Switzerland – where to?

Germany ready for war again – 80 years after Nuremberg

by Thomas Scherr*

(21 August 2026) Opinions about “Russia” and “Putin” are shaped by the media and mass psychology. Everyone now “knows” what they are supposed to think.

In Germany, public sentiment is – once again – being whipped up to the point of war hysteria. Top-down. “Putin is on the verge of reaching Berlin”. It is not the level-headed voices, but the hysterical ones that are being echoed in the media. This is exactly what has happened before… It smells of war.

The following takes up ideas that were widely discussed in Europe after the First and Second World Wars. In the face of the dead, the victims and the atrocities, the task set was to prevent such developments in the future. These discussions urgently need to be held again on the brink of an escalation with Russia that is being tacitly accepted.

Back then, the focus was not solely on the victims. Who were those responsible? The Nuremberg trials of major war criminals, held from 20 November 1945 to 1 October 1946, sought to provide a legal reckoning with the Second World War.

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The bellicose rhetoric of the German political leadership is currently causing unease and fear not only amongst large sections of the German population. The populations of neighbouring countries also appear increasingly concerned. But it is not just “Russia” that worries them. They have had to experience Germany’s military might on several occasions: Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France …

What is happening in Germany?

With a brazenness that would have been completely unthinkable just a few years ago, German politicians such as Foreign Minister Wadephul are once again describing Russia as the main enemy that must be defeated. There are even calls for a large-scale missile strike against Russia. In the Baltic states, near the Russian border, German government representatives such as Defence Minister Pistorius, together with German generals, are inspecting parades of German soldiers. In an almost martial manner, Lieutenant-General Freuding, the highest-ranking military officer in the German Bundeswehr, is rallying the soldiers in Lithuania for future missions in the East (https://www.instagram.com/reels/DQLwQOmDGpj/, 23 October 2025). Chancellor Merz states, in a manner that is unambiguously ambiguous, that Germany is “no longer at peace” (29 September 2025).

Added to this is the fact that there has been no serious attempt on the German side to enter into dialogue with the Russian government. There never was, and there isn’t now! Not even one!

The course is being set for war …

Three weeks after the German federal election on 23 February 2025, an amendment to the Basic Law was passed in a surprise move on 18 March with the majority vote of the CDU/CSU, SPD and Green Members of the Bundestag who had already been voted out of office. Only this made it possible to set in motion an initial, colossal war loan worth billions (“special fund”). This would not have been possible with the newly elected Bundestag; the majority required for an amendment to the Basic Law would have been lacking.

Using this ploy – contrary to previous election promises to negotiate with Russia – the course was set for war.

Since then, the German economy has been transformed into a war economy. Parts of the ailing small and medium-sized business sector and industry are being flooded with debt-financed defence contracts. War preparations are in full swing under the code name Operational Plan Germany (OPLAN DEU).

… as if by magic

Boris Pistorius, the German Defence Minister, predicts that war with Russia will begin sometime between 2028 and 2030. It remains unclear whether Pistorius believes that the Russian military is waiting until Germany has armed itself to the teeth for this war, which he himself has heralded. This time, Germany is allied with several European states – with the support of the EU and under Washington’s overall supervision.

Until now, no European government has had the stature to conduct serious negotiations with Russia – with the exception of the recently ousted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

As if by magic, every effort to negotiate a peace settlement is being undermined. An almost successful attempt in the spring of 2022 was thwarted at the last minute by the then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Are the people of Europe being blindly plunged into a war whose scale and consequences they have never been able to seriously contemplate? What does war actually mean today?

Who gave the orders?

If, according to Pistorius, Central Europe is to be transformed into a battlefield and a radioactive wasteland, by the time the country’s sons return home with amputated limbs or suffering from war-induced psychosis in the “fight for ‘our’ country”, or when they bleed to death and perish in some muddy hole – will their mothers and fathers only then take action? Too late once again? Just as in 1917 or 1944?

Ukrainian and Russian mothers are already experiencing this today, day in, day out. But nobody reports on it; we hear nothing about it. Not in Russia, not in Ukraine, not in Germany, not in Switzerland. As if by magic. These are “our” media.

When abject poverty, the first famines and novel epidemics are rampant, will elected politicians only then reconsider their decisions?

When small children are killed by AI-controlled killer drones whilst playing outdoors, will engineers, mechanics and shareholders of arms manufacturers only then reflect on the consequences of their actions?

When, finally, mushroom clouds from ”tactical” nuclear weapons rise above the country – will people only then ask themselves what went wrong, how it came to this, who gave the orders? Who set the course?

Was it those who, whipped up by the media with the “it’s all Putin’s fault” narrative, went along with it? Or those who went along with it because everyone else was, or those who went along with it “only” because they were afraid of the consequences?

There are those responsible

Those responsible – and there are such people – will later claim in court that they knew nothing of any of this, that they were dragged into it… That they themselves had been deceived. That they had been against it from the very beginning. Will it be the same as in Germany after the Second World War?

Every decision has names and faces. There was no state of emergency requiring orders, nor any obligation to obey.

Not yesterday, not today, and no one will be able to claim it tomorrow either.

Do the members of the German Bundestag not swear to “prevent harm to the German people”? Are they not blatantly violating the founding spirit of the two German states, from whose soil “never again war” is to emanate?

Nuremberg 1945–1946

Regardless of whether the decision to go to war arose from political folly, a lust for power, ignorance, blackmail, callousness or corruption, it must be accounted for.

At the Nuremberg Main War Crimes Trial, which ran from 20 November 1945 to 1 October 1946, a war was subject to legal scrutiny for the first time. In the development of the law, alongside the Briand–Kellogg Pact of 1928, this marked a step forward in international law: war was no longer to be regarded as a natural disaster the civilian population must accept as a matter of fate, but as an act underpinned by criminal decisions. The looming threat of a Third World War and a nuclear catastrophe necessitate the further development of international law.

The First World War

As a reminder: a total of around 17 million people died in the First World War. Of these, over nine million were soldiers. Around two million were from Germany, almost 1.5 million from Austria-Hungary, over 1.8 million from Russia, and approximately 460,000 from Italy. France suffered over 1.3 million military deaths, whilst Great Britain suffered around 750,000. In addition, there were around 78,000 deaths in the French colonies and 180,000 in the British colonies. The USA lost around 117,000 men in Europe.

The Second World War

The Second World War began in the autumn of 1939. Fighting subsequently took place across the globe, and war crimes and mass murders were committed. In total, it is estimated that more than 70 million people were killed by August 1945.

The Soviet Union suffered the heaviest losses: around ten million Red Army soldiers were killed or died in captivity. In total, at least 24 million Soviet citizens lost their lives. The largest number of civilians were murdered in China by the Japanese occupying forces.

The forgotten victims and the consequences

When one considers the shockingly high death toll, what is still missing is the extent of the human suffering endured by the survivors that lies hidden behind these figures: the mutilations, the war-induced psychoses and neuroses, the displacements, the brutalisation and neglect, the flight, the hunger, the impoverishment, the mass rapes, and so on.

Recent studies have investigated the individual and mass-psychological consequences of wars. Through the upbringing provided by traumatised parents, wars continue to affect the psyche of subsequent generations. Many researchers suggest it takes between forty and fifty years for the psychological scars of a war to heal.

Stop the madness – remain neutral

It seems like madness when a war is deliberately planned, prepared and finally waged over the course of years, if not decades. In the process, the public is deliberately kept in the dark so that they willingly submit to “their fate”. “Cognitive warfare” is the modern buzzword for this. It is about preparing for war, not about providing accurate information. Since 2014, NATO has systematically established several “information centres” through which it supplies governments and the media across Europe (e.g. the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence in Riga). Switzerland is also affected by this.

During the two previous world wars, Switzerland managed to preserve its neutrality. This was achieved through the tremendous efforts of far-sighted and courageous men and women. Thus, through its Good Offices and the International Red Cross, the country was able to support suffering populations worldwide without itself becoming a party to the war.

It is time for Switzerland to return to its core values.

* Thomas Scherr works as an independent author for the “Swiss Standpoint”.

(Translation “Swiss Standpoint”)