These words were spoken during the Berlin presentation of the book “Das Versagen”, in which journalists Katja Gloger and Georg Mascolo critically analyze German policy towards Russia in recent years.
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What are the main theses of Olaf Scholz's book?
Why does Scholz think Putin wanted war?
What happened in Unterluess near Celle?
How did Germany react to arms supplies to Ukraine?
Scholz expressed his belief that Putin could achieve some of his demands, such as Ukraine's resignation from NATO membership or a ban on the deployment of long-range missiles in Ukraine, without resorting to armed conflict. — All this could have been achieved without war, the Ukrainians would have finally agreed to it, as would all of us. This means that Putin wanted war, said the SPD politician.
Scholz also defended himself against accusations of the slow pace of military aid from Germany to Ukraine in 2022. He stated that such an approach “has little to do with the fact that we have organized real deliveries of weapons.”
Book by Olaf Scholz
As he reported, the Germans analyzed how the Russians would react to the deliveries of particular types of weapons and “it was necessary to test how far they could go.” — There is no code that says “this is one step too far.” This cannot be read anywhere, nor is it taught at the Bundeswehr Command Academy in Hamburg. This is something you have to determine for yourself,” Scholz argued.
The book “Das Versagen. Eine investigative Geschichte der deutschen Russlandpolitik” (Polish: “Failure. An investigative history of German policy towards Russia”) shows how for years warnings against Russia's aggressive course were systematically ignored in Germany.
The book published in 2025 describes, among other things, how joint German-Russian exercises were planned at the turn of July and August 2013 at one of the training grounds north of St. Petersburg. And also how on June 17, 2011, Bundeswehr helicopters transported the Russian delegation, together with the then Russian Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov, to Unterluess near Celle. The parties in Unterluess signed a contract obliging Germany to help in the construction of a military training center in Russia's Mulino in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast, the value of the contract was approximately EUR 135 million. The project was never fully implemented, and closer military ties between Germany and Russia ended when Putin annexed Crimea by force in March 2014.
