Cardigans and sneakers, banners and flowerpots, the entry of the Greens into the German Bundestag in 1983 is one thing above all:turbulent. Helmut Kohl does not give the newcomers to Bonn politics two years – a mistake, as we shall see.
When Joschka Fischer and Co are finally able to take part in political events in the Federal Republic, the green "anti-party party" has already come a long way from a historical perspective.
The student movement
The social roots of the Green Party go back to the 1960s. Prosperity and economic growth determine the political program of the Federal Republic, but the shock of the recent past war still runs deep.
When a grand coalition of CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union) and SPD (Social Democratic Party) was formed in 1966, young academics in particular doubted the existence of real democracy.
Out of this doubt, the extra-parliamentary opposition (APO) developed, which above all criticized the emergency laws, which were perceived as anti-democratic.
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Student Movement | more
With the help of the unions, the students want to change Germany. Herbert Marcuse's capitalism-critical work "The One-Dimensional Man" and the Frankfurt School around the philosophers Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer serve as an ideological basis.
Marxism is also rediscovered. The Socialist German Student Union (SDS) around Rudi Dutschke forms the core of the student movement. Again and again there are violent clashes between students and the police during demonstrations.
But the protests met with little approval from the German population. When the Bundestag finally passed the emergency laws on May 30, 1968, the student movement quickly lost ground. Their efforts have failed in their aim. APO and SDS dissolve.
Group meeting of the Greens outdoors in 1983
New social movements
But the spirit of change has not disappeared in Germany. People are demanding a new policy that they see less and less represented in the old party system. "New social movements" are developing, centered around the issues of the environment, peace and women's rights.
Like the student movement, they are also leaving the usual paths of political influence, organizing demonstrations, blockades and house occupations. In contrast to the students, however, they can mobilize a much larger part of the German population.
Atomic energy and the Cold War are the threatening words at this time, which, above all, drive sympathizers into the arms of the environmental protection and peace movements. A general feeling of fear is in the air.
Citizens' initiatives against planned large-scale projects such as nuclear power plants in Wyhl (1975), Brokdorf (1976) or Grohnde (1977) and the fast breeder reactor in Kalkar (1977) are formed in many places.
In 1980, demonstrators at the borehole of the repository in Gorleben, which was also planned, even proclaimed the "Republic of Free Wendland". The area will then be cleared by the police.
When the Bundestag approved the NATO dual-track decision in 1979, which provided for the stationing of Pershing II medium-range nuclear missiles in the Federal Republic, the peace movement turned into a mass movement.
Hundreds of thousands take to the streets over the next three years to protest against the new nuclear threat. Without success. In 1983, the Bundestag decides to station rockets despite all resistance from the population.
The symbol of the peace movement
Getting Started
It is these experiences of failure that have a decisive influence on the development of the Green Party. At the end of the 1970s, they led to a rethink within the citizens' initiatives. If the existing system cannot be tackled from the outside, the reasoning goes, it must still be possible from the inside.
On May 11, 1977, the citizens' initiative dared to take the decisive first step against the planned nuclear power plant in Grohnde. The first "environmental protection party" is founded in Lower Saxony. The ball is rolling.
In neighboring Hildesheim, the "Green List of Environmental Protection" (GLU) is created. She made it to the local district council within a month. The two groups merged under the name "Green List Environmental Protection" (GLU) to form the first regional association.
In the Lower Saxony state elections in June 1978, the GLU won 3.7 percent of the votes with its environmental campaign issues. Even if it misses the five percent hurdle, the election is a success for the young eco-party. You will then be reimbursed 715,000 D-Mark as election campaign costs.
In 1978, the rest of the republic followed the example of the environmental movement in Lower Saxony. Depending on their basic political orientation, the former environmental and peace activists organize themselves nationwide in "green", "colorful" or "alternative" lists and associations. They all share the common goal of bringing ecological awareness to parliament.
Detour via the European Parliament
The only problem:Almost each of the groups is too small to be able to have any real hopes of electoral success. The "Federal Association of Citizens' Initiatives for Environmental Protection" therefore proposes joint participation in the forthcoming European elections.
The big advantage:A formal party foundation, which would initially require an agreement between the various ideological currents within the eco-movement, is superfluous here.
In 1979 the "Other Political Association (SPV)/The Greens" was founded. The former CDU member Herbert Gruhl, Petra Kelly and the artist Joseph Beuys are running as the top candidates of the more bourgeois-conservative list alliance.
The prominence is not enough to lift the SPV/Die Grünen over the five percent mark. On the other hand, the coffers of the list alliance are ringing with 4.5 million Deutschmarks in reimbursement of campaign costs.
A successful coup, about which a commission of experts will write years later:"The history of the origins of the party 'Die Grünen' thus represents a case of state-subsidised party formation that is unique in the history of the Federal Republic."
The SPV/The Greens have been thinking about forming a federal party for a long time. In January 1980, the time had finally come:The federal party "Die Grünen" emerged from the SPV/Die Grünen in Karlsruhe.
The final stage
The timing is well chosen. The topics of the peace and environmental movement largely determine the public discussion and thus bring the new party into the conversation.
In Baden-Württemberg, the first representatives of the Greens were soon seated in the state parliament, but the young party still missed out on entering the Bundestag in 1980. The "battle of heads" between Helmut Schmidt (SPD) and the Bavarian chancellor candidate Franz-Joseph Strauss (CSU) had a polarizing effect on the electorate at the time. Many potential Greens voters decide in favor of the SPD in order to prevent a Strauss victory.
But soon after, the Greens unexpectedly had a new opportunity. The red-yellow government coalition is unstable and eventually breaks up. A subsequent constructive vote of no confidence by the FDP and CDU brings down the incumbent Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. The Helmut Kohl era begins.
In the snap elections on March 6, 1983, the Greens received 5.6 percent of the votes. The goal is reached. With the four party principles of non-violence, ecology, social justice and grassroots democracy, Green MPs are entering the German Bundestag for the first time.
The Greens celebrate entering the Bundestag in 1983