Between Guilt and Responsibility: The Legacy of Spheres in Germany

Abstract

History sometimes has a way of repeating itself. Russia’s war against Ukraine marks the definite return of spheres of influence on the European continent. A new Iron Curtain is descending. This time, the frontier is further east than it was during the Cold War. It runs from Belarus to the North to the Black Sea in the South—and the exact line of the front is as yet unclear. Will it run through and divide Ukraine? Will it encompass Moldova? The current Russian regime sees all these countries and territories as “theirs”—not only as within their sphere of influence, but also as a sphere of occupation, wherein Russia’s imperial ambitions are impressed on these countries with brutal military force. The return of spheres of influence evokes particularly negative memories in Germany. Divided Germany was on the frontlines of the Cold War. The Iron Curtain ran right through Germany—from Lübeck to the North to Neustadt bei Coburg in the South. And crucially, it ran through Berlin. Thirty-two years later, this divide is less visible in the city’s landscape to the untrained eye. Stretches of former no-man’s land have been rebuilt with modern architecture. But the divide is still there: Berlin has two zoo parks—East and West. Two Berlin State libraries. And one can walk along the Northern border-crossing checkpoint near Bornholmer Strasse, one of the first to open its gates in 1989, under beautiful cherry trees donated by Japan to celebrate German reunification. Why does this matter? It matters because the history of divided Germany and of its reunification helps to understand Germany’s reaction to Russia’s war in Ukraine—and to the return of spheres of influence in Europe. On March 13,