Britain and a despicable $0.5bn from fucking France.
I agree on the Europeans not giving enough a 100%.
But I think the comparison in terms of dollars of aid is near impossible, as many of these weapons are old stock that will not be replaced. It is completely arbitrary to value this equipment.
For example, the U.S. includes HAWK anti air systems in the amount of aid provided, even though these obsolete systems will never be sold and would require money for its disposal. It even saves them money.
France may have donated only 0,5 billion, but I think in terms of equipment they provided quite a lot of CAESAR systems which are excellent. I do think they just value them less than Germany for example valued their PHZ2000.
For example, Germany may have chosen the price of a new howitzer to replace it while France took into consideration that the CAESARs have aged so are worth less.
I think all countries, except for Poland and the Baltics maybe didn’t do enough and are often delivering the wrong kind of weapons.
For example the T-55s tanks are probably one of the worst tanks in the world, but still money is being spent on it. I would rather have 1 Abram tank than 30 obsolete T-55s tanks.
I think we shouldn’t talk about dollars, because dollars do not win wars. Abrams and F-16’s do!
The T-55s you mentioned were not run of the mill but overhauled upgraded and pretty formidable. Abrams are very thirsty, require a fuel blend and too heavy to traverse some areas of Ukraine trying to go across various bridges but In my opinion they would have a place and some need to be sent if for nothing else bolstering the border with belaruzzia. Leopards also need to finally make it to Ukraine even if they come from Finland. Personally tank wise I would like to see Ukraine get 300 K2s from South Korea.
Correcting my Abrams fuel blend comment, although they can run a variety of fuels they run best on JP4 or JP8 jet fuel.
Christine Lambrecht is as much a real defense minister as I am Charlemagne. I can’t remember when Germany last had a real defense minister. They have jerks and jerkettes in most of the country’s political positions. Only two come to mind that are worth anything, and that is Baerbock and Strack-Zimmermann. It will go down in history, what a deplorable and weak role Germany played in this terrible war. It’s already bad enough having had the two biggest shit nuggets already, Schröder and Merkel, who made this war possible by their ass-giving ruskie politics. Scholz is hardly any better. He’s corrupt and a complete coward.
I honestly hate these German Gauleiters more than Putin.
You cannot blame a psychopath: Putin is a delusional idiot.
These Germans are on the wrong side of history once again and they are fully aware of it. They have every opportunity to do the right thing, but still they choose to do the wrong thing.
Asshole