On July 21, 2015 a number of prominent German politicians from the SDP, including the patriarch of the OstPolitik Egon Karl-Heinz Bahr, former Deputy Defense Minister Walther Stützle, prominent Protestant theologian Friedrich Schorlemmer and many others signed an open letter to the SDP members of the ruling coalition (incumbent Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier among the addresses) urging them to abandon the confrontational course in relations with Russia. The authors reviewed the degrading EU-Russia ties in the context of Ukraine's crisis which was the direct result of mutual misunderstandings and controversies.

E.g. the document says:

"Comprehensive peace settlement for Europe, the Charter of Paris of 1990, remained unfulfilled. Europe has no interest in continuing the old rivalry of the superpowers USA and the Soviet Union and to force Russia to its knees. This is what distinguishes the European from the American interests: without Russia any European problem can hardly be solved. Russia and the peoples of the Soviet Union have made a decisive contribution not only to the liberation of Europe from fascism, but also for German unification. Germany therefore has a special responsibility to win Russia as a partner in a European peace order."

"In this situation (of Ukraine's crisis – SCF), a courageous political initiative is needed, comparable to what helped to overcome the Berlin and Cuban Missile Crises in the peak of the Cold War. Back then it was the German Social Democracy which paved the way for solution with the new Willy Brandt's Ostpolitik. 2015 requires just such courage and political wisdom to counter the threat of renewed confrontation and spiral division of Europe. We therefore demand to stop and venture a restart of relations with Russia before it is too late!"

The full text of the letter can be downloaded here