The sad reality is that Germany has fallen to a form of establishment capture. In both mainstream and fringe parties (AFD and Die Linke), Russian influence now runs deep. Among the many pernicious pieces of Kremlin propaganda that has seeped into German political discourse is the idea that the country must remain neutral out of some kind of ‘collective guilt’ for the Nazis’ barbarism in the Soviet Union.

And whatever Scholz’s government says about ending oil exports by the end of 2022, that doesn’t change the reality that it’s German money funding Putin’s bloodthirsty war of aggression. Every drop of oil Berlin buys from Russia is effectively paying for the destruction of Ukraine and the death of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. Every Germany product, every plate of German food and glass of beer is coming at the expense of a fellow European nation struggling to defend its very statehood. And if the Russians can buy hundreds of high-tech tanks with one month’s oil revenues, just imagine what they could do with eight months’ worth.

In German there is a phrase for when one feels a sense of sadness and melancholy for the discovery that they don’t live in an idealised world – Weltschmerz. It’s a feeling that more and more Germans will soon have to come to terms with.