According to a number of media outlets, on February 27, 2022, Olaf Scholz made a scandalous statement that Russia’s actions on the territory of Ukraine actually nullify the nation’s responsibility for the crimes of the Third Reich. We checked to see if he really said that.

This is what a popular Russian resource reported at the end of February "Tsargrad": “Olaf Scholz made a scandalous statement, absolving Germany of historical guilt. As you know, Germany's historical guilt lies in the crimes of the Nazis.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made a statement that went beyond all reasonable limits. OstWest.tv broadcast his words as close to the rehabilitation of Nazism. Scholz said February 24 was a turning point in the history of the continent.

“Vladimir Putin wants to recreate the Russian Empire and rule Europe as he sees fit,” Scholz said, adding: “The Russian people do not want war. This war will remain Putin’s war. He freed Germany from historical guilt.”

Other online publications provided similar information, such as Russian (RTVI, "Business online", "Arguments and Facts", "Volgodonskaya Pravda", Solenka.info, "Peekaboo", "YaPlakal"), and Ukrainian (national news agency "Ukrinform", website "Korrespondent.net"), as well as Kazakh Everything.kz. A famous journalist made an emotional publication on this topic in her Telegram channel Marina Akhmedova.

Indeed, on Sunday, February 27, German Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke at an emergency meeting of the Bundestag dedicated to the events in Ukraine. His speech received wide publicity in the world media, including leading Russian publications. In particular, they too brought the Chancellor’s phrase that the President of the Russian Federation “wants to create a Russian Empire,” but in not a single Russian publication with a high degree of authority (TASS, RBC, Kommersant, etc.) do we see quotes about historical guilt. It is not found in authoritative foreign sources either. What's the matter, how could leading publications miss such a sensation?

To answer this question, it is necessary to turn to the original of Scholz's speech. Full posted on YouTube video recording half-hour speech by Scholz, and on the website of the Federal Government of Germany - her transcript. The online publication Meduza, in turn, published translation this transcript. In these sources we do not see anything similar to words about the historical guilt of Germany. Scholz refers to history in a couple of places:

“Because reconciliation between Russians and Germans after World War II was and remains an important chapter of our common history”;
“Ladies and gentlemen, we know exactly what values we stand for given our own history. We stand for peace in Europe."

But none of these statements even come close to freeing Germany from historical guilt. Where did this phrase come from in the Russian-language media?

Many early publications devoted to the scandalous statement of the German chancellor refer to the broadcast of OstWest, a Russian-language 24-hour news channel broadcasting from Berlin. To access the channel's on-air videos, a subscription is required, but the archive contains the information we are interested in news in text form. And indeed, looking at the publication summarizing Scholz’s speech dated February 27, among the main points of the message we can see the statement “Putin freed Germany from historical guilt.” However, as of March 2, 2022, this item is from the news disappeared. At the same time, some Russian publications also corrected their materials - for example, "Business online". From all this we can conclude that the fake statement ended up in the translation of Scholz’s speech due to the fault of one of the employees of the OstWest TV channel or the source from which they took the information. In any case, the German Chancellor did not say such a thing.