Yeah to be honest I understand why Reddit is split on this issue.

The German foreign minister literally said "We are fighting a war against Russia, not among each other." She might have meant it in an ideological sense, rhetorical inclusive we or it might be rhetoric she uses among her colleagues but it is as stupid as statements go if you literally don't want it to sound like you are at war.

Russia on the other hand very oftenly deliberately misinterpret statements which always subtracts from their general credibility. And it feels like huge amount of hypocrisy that they accuse Germany of being at war, but still go with the "we're not at war, this is special operation"-bullshit, like what war could Germany possibly have joined then?

So all in all, everyone knows Germany is carefully treading the line to avoid war and that the official line could never be that they are at war. On the other hand you know your minister messed up bad if the "correct interpretation" is the exact opposite of what she said, so it would be reasonable to just retract/apologize for an individual statement, since it was an embarrassing one. We all mock Russians that mistakenly admit they are at war, and the other side of the coin is that our politicians can't afford to put their foot in their mouth either. The only job for a politician is to say what you mean, not what you think. You don't represent yourself.