📰 Fear of War: An Echo of the Media’s Own Words
📰 Fear of War: An Echo of the Media’s Own Words
A critical look at how regional media in Baden-WĂĽrttemberg fuel public anxiety
By Gordon Stotz, County Councillor — May 14, 2025
🟦 Introduction: Rising fear — but where does it come from?
In today’s issue of Heilbronner Stimme, a major regional newspaper in southern Germany, a headline proclaims a sharp rise in fear of war among the population. According to a new survey by the Allensbach Institute, 39% of respondents in Baden-Württemberg believe it’s likely that Germany will be drawn into a military conflict in the coming years.
At the same time, the paper expresses concern that only 24% would be willing to defend the country with a weapon if it came to war. What remains unsaid, however, is crucial:
This fear is not spontaneous. It is in part the direct result of years of emotionally charged media coverage filled with escalation rhetoric, militarization, and the building of enemy images.
🧠Analysis: When media manufacture moods and then report on them
Over the last several years, regional and national media outlets — including Heilbronner Stimme — have been repeatedly shaping a perception of constant threat and imminent conflict. Key patterns include:
- One-sided reporting on the war in Ukraine, with little space for diplomatic alternatives or critical NATO perspectives
- Moral framing of arms deliveries, branding critics as disloyal or “pro-Russian”
- Repeated calls for “military readiness” framed as a civic duty or geopolitical necessity
The underlying message: If you want peace, prepare for war. If you hesitate, you endanger democracy.
🧒 War on children’s pages — the next escalation level
One particularly worrying trend is the increasing normalization of war discourse even in media aimed at children.
Take for example the children’s book “What Is War?” by Eduard Altarriba — or newspaper pages that explain war strategies and weapon systems to kids, often without room for pacifist perspectives or historical nuance.
Children today are being taught not that war is an exception, but that it is a realistic part of their future — not because they have experienced it, but because adults keep telling them so.
🧾 The contradiction in today’s editorial
On page 1 of Heilbronner Stimme, editor Uwe Ralf Heer writes:
“No one is talking or writing war into existence.”
Yet the same editorial calls for mandatory service, rearmament, and a military revival, while painting a picture of an underprepared Germany at the brink of conflict.
This is not neutral reporting. It’s emotional mobilization under the guise of realism.
📉 Low willingness to fight — or high distrust?
The fact that only 24% of respondents would take up arms is framed as a crisis. But perhaps it is not a sign of apathy, but a sign of widespread mistrust.
- People remember past military failures: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya.
- They don’t trust politicians to define what “defense” means.
- They see a disconnect between demands for sacrifice and the political leadership’s credibility.
🟨 Conclusion: If you sow fear, don’t be surprised when it grows
Regional newspapers like Heilbronner Stimme help shape the emotional climate they later report on. Through constant repetition of war narratives, they fuel public anxiety and militarized thinking, often without offering peaceful or structural alternatives.
When the press amplifies drums of war, it should not act surprised when people begin to march to their beat.
Citizens sense that much is slipping out of democratic control. They mistrust those who demand military action now — especially when those same voices failed to deliver energy stability, public safety, or educational opportunity just yesterday.
It’s time we stop asking only “Is war coming?” and start asking:
“Who keeps talking it into being?”
This article reflects the personal opinion of the author based on the May 14, 2025, edition of Heilbronner Stimme and regional survey data. Translated and adapted for international readers.
