As we read in Handelsblatt, 50% of Germans say they are afraid that President Putin will attack a NATO country and that World War III could break out.
By way of illustration, in March, when the Institute conducted the same poll, the figure was 70%.
Germans are gripped by the fear of an impending war and are preparing for this desperate eventuality. We read: A 45-year-old woman, who does not want to see her name printed in the newspaper, wanted to open a safe-deposit box in a bank and asked to exchange the sum of 20,000 in dollars.
They are preparing for the case of an escalation of the war in Ukraine and a new Russian attack on another Western country. The trigger was given one warm evening when she discovered that two of her friends had recently opened safe deposit boxes and stashed away thousands of US dollars and Swiss francs.
In case they had to leave, they hoped that with this money they could live abroad for a few months.
One of them even had his suitcase ready for weeks. It was then that the 45-year-old realised for the first time that she could not easily withdraw money abroad with her credit card if the war in Ukraine escalated and she had to flee Germany.
Because if the bank where she took out the credit card stopped doing business, the card wouldn't work either. An experience that many Ukrainian refugees have had.
This is not an isolated incident, assures the newspaper Ridiger Schmidt, a spokesman for Reisebank. The Frankfurt-based bank specialises in currency exchange, precious metal transactions and travel payments).
These services are offered by many cooperative banks, he assures. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine we have recorded a significant increase in demand for US dollars, Swiss francs, Norwegian kroner and Australian and Canadian dollars. All five currencies are considered safe currencies in case of flight.
Ridinger Schmidt confirms that the number of transactions and currencies ordered prove that the demand is not related to preparations for a joint trip.
Source: DW
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