Elim Papadakis - The Green Movement in West Germany (Rle: German Politics)

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: GERMAN POLITICS

Volume 12

THE GREEN MOVEMENT IN WEST GERMANY

Elim Papadakis

First published in 1984

This edition first published in 2015
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1984 E. Papadakis

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ISBN: 978-1-138-83837-6 (Set)
elSBN: 978-1-315-72630-4 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-138-84627-2 (Volume 12)
elSBN: 978-1-315-72756-1 (Volume 12)

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The Green Movement in West Germany

Elim Papadakis

1984 E. Papadakis
Croom Helm Ltd., Provident House, Burrell Row,
Beckenham, Kent BR3 1AT

Croom Helm Australia Pty Ltd, 28 Kembla St,
Fyshwick, ACT 2609, Australia

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Papadakis, Elim

The Green Movement in West Germany.

1. Ecology - Germany (West) - Political aspects

2. Environmental protection - Germany (West) - History - 20th century

I. Title

333. 7'0943 QH77.G/

ISBN 0-7099-2071-7

All rights reserved. For information, write:
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
Printed in Great Britain
First published in the United States of America in 1984

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Papadakis, Elim.

The Green Movement in West Germany.

Bibliography: p.

Includes index.

1. Grnen (Political party) 2. Antinucleai movement Germany (West) 3. Pacifists - Germany (West) I. Title.

JN3971.A98G7236 1984 324.243'06 83-24728
ISBN 0-312-35009-0

Printed and bound in Great Britain

Between October 1976 and July 1977 I was able, as a visiting student at the University of Hamburg, to witness the genesis of a mass movement against nuclear energy and the division of the city between the supporters of nuclear energy and economic growth and protestors who issued dire warnings about the threat of technological developments to the lives and safety of the population.

These experiences prompted me to undertake, in autumn 1979, a research project on the Green Movement. I am grateful to Dr. Colin Crouch and Dr. Christopher Husbands at the London School of Economics and Political Science for their willingness to supervise the work even though there were only a few signs that the protest movement would exercise a powerful influence on contemporary West German politics. They both offered very useful advice on the original doctoral thesis and on the revised version which appears in this book. I should like to thank Dr. William Paterson and Professor Hugh Ridley for their helpful comments on various sections of the thesis. I am also indebted to many people in West Germany who were willing to be interviewed and to engage in discussions on the Green Movement. They include: Professor Peter Grottian and Professor Bernd Rabehl from the Free University of Berlin; Thomas Haertel in the Department of Health, Social and Family Welfare in Berlin; Klaus-Juergen Luther and Gisela Marsen-Storz in the Ministry of Education in Bonn; Anke Brunn, a member of the Berlin Senate who acted as an adviser to the government commission of inquiry on youth protest; several editors from the Tageszeitung alternative newspaper project; Corny Littmann, the leading candidate of the Green Party in Hamburg during the 1980 Federal Elections; and many, other supporters and sympathisers of the Green Movement. In particular I should like to mention Elke Josties and Christiane Uschkereit both for their hospitality and for helping me to obtain information.

The Central Research Fund Committee of the University of London kindly agreed to provide me with a grant to carry out fieldwork in May 1982; other journeys, in September 1979, September 1980 and January 1982, were financed by myself and by my family.

Leytonstone, London

This book sets out to explain the evolution of the ecology, peace and alternative movements in West Germany and the emergence of a Green Party out of them. A large part of the work attempts to provide an original empirical contribution to a subject on which there currently exists no comprehensive work in English. Moreover, various themes are identified which are common to all the new movements and to the Green Party. Since the relationship between the various movements and the party-political organisation remains fluid, it is perhaps appropriate to refer to them all as the Green Movement.

The emergence of the Green Movement appears to confirm the thesis put forward by Ronald Inglehart in the early seventies that a 'silent revolution' was taking place in Western democracies and was founded on a 'change in values'. The new values related to matters of conscience, a desire for more participation in decision-making processes and an emphasis on creativity. These were contrasted to old materialistic values which stressed the need for economic security and for traditional attitudes to authority.