This black-and-white photograph is from the 1929/30 winter when Germans sought refuge from the cold in communal "Wärmestuben", as heated homes were luxuries only the rich could afford. History may be repeating itself this winter.
Europe, and Germany in particular, is in a mess. In order to go green, nuclear and coal plants were shut down, as was gas production, and energy supplies were outsourced to Russia. Out of sight, out of mind, and better for the environment ... the political environment, anyway.
Now that they have sanctioned Russia, where else can Europe buy its energy from? No one can meet the shortfall, especially in the short term. Even if the gas supplies were out there, the infrastructure doesn't exist to import it. So the Europeans had to slink back to the Russian for their gas, but the price had since shot up because of the crisis. It’s one of the dumbest policy moves ever. You don’t make a continent reliant on Russian gas, then sanction it, and then buy it at a much higher price.
No country in Europe is more dependent on Russia than Germany which began to import almost all its energy from there during those chummy fluent-Russian-speaking-Merkel-in-love-with-fluent-German-speaking-Putin years. Nord Stream 2 has already been scrapped, and Nord Stream 1 has just been shut down by the Russians for "maintenance" with the harsh German winter only months away. German newspapers call it "Merkel's cold inheritance", a reference to the chancellor who sabotaged Germany's energy and then bowed out, just in time to avoid the chaos.
The headline in Germany's most-read Bild Zeitung says it all: Poor and old people should sleep in halls which, instead of the previous Covid vaccinations, will dispense warmth to those who can no longer afford to heat their homes and while gas is reserved to keep the German industry going. "Better cold homes than no jobs" doesn't sound all that much different from "Räder müssen rollen für den Sieg". It's sending shivers down the spines of Germans old enough to remember those days.
