Mr. Scholz also connected energy policy to security, warning that the country can no longer treat energy solely as a question of the domestic economy or climate change. The government will invest in more renewables, but also in strategic coal and gas reserves. Berlin will fast-track construction of two new liquefied-natural-gas terminals to allow imports from sources other than Russia.

Germany will no longer seek diplomacy with Russia for diplomacy’s sake, Mr. Scholz said. This is perhaps the biggest shift of all, since it requires Berlin to reconceive Germany’s role in NATO. Germans have long viewed themselves as a bridge between the U.S. and Moscow. It is an attitude tinged with anxiety from their position on the front line of the Cold War, as well as guilt over German war crimes along the eastern front in World War II.

Mr. Scholz nodded to that history by emphasizing that Germany’s argument is with Mr. Putin, not the Russian people. That point has the virtue of being true, and it also may help Mr. Scholz bring along pro-Russia members of his Social Democratic Party (SPD) for whom Sunday’s new strategy will be deeply controversial.