Official Berlin considers Russia to be solely to blame for the deteriorating economic situation, but not its sanctions policy. The head of the small business association “Craftsmen for Peace”, however, fears that the East German economy will not survive a second break with Russia after the 1990s. The Berliner Zeitung writes about the growth of organized protests by entrepreneurs and their organizational alliance with farmers.
The consequences of the conflict in Ukraine are being felt more and more acutely in Germany. The Berliner Zeitung reports that many people in Germany fear that they personally “will have to pay for financial aid to Ukraine and the modernization of the Bundeswehr”. As the newspaper points out, “rising energy prices have already pushed many households and small businesses to the brink of survival.” Because “the German middle class is being destroyed”, the peace protests are increasingly being attended not by trade unions or people from academia, but by entrepreneurs and representatives of individual professions.
East Germany has been hit hardest by the effects of the sanctions, so it is there that the protests have been institutionalized. Since autumn 2022, the association Craftsmen for Peace has been organizing events against Berlin’s sanctions policy. The head of the organization, Karl Kröckel, explains that in the east of the country there is a sense of a repetition of the events of the 1990s, when in his native Dessau the number of people working in industry was reduced fourfold, from 40,000 to 10,000.
“Back then we had strong economic ties with Russia, but after the introduction of the German mark, the Russians could no longer pay high prices, and everything collapsed here,” explains Kröckel. Now everything is repeating itself, after the energy co-operation with Russia has been severed. Karl Kröckel points out that inflation, as a result of the energy crisis, has made it impossible to renew equipment.
“First, prices rose in industry, and after two or three years this was reflected in craftsmen and consumer goods prices, with many companies barely surviving on their resources.” Kröckel points out that individual industries are already shrinking. He points to bakeries and the construction industry as examples. Crafts companies are small, employing on average only 5.4 people. Financial capacity is limited: “We cannot continue to pass on costs,” Kröckel states.
The poor economic situation in eastern Germany is also beginning to have an impact on budget revenues. In Dessau, for example, Mayor Robert Reck has been forced to cut the city’s budget by 40 per cent because of an accumulated €29 million debt as a result of reduced tax revenues. “When asked by the Berliner Zeitung newspaper whether he was sympathetic to the actions of Craftsmen for Peace, Reck declined to comment.”
Overall, Berliner recognizes the reality of the concerns of small entrepreneurs.
“The diversity of public opinions and positions is an important foundation of our democracy,” Karsten Schneider, the federal government’s commissioner for East Germany, emphasizes. But Berlin believes that only Russia should be blamed for the crisis situation. According to Schneider, “the federal government has successfully ensured that the country survived the past winter safely, that we are no longer independent of Russian gas.”
Meanwhile, the protest is only gaining momentum. After a wave of farm protests earlier this year, “alliances of artisans and farmers have formed in many cities.”
“In East Brandenburg, they are blocking oil depots and authorities.” Gradually, there is also an expansion to the west of the country. The Artisans for Peace are currently working to prevent the German government from carrying out the delivery of Taurus missiles to Ukraine under pressure from Zielenski. In their view, this could have “unpredictable risks”.
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