Eco-libertarians

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In the 1980s, a wing within the Green Party called itself eco-libertarians .

founding

The eco- libertarians were constituted in 1983 as an internal party opposition to the eco-socialists and appeared for the first time at the Duisburg party congress on November 18-20, 1983. Shortly afterwards, they published a declaration of principle entitled “Against the pleasure of sinking”, which was printed on November 18, 1983 in the Frankfurter Rundschau . On February 26, 1984, they adopted a founding declaration entitled “Unity and Green and Freedom”, which was published on March 7 and 8, 1984 in the taz .

Protagonists and organization

Winfried Kretschmann (2010), spokesman for the eco-libertarians from the beginning until their dissolution

The leadership circle of the eco-libertarians initially consisted of Wolf-Dieter Hasenclever , Winfried Kretschmann , Thomas Schmid , Ernst Hoplitschek and Gisela Erler . Hasenclever was formerly a member of the SPD and then a member of the AUD before he co-founded the Greens. During his studies from 1973 to 1975, Kretschmann had been a Maoist K group in the college group of the Communist League of West Germany , Schmid was part of the Spontis . Winfried Kretschmann was the spokesman for the eco-libertarians, the managing directors were Ernst Hoplitschek and Achim Bergmann, and Thomas Schmid was considered the ideological head. Even Helga Trüpel , which was 1991-1995 Senator for Culture and Integration of Foreigners in Bremen, was a member of the Ökolibertären. The signatories of the founding declaration also included former party members who had left the Greens because they were too radical left.

Circular letters served as a means of communication, and the magazine Politische Ökologie was close to the ecological liberals. The organization was funded by a monthly membership fee. Meetings took place around four times a year, and the members were also present at the Realo meetings.

The eco-libertarians in Baden-Württemberg had the greatest influence. Hasenclever was the first chairman of the regional association from 1979 to 1982 and chairman of the parliamentary group until 1983. His successor as parliamentary group leader was Kretschmann, who had a strong influence on the regional association.

Internal party positioning

Since the conservative environmentalists around Herbert Gruhl , Baldur Springmann and others left the Greens again shortly after the party was founded in 1980 and founded the ÖDP , the eco-libertarians formed the right-wing fringe of the party, which at the time could be classified as politically left . However, the eco-libertarians wanted to overcome the left-right scheme themselves . They harbored a strong aversion to the eco-socialist wing within the Greens.

In the founding declaration, the claim was formulated to be a political movement “inside and outside the green party”. It is controversial whether the eco-libertarians can actually be classified as a separate current within the party, or whether they should rather be assigned to the “ real ” wing. However, the eco-libertarians accused the Realos of being fixated on the state and criticized their too close proximity to social democracy .

The eco-libertarians did not see the Greens as an “anti-party party”, but instead acknowledged their party status. They rejected the strict rotation principle and the imperative mandate . On the other hand, plebiscitary elements such as strike votes and referendums were supported not only in federal, state and local politics, but also within the party.

ideology

Ludger Volmer considers the term “ libertarianism ” to be incorrect to describe the “eco- libertarians ”. Rather, they were “eco- liberals ”. Habitus and worldview were shaped by a value-conservative commitment to the preservation of creation and linked to a liberal economic model that is typical of the middle class in southwest Germany . The publications of the eco-libertarian trend are seen as a theoretically demanding background philosophy, which did not have an immediate effect, but indirectly and long-term.

The model of the eco-libertarians was the unity of man and nature. Their image of man is characterized as "ecological humanism ", strongly influenced by anthroposophy . Basically, it was about a connection between the green idea and the idea of freedom .

The eco- libertarians were strictly against socialism , but they were positive about an ecologically sound market economy . To overcome industrialism and growth fixation , an ecological reorientation was sought. The main demands included denationalisation, decentralization, self-help and subsidiarity . In their founding declaration, the eco-libertarians expressly said goodbye to the “care mentality” that the social movements of the 20th century would have brought about. Since they turned against any form of state interventionism , the eco-libertarians were also critical of the demands of radical ecologists for corporate unbundling. Instead, freedom for small businesses, cooperatives and alternative businesses should be encouraged.

In contrast to the eco-socialists and Fundis , the eco- libertarians did not strive for social change immediately, but gradually. They explicitly recognized the state's monopoly on the use of force, which was disputed in large parts of the Greens, vehemently advocated parliamentarism and considered grassroots democracy impracticable, but advocated direct democratic elements in order to expand the autonomy of the individual and minimize rule.

It was pointed out that the eco-libertarians were close to the program of the Christian Democratic Workers' Union (CDA) in the CDU . Winfried Kretschmann emphasized that the environmental movement's skepticism towards progress was a conservative attitude. That is why the eco-libertarians did not rule out a coalition with the CDU .

criticism

Criticism of the eco-libertarians came mainly from the eco-socialists. They were accused of wanting to turn the party into a “green FDP”.

In the Union, some politicians were sympathetic to the eco-libertarians. Such was Heiner Geissler , then general secretary of the CDU, give in them "serious interlocutor" with whom "it in some points overlap of Christian-democratic and green programmatic".

Development and aftermath

The eco-libertarians had no major, immediate, political impact. At the party congresses, they were able to mobilize less than ten percent of the delegates with their motions. In the early 1990s they stopped meeting. The former members were later assigned to the realos . Some eco-libertarians left the Greens, for example Wolf-Dieter Hasenclever switched to the FDP in 2001 , where Ernst Hoplitschek had also found a new party-political home. Winfried Kretschmann, who had a strong influence on the Baden-Württemberg regional association and became the first Green Prime Minister in Germany after the state elections in 2011 , demonstrated staying power .

Even if the eco-libertarians were unable to assert themselves as an internal party movement, many of their demands were accepted by the Greens in the long term. From the mid-1990s, there were black-green coalitions at the municipal level, the ecological market economy established itself as a model over time, and the Greens' commitment to being a political party became a matter of course.

literature

  • Makoto Nishida: Currents in the Greens (1980–2003): An analysis of informally organized groups within the Greens . Lit-Verlag, Münster 2005, pp. 95-107, ISBN 3-8258-9174-7

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Makoto Nishida: Strömungen in den Grünen (1980-2003) , Münster 2005, p. 95 f.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Makoto Nishida: Strömungen in den Grünen (1980–2003) , Münster 2005, p. 96.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Makoto Nishida: Strömungen in den Grünen (1980–2003) , Münster 2005, p. 106.
  4. ↑ a b Makoto Nishida: Strömungen in den Grünen (1980–2003) , Münster 2005, p. 95.
  5. ↑ Joachim Raschke , Gudrun Heinrich: The Greens. How they became what they are , Cologne 1993, p. 155.
  6. ↑ a b c d e Makoto Nishida: Strömungen in den Grünen (1980–2003) , Münster 2005, p. 97.
  7. ↑ a b c Ludger Volmer : Die Grünen , Munich 2009, p. 167.
  8. ↑ a b Joachim Raschke , Gudrun Heinrich: The Greens. How they became what they are , Cologne 1993, p. 156.
  9. ↑ Jürgen Hoffmann: The double union. Prehistory, course and effects of the merger of the Greens and Alliance 90 , Opladen 1998, p. 85.
  10. ↑ a b c Makoto Nishida: Strömungen in den Grünen (1980–2003) , Münster 2005, p. 98.
  11. ↑ Makoto Nishida: Strömungen in den Grünen (1980-2003), Münster 2005, p. 99 ff.
  12. ↑ Makoto Nishida: Strömungen in den Grünen (1980–2003) , Münster 2005, p. 104.
  13. ↑ E.g. Michael Stamm: Avant-gardism in the name of the silent majority. Critique of the “eco-liberal Greens” , in: taz , March 20, 1984, pp. 8–9.
  14. ^ Makoto Nishida: Strömungen in den Grünen (1980–2003) , Münster 2005, p. 105.
  15. ^ Makoto Nishida: Strömungen in den Grünen (1980–2003) , Münster 2005, p. 107.

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