Rod Stewart is hard to dislike. But in Germany, one issue divides people so deeply that even the most outrageous leopard print can’t gloss over it: the war in Ukraine.

Stewart played a concert in the German city of Leipzig last week and showed his support for Ukraine by shouting “Fuck Putin” and dedicating his 1991 hit Rhythm of My Heart to the country’s struggle. As the song finished and a picture of President Zelensky appeared, there was loud booing from sections of the audience.

While the international press stressed that a “German crowd” had jeered at one of Britain’s most beloved stars, much of the domestic media pointed the finger specifically at the east of the country, where Leipzig is located. A Berlin newspaper stated that while “Leipzig booed, Berlin cheered” when Rod Stewart repeated the pro-Ukraine segment at a concert in the capital. Hamburg too is certain that at its gig on Thursday “this will definitely not happen to him”.

Many Germans like to think that waning support for Ukraine is a reserve of the formerly socialist East. Pro-Russian sentiments are seen as an unfortunate Cold War hangover along with voting for the Right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which just won the European Elections in the region and boycotted Zelensky’s visit to the German parliament.

This take is a half-truth, as unhelpful in explaining what happened at the concert as it is in stabilising support for Ukraine in the West. Eastern Germans have absolutely been more critical towards Ukraine than their Western compatriots. One recent survey suggested that nearly half of them thought too many weapons were being sent while only a third of Westerners believed this.

But it is also true that support for Ukraine is ebbing elsewhere, too. An EU report suggests that 60% of Italians disagree with weapon deliveries, nearly 80% of Austrians want to remain neutral, and even in France nearly 40% would favour a reduction or a stop of arms support. Many German leaders (almost all of whom are from the former West) have also notably changed their tune — not least Olaf Scholz himself who fought the EU election campaign as a peace chancellor.

Less reported upon in Leipzig was also the applause that competed with the jeering. Having spoken to a few locals since, I also got the sense that people paid over €100 for concert tickets to escape from day-to-day tensions for an evening. One comment underneath the YouTube clip of the scenes in Leipzig also asks artists to “stick to your art and don’t lecture us”. Public opinion in the East is a complex matter, fraught with tension.

If Rod Stewart had responded to the booing with moral condemnation of the East, he would only have deepened the sense of resentment felt by many there. Many former East Germans love the British icon. During the Cold War, even the state-owned record label Amiga produced his hits like Da’ Ya’ Think I’m Sexy. Alienating fans in the East would have done nothing to re-engage people, and therefore nothing to help Ukraine. His uncompromising but nonetheless conciliatory response points in the right direction. Vowing to continue to “support Zelensky and the people of Ukraine”, he also added that he was “having the time of my life playing for German audiences”.

Waning support for Ukraine is a serious issue, and it certainly varies in intensity and causes across the continent. But lazy and divisive reporting does nothing to alleviate the problems Zelensky faces at this critical juncture.

---

Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian and writer. She is the author, most recently, of Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990.

hoyer_kat

---