Why doesn't Germany want to give Ukraine weapons to fight Russia?

 Other allies have expressed surprise and anger over Germany's refusal to give weapons to Ukraine.

But, the refusal of this powerful country of Europe to give up arms is historic and it is important to understand the reasons for it.

To the east of the capital Berlin is a large meadow where terrible stories are buried in the soil.

In this field, when farmers run a plough, they find human bones, weapons and traces of World War II.

It was 1945. Former German dictator Hitler was hiding inside the bunker in Berlin. Their soldiers were retreating. The army of the Soviet Union was advancing from the plains in the east, but on a mountain called Silo Heights, the Nazi army stood to stop them.

After this, there were heaps of dead bodies and bloodshed. The Soviet Union won and the World War began to rise rapidly towards its end, but about 30,000 of their soldiers were killed.

A look at the monument in Silo Heights shows how deeply the history of this country has etched in the minds of many people in Germany. How that horror of the twentieth century still affects its foreign policy today.

This could be one of the reasons why Germany refused to give weapons to Ukraine.

Distance from war in Germany

According to an annual survey, Germans believe that diplomatic talks are the best option to resolve any conflict.

Germany's military takes little part in any other operation, other than peacekeeping operations. There are a few exceptions to this which were very disputed. This includes Balkan in 1990 and more recently Afghanistan.

Germany is one of the world's largest arms exporters (although its production is lower than that of the US and Russia). But, there is tight control over where the weapons are being sent. Angela Merkel's government has also been accused of not complying with these rules completely.

Thomas Clinea-Brockhof of the German Marshall Fund says, "Germany has an old policy of restraint and arms exports are seen as promoting rather than reducing conflict. This policy says that Germany does not export weapons to conflict areas."

However, Thomas says Germany had bypassed the same policy in arming Kurdish fighters to fight the Islamic State extremist group in northern Iraq. However, the situation in Ukraine is different. The reasons for this are in history - millions of people were killed by the Nazi army in Ukraine and Russia.

"Sending weapons to one part of the areas where Germany has lost blood to fight the other could create a big political debate in Germany," he says.

The situation that has arisen on ukraine's border is like a test for germany's new coalition government.