After several decades of reluctance to spend on defense, Russia's Ukraine invasion forces Germany to beef up its military spending. On Sunday German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made his historic announcement in an emergency session of Bundestag – German federal parliament – to immediately set up a special fund of €100 billion ($112.7 billion) in the budget for the armed forces. He repeated his promise to increase the country’s spend to 2% of economic output (or, GDP) on defense, keeping in line with NATO’s decades-long demands.

Scholz said that the Ukraine crisis is forcing the country to invest in defence to strengthen security. freedom and democracy of Germany. He called this Germany’s “historical responsibility” so that Putin cannot “turn the clock back” to an era of aggression prevalent in the 19th century, by destroying the “European security structure”. The Chancellors declaration was applauded overwhelmingly by a majority of Parliamentarians, including the leftists and the far-right.

Just weeks ago, Scholz was criticised in Germany and abroad for his silence on the presence of Russia’s troop build-up at Ukraine’s border. Until Ukraine’s ordinary citizens were seen fleeing Russian bombs left-leaning Social Democratic Party of Scholz had some soft corner for Russia.

But after Russian troops invaded Scholz promptly decided to scrap the multi-billion-dollar Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, despite the risk of a deepening energy crisis in his country. The energy crisis threatens Germany’s robust industrial infrastructure and a substantial increase in defense spending will leave a deep impact on the country’s economic powerhouse—the strongest in Europe.

Despite repeated demand by NATO ally countries—especially the US-- Germany had so far adopted a foreign policy averse to military spend that originates from the country’s reminiscences of a horrific past of Nazi crimes in the Third Reich. The shift of policy is meant to stop “a warmonger like Putin '' who wants to wipe out a sovereign democracy in medieval style.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/27/world/europe/germany-military-budget-russia-ukraine.html

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-commits-100-billion-to-defense-spending/a-60933724

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/27/germany-set-up-fund-boost-military-strength-ukraine-putin