Basically, this trail leads back to two elements....the leadership elements of the SPD Party, and this fear of Russian retaliation upon the German homeland.
So to topic number one....if you go to 1919 and review the political spectrum....the election that year centered on 38-percent of the public voting for the SPD Party to lead the nation after the Kaiser left.
They had been around for about 45 years at that point, and identified mostly to a political platform of being Marxist-lite...meaning they were fairly left.
When 1914 came with the war....the party split roughly 50-50. You had pro-war sentiments with some SPD voters, and you had some antiwar sentiments with others.
It's safe to say that the antiwar folks split off in the years of 1914 to 1919, to become the Communist Party of Germany. Yeah, a bit of a shock....one year they were both lined up in terms of ideology, and the next year....all split off
After the war, up until the early 1930s....the SPD Party generally won most of the elections, but they were always in the 35-percent range....meaning most people in Germany weren't thrilled with their promises or platform action.
After 1945, the SPD Party went back to general left-of-spectrum business, and into the mid-1960s....they were pushing the agenda of closer/better relations with the Soviet Union. The sales pitch....a friendly situation meant war would never arrive between the two 'friends'.
From the top dozen folks of the SPD Party today? I would imagine in their mind....the war will end at some point....oil and natural gas from Russia will be turned back on, and friendly relations will occur again. If you asked most Germans at random (on the street)....they aren't that optimistic about Russia or Putin. The old relationship will likely not return in the next forty-odd years.
So, this leadership would say....why offend our 'friend' by releasing twenty to forty tanks to the Ukrainians? If the Bundeswehr (the Army) were the ones deciding this? They'd likely say what idiot would want tanks that are broke 30-percent of the time, and in the garage x-number of days a year?
To the second issue....war escalation? About every week or two via ZDF or ARD (public TV), they bring up nuke war chatter. I'd suggest that one out of every twenty-five Germans has some fear of this and it's continually on their mind.
I think as the 'Cold War' concluded in the early 1990s....a lot of things around the country evolved. On the list of thousand things to worry about....for the typical German....'war' disappeared from that list. Most Germans worried more about wolf attacks than war.
It reached a point with the Merkel-generation where under-funding the Bundeswehr was perfectly acceptable and figured to be a way of showing 'trust' to the Russians....'we-just-aren't-going-to-threaten-you' as being a national policy.
A year into this Ukrainian/Russia war....the idea of tanks crossing the Fulda 'Gap' and invading Germany? Just about impossible with the heavy losses of Russian tank inventories. If you view video of the past month from burned-out tanks....there's even tanks appearing on the battle field from the 1960s era...meaning they've reached a depot point where the reserve situation is bleak.
So what you generally see is a theatrical show.....with SPD leadership talking and stomping their foot....'any day now, we will release the damn tanks'....then grinning a day later while admitting that day of release won't be this month.
It's almost like being in a relationship with a known slut, and she keeps promising you hot 'spicy' sex and all you ever get is a kiss on the cheek.
My advice to the Ukrainians.....you might want to find another 'friend' besides Germany.
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