This summer could be the last one in peace,” said military historian Sönke Neitzel in the spring of 2025. Not a threat. Not scaremongering. Simply his sober assessment of the global political situation.
It was a contradictory summer. Cafés and bars were full, a murmur of voices filled the air, bursts of spontaneous laughter echoed between the buildings. In the parks, people sweated under the sun, cooling their feet in the cold water of a stream. Music drifted from Bluetooth speakers and open-air clubs.
A sense of freedom, seemingly without limits.And yet, hanging over it all was a veil of concern. For a long time, peace in Europe had been taken for granted, and prosperity had seemed to know no bounds.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the latest, that feeling had cracked. Perhaps that was why we were living in a kind of “all the more” attitude, an attempt to suppress the looming threat. Perhaps it was a summer we would later look back on with nostalgia. Or perhaps it had simply been another summer like any other.
This summer could be the last one in peace,” said military historian Sönke Neitzel in the spring of 2025. Not a threat. Not scaremongering. Simply his sober assessment of the global political situation.
It was a contradictory summer. Cafés and bars were full, a murmur of voices filled the air, bursts of spontaneous laughter echoed between the buildings. In the parks, people sweated under the sun, cooling their feet in the cold water of a stream. Music drifted from Bluetooth speakers and open-air clubs.
A sense of freedom, seemingly without limits.And yet, hanging over it all was a veil of concern. For a long time, peace in Europe had been taken for granted, and prosperity had seemed to know no bounds.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the latest, that feeling had cracked. Perhaps that was why we were living in a kind of “all the more” attitude, an attempt to suppress the looming threat. Perhaps it was a summer we would later look back on with nostalgia. Or perhaps it had simply been another summer like any other.