German anxieties grow as Ukraine war continues
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Loading... - Dalila Kettani
- 22 Mar 2022
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In Germany, the sense of crisis is spreading. The obvious indicator of a partly unsettled nation: the empty shelves in supermarkets, hoarding and purchase limits on staples including pasta, flour and yeast. People are hoarding nonperishables again, as they did at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic — but now, instead of toilet paper, sunflower oil is particularly in demand.
OVID, the industry association for oilseed processing in Germany, warns that "restrictions in the flow of goods from sunflower, flax and soy from the conflict region" are to be expected in the coming weeks and months. Russia and Ukraine are among the world's biggest exporters of sunflower oil; Germany covers 94% of its needs through imports.
According to a current survey by the Forsa polling firm, 69% of the 1,000 respondents questioned on February 28, said they feared that NATO, and thus the Bundeswehr, Germany's army, could be drawn into the war. According to the latest Deutschlandtrend poll, numerous respondents are convinced that the conflict will leave its mark on Germany. 64% expect the economic situation to deteriorate.
This war is being observed almost live on social networks and is geographically closer than any military conflict has been for a long time, which is stirring up more and more people emotionally across Germany.
A place to talk about fears
Some concerned Germans have been seeking help from a telephone counseling service. "The inquiries have become very intensive," Christina Zajackowski, of the Cologne phone counseling service, told DW. One in five calls are related to the war; people are afraid it will spill over borders and arrive in Germany. People are afraid "that family members or friends could be killed, that their own home could be bombed as they see in media reports from Ukraine." It's good for callers "to talk about their fears or just to express their worst fantasies," explains telephone counselor Zajackowski.
Younger people who grew up in a peaceful Europe are anxious about the future. But for members of the World War II generation, the images of the destruction in Ukraine are bringing up deep-seated fears.
This generation "suppressed memories of war during peacetime. Now it's all popped up again," Thomas de Vachroi, an official with the Evangelischer Kirchenkreis Neukölln, a Christian religious organization in Berlin, told DW. His organization runs Haus Britz, a facility where many senior citizens live. "They are terribly afraid that at some point the red line will be crossed, that NATO will intervene and then everything will go from bad to worse. I have to tell you honestly that I now see it that way too."
The seniors are not worried for themselves, but for their children and grandchildren de Vachroi said. They say things like "I don't think my grandchildren could cope with a situation like we went through after the war: Surviving the hunger, looking for food from the fields, having no clothes."
Frank Ulrich Montgomery, the chairman of the World Medical Association, warns that people's fears of war need to be taken seriously. "It's important that their feelings are not downplayed," he told theFunke media group. Read More...
