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The bombing of the beautiful German art and hospital city of Dresden in February 1945 is one of the many traumas in the history of the 20th century.

The German dramatist and Nobel Prize winner for literature Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946) personally experienced the “hellfire” of the flaming inferno in Dresden caused by three bombing raids by British and American air forces. Tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people were slain, suffocated in cellars, burned up in the flames. That is why his “Farewell Words on the Downfall of Dresden” begin with the sentence:

“Those who have forgotten how to cry will learn it again at the downfall of Dresden.” (1)

Once again, the people of a country, Ukraine, are experiencing an indescribable trauma and hellfire: the continuous bombing of more and more areas of their homeland by a great power. That is why Hauptmann’s moving sentence on the downfall of Dresden should be applied to the destruction of Ukraine. More appropriate words cannot be found for what we see, hear, read and witness every day in increasing human suffering, despair, death and ruin as well as material destruction.

When we see the misdeeds of the other so that it makes us weep, we see ourselves rightly.

For the German philosopher Max Stirner (1806-1856), compassion for one’s fellow man is not a moral duty, but his deeply felt need, his property, his will (2). Already on the first page of his major work “Der Einzige und sein Eigentum” (The Only One and His Property), published in 1844, he writes: “Fie on the egoist who thinks only of himself!” (3)

Today’s commentary is not about whether the Corona regime and the Ukraine crisis are instruments to limit the mobility of the population and to advance the agenda of the “Great Reset” (4) or whether Putin is now fighting for or against the “Great Reset” because the Ukraine war plays to the “New World Order” either way (5).

The question is whether we humans see that it is also we citizens in this world who are partly responsible for this blasphemous war against the Ukrainian people. Only when we see that, when we see the misdeeds of the other – the merciless ruler or warlord – so that it makes us weep, do we see ourselves properly. That is the mirror.

Only with this self-knowledge, with this attitude, does a person begin to be a true human being: by identifying himself and knowing about the attitude of the other person. As long as he is still angry with the other person, he has no true image.

But social feelings are not innate or genetically given – and therefore not automatically recallable – but the human being must learn social feelings in the course of his family and school upbringing (6).

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Dr. Rudolf Lothar Hänsel is a teacher (retired headmaster), doctor of education (Dr. paed.) and graduate psychologist (specialising in clinical, educational and media psychology). As a retiree, he worked for many years as a psychotherapist in his own practice. In his books and educational-psychological articles, he calls for a conscious ethical-moral values education and an education for public spirit and peace.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Notes

(1) https://www.rubikon.news/artikel/tranen-fur-dresden; schutz-brett.org/3/en/…de-en/…/689-abschiedsworte-zum-untergang-dresdens.html

(2) Stirner, Max (1981). The only one and his property. Stuttgart

(3) op. cit., p. 3

(4) https://www.rubikon.news/artikel/die-bewegungslose-gesellschaft

(5) https://www.rubikon.news/artikel/katalysator-der-globalen-umgestaltung

(6) Plack, Arno (ed.). (1973). The myth of the aggression instinct. Munich

Featured image is from Zero Hedge