When authorities leaders in Saxony realized that Rheinmetall, Germany’s most outstanding arms producer, was contemplating constructing a brand new munitions manufacturing facility within the former East German state, they noticed visions of financial increase.
It was an opportunity, they thought, to capitalize on town’s storied airfield — dwelling to the Crimson Baron in World Conflict I, the Nazis in World Conflict II and the Soviets within the many years that adopted — to usher in tons of of jobs and a slice of a enormous infusion of federal funds to rebuild Germany’s depleted armed forces.
Some within the chosen metropolis of Grossenhain, with a inhabitants approaching 20,000, noticed it otherwise.
Sixteen of twenty-two members of the Metropolis Council signed a letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz urging him to dam the mission. The native wing of Different for Germany, or AfD, the resurgent far-right political social gathering, held a rally in June the place audio system railed towards arms gross sales to Ukraine. Residents lined as much as signal a petition circulated by town’s Left Occasion.
“We reject an additional economic-military use after years of navy use,” the petition learn. “We don’t need to be concerned in wars everywhere in the world in a roundabout means.”
Maybe simply dismissed as small-town politics, the revolt in tiny Grossenhain in truth reveals far bigger unease amongst some Germans, significantly within the former Communist East, about their nation’s dedication to arming Ukraine, regardless of the chancellor’s professed “Zeitenwende,” or turning level, towards a extra assertive international coverage.
Help for that pivot has been muted by the many years East Germany spent as a Soviet satellite tv for pc through the Chilly Conflict, which left the area with each a lingering worry of Russia and an affinity for it.
Extra broadly, many Germans nonetheless maintain a deep aversion to warfare and to protection spending in a rustic whose Nazi previous has made it reluctant to spend money on navy energy. The view from Berlin is one factor; the political realities on the bottom are one other.
“Numerous individuals are coming from the ’80s, or the ’70s, or the ’60s — that, ‘We don’t need weapons anymore. We don’t need a military anymore. This isn’t wanted anymore. We need to dwell in peace with Russia,’” mentioned Sebastian Fischer, a member of Saxony’s state legislature who held listening periods with voters about their considerations concerning the manufacturing facility. “It’s very troublesome to elucidate to folks why we must always defend Ukraine.”
The opposition to a proposed manufacturing facility in Grossenhain started virtually instantly after Rheinmetall’s chief government, Armin Papperger, mentioned in an interview in January that he was in discussions with the federal authorities about constructing a powder munitions plant in Saxony to fulfill a surge in demand brought on by the efforts of Kyiv and its Western allies to withstand the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Some in Grossenhain feared that the manufacturing facility would anger President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who spent practically 5 years as a Ok.G.B. agent in close by Dresden, and make their metropolis a navy goal.
“He is aware of precisely the place the airfield is,” Kerstin Lauterbach, town councilor from the Left Occasion who led efforts to protest the manufacturing facility, mentioned of Mr. Putin. “The inhabitants could be very, very delicate to such arguments. The historical past and the powder manufacturing facility — it’s inseparable.”
Right this moment, the 360-acre airfield, the biggest tract of industrial-use land in japanese Germany, is dwelling to warehouses and a small flight membership, however outdated Soviet helicopters and jets nonetheless relaxation on the edges of the runways.
Grossenhainers keep in mind the Soviet presence as typically menacing, recounting tales of the bottom siphoning residents’ electrical energy and producing a persistent din of jets roaring overhead. However the base’s very existence additionally instilled worry.
Caught between two nuclear powers, the Soviets to the east and the Individuals to the west, Grossenhainers fretted that the air base would put them on the entrance strains if nuclear warfare broke out. Data later launched by the C.I.A. present that Individuals did, in truth, scrutinize town and base within the early Nineteen Fifties, with officers submitting reviews on the exercise there.
Ms. Lauterbach was horrified by the concept the airfield would return to navy use. When the Soviets left, residents “have been relieved that there was not a navy there,” she mentioned.
As a leftist, Ms. Lauterbach mentioned that she was against all arms gross sales — not simply ones to Ukraine — and that she condemned “the warfare of aggression” by Russia.
But Ms. Lauterbach mentioned she positioned some blame with European and American leaders for failing to resolve the battle “peacefully” earlier than it changed into a sizzling warfare. “I can think about that Putin is feeling squeezed,” she mentioned, “as a result of NATO is slipping nearer and nearer.”
Armin Benicke, a former pilot, turned a outstanding voice opposing the manufacturing facility, arguing that it was unsafe to construct a plant producing chemical substances so near town. He mentioned he supported efforts to rearm Germany however was sad to see Berlin ship a lot assist to Ukraine when Germany’s personal economic system was struggling.
“This particular fund for the Bundeswehr — 100 billion with the intention to now purchase a good quantity of weapons,” Mr. Benicke mentioned, utilizing the identify for the German armed forces and referring to euros. “I say that’s a mistake, as a result of the weapons you purchase go to Ukraine.”
Jens Lehmann, who represents Saxony within the German Parliament, mentioned in an interview that many years of commerce and “socialization” with the Soviets through the Chilly Conflict had left many East Germans with a “pragmatic” view of Russia.
“Folks have been buying and selling with Russia for the reason that finish of” World Conflict II, mentioned Mr. Lehmann. “Even after German reunification, we at all times acquired low cost and dependable Russian fuel. That’s why folks say concerning the warfare, ‘We have now to barter, we’ve got to discover a diplomatic means.’”
Little info was made out there to the general public about what a manufacturing facility in Grossenhain would appear to be, permitting rumors to run rampant. Dirk Diedrich, Saxony’s commissioner for strategic funding tasks, mentioned that he and different state leaders have been shut out of discussions with Rheinmetall.
“What made it very troublesome for us is that we couldn’t put information into the discussions,” Mr. Diedrich mentioned. “Nobody might say what precisely are the plans of the corporate.”
If these discussions had taken place, he mentioned, “We might have satisfied the bulk that this can be a good funding.”
As a substitute, the AfD social gathering, categorized in Saxony as a suspected right-wing extremist group, seized on the controversy. Practically 200 folks attended its rally, carrying cardboard hearts within the social gathering’s signature blue that learn “PEACE!”
André Wendt, an AfD member of Saxony’s state parliament, accused Western governments of “placing us all in danger” and “mobilizing for warfare” by sending arms to Ukraine.
“It’s scandalous and ahistoric when the media celebrates the transfer of German Leopard tanks towards Russia in newsreel trend and critics of those arms deliveries and this warfare are portrayed as extremist,” Mr. Wendt mentioned in a speech on the rally.
The scene prompted fuming from politicians who noticed the prospect of a multimillion-euro manufacturing facility as a possibility to draw Western corporations which are more and more constructing in japanese Germany. Early estimates advised that Rheinmetall’s manufacturing facility would have introduced an funding of about $840 million and as many as 600 jobs to the area.
Ultimately, Rheinmetall determined towards constructing a brand new manufacturing facility — not less than for now — in favor of increasing its current plant on Germany’s southern border. It was an financial determination, Mr. Papperger mentioned, concluding {that a} new plant could be commercially viable solely with an enormous new contract or a serious infusion of state assist.
Mr. Lehmann mentioned that was a disgrace. “The large corporations are in Munich, in North Rhine-Westphalia, in Berlin, in northern Germany, someplace on the coast. However within the east, there are comparatively few protection and safety corporations.”
“With the Zeitenwende, there’s a political will to develop the safety and protection trade,” he added. “It could be a pity if this didn’t occur someplace in japanese Germany.”
