Group Z

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Press conference of the Greens before the federal election in 1983 , far left Jürgen Reents , far right Rainer Trampert , both belonged to the management committee of "Group Z"

The Z group was a spin-off of the Communist League (KB), which the Greens joined. Within the Greens, Group Z formed a parliamentary group that dominated the Hamburg state association until 1987, had considerable influence on the Greens in Schleswig-Holstein and was represented by individuals in the state associations of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia . The best-known Z actors were Thomas Ebermann , Jürgen Reents and Rainer Trampert . With the exception of Reents, all of the former protagonists of Group Z resigned from the federal party The Greens in 1990 , before the Alliance 90 / The Greens re-formed. Reents tried together with Michael Stamm to bring the Green Federal Party closer to the PDS , when that failed, he left the Greens in 1991.

Center faction and split in KB

From 1978 onwards, after a wave of withdrawals, there was heated controversy in the KB about the future direction of the federal government. One group involved in the controversy was the highly structured center faction . Their self-designation was based on the fact that their upper and middle cadres had previously worked in areas that were central to the KB. These work areas were the chemistry division and the Eimsbüttel regional division. "Willi" Klaus Goltermann formed the head of the informal parliamentary group leadership, which also included Eva Hubert , Achim Kienle, Thomas Ebermann, Bettina Hoeltje , Ingo Borsum, Jürgen Reents and Marion Pein .

Thomas Ebermann (left) and Rainer Trampert in 2006 at an event in Karlsruhe

The conflict escalated over the question of how to behave towards the emerging Green Party. The KB majority advocated a strategy to use a colorful alternative bloc as an external means of pressure in the educational process of the eco-party, which was then dominated by the bourgeoisie. The aim was to induce bourgeois-ecological formations to delimit the left. The KB majority wanted to concentrate its own work on alternative lists as parties of a colorful alternative bloc. The center faction, on the other hand, favored a de-Christian strategy within the green-colored electoral movement: Influence should be exerted through party membership and party work within the green party formations. In mid-December 1979, the Center Party split with about 200 members from the organizationally KB, and was constituted as a Z group . Members of the group joined the national predecessor organization of the Greens individually .

The management committee of Group Z was made up of Thomas Ebermann, "Willi" K. Goltermann, Jürgen Reents and Michael Stamm. In fact, Rainer Trampert was also part of the Z management. This governing body continued to exist separately even after the Socialist Politics Initiative (ISP; see next section) was founded; the whole group dissolved into the ISP. It remained a Z-telephone network that outlasted the short ISP lifetime.

Role in the federal green party

Earlier influence than Group Z

In the following, both the rest of the KB and Group Z influenced the founding process of the Greens. The increasing entry of leftists into the green party seemed to prove Group Z right: At the founding green party congress on January 12 and 13, 1980 in Karlsruhe, there was no bourgeois-ecological majority. On the other hand, a moderate majority had formed, which allowed both the bourgeois-ecological wing and the left-wing alternative wing (which also included representatives of the rest of the KB) to get into minority positions.

At the program party conference in March 1980 in Saarbrücken, Group Z entered into a tactical alliance with the moderates. As a result, the bourgeois-ecological wing suffered an almost complete defeat. Ultimately, this defeat led to the resignation of the party rights around Herbert Gruhl and Baldur Springmann and the establishment of the Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP). The remaining KB also no longer played a role in the federal party.

But already in Saarbrücken there were signs of a differentiation of the remaining party links into two wings. Z-Frau Bettina Hoeltje applied for a spokesman's office on the federal board. However, it failed due to a tactical counter-candidacy from Jan Kuhnert , a member of the grassroots, undogmatic socialists group in the GREEN (BUS), and only moved into the board as an assessor.

In 1980, the BUS, together with double members from the Schleswig-Holstein Green List and some Hamburg ecologists, applied for an incompatibility decision directed against Group Z. An investigative commission, which was then hesitantly appointed by the federal executive committee, decided in 1981: "Membership in Group Z is currently not incompatible with membership in the GREEN party."

Reorganization as ISP

Group Z reacted to the inner-green resistance in 1981 with a partial revision of its then Leninist program towards eco-socialism . The partial revision was accompanied by an organizational redesign. The group Z went into the new initiative Socialist policy on (ISP) that about 360 members had, half of them from the Z-environment. Other ISP members, such as Ralf Fücks for a short time , came from the KBW spin-off Committee for Democracy and Socialism , the Socialist Initiative (a eurocommunist spin-off from SEW ) and from the traditionalist Revier group. The ISP saw itself as a “special organization of the Marxists” in the Greens. The ISP published the monthly magazine Moderne Zeiten (MOZ), which appeared until 1984. The MOZ editorial team was identical to the Z management committee.

In 1984 the MOZ was transferred from the ISP majority with Michael Stamm to the magazine Kommune . This was preceded by financial problems for the editors and a split in the editorial quartet into two political tandems: Ebermann / Trampert and Reents / Stamm. The conflict that led to the split concerned positioning in the Greens. According to Raschke, Ebermann and Trampert were euphoric with the Greens because they were impressed by their personal successes in the party and parliament. Reents and Stamm, however, insisted on making their own minority position on key issues clear.

resolution

With the end of the MOZ, the ISP and with it the last project of Group Z also ended . The still active former Z-members then oriented themselves towards the eco-socialists. The result was a collaboration with the small group around Jutta Ditfurth , who had long been marginalized in Frankfurt.

In the phase of escalation of current struggles in the Greens at the end of the 1980s / beginning of the 1990s, Reents / Stamm and a few followers from Hamburg oriented themselves towards the reformist Left Forum in the Greens. In 1991 they left the party to join the PDS . Ebermann / Trampert radicalized their position within the Greens in loose cooperation with the eco-socialists and under the pressure of dwindling influence. In 1990 they left the Greens together with Christian Schmidt , Regula Schmidt-Bott and 40 other former Hamburg Z activists. A few weeks later, their supporters from Schleswig-Holstein staged a group exit at a state party conference in Kiel.

When asked about political plans, Rainer Trampert said in an interview with taz: “Neither an electoral party nor any other party is popular. For the time being, we can only imagine the regrouping process of the left, who do not participate in the adjustment and social democratization, as a loose alliance. Much will live from the negation. "

Christian Schmidt
Regula Schmidt-Bott

Bundestag mandates and board positions

Far beyond the formal existence of Group Z , active people from their environment had influential positions as members of the Bundestag or as members of the federal executive board.

  • Bettina Hoeltje was an assessor on the federal board from 1980 to 1982.
  • Rainer Trampert was one of the national board spokesmen from 1982 to 1987.
  • Günter Hopfenmüller was an assessor on the federal board from 1982 to 1984.
  • Jürgen Reents was a member of the Bundestag from 1983 to 1985 and a member of the federal executive committee from 1989 to 1990.
  • Christian Schmidt was a member of the Bundestag from 1985 to 1987 and from 1987 to 1988 (joint resignation with Jutta Ditfurth) one of the federal executive board speakers.
  • Thomas Ebermann was a member of the Bundestag from 1987 to 1989 and served as one of the parliamentary group's speakers until 1988.
  • Regula Schmidt-Bott was a member of the Bundestag from 1987 to 1989.

Angelika Beer and Jürgen Trittin are not included in the above list. Both were members of Group Z , but had already broken away from the Z-contexts at the beginning of their publicly visible careers.

Influence in regional associations of the Greens

Group Z actors had different levels of national political influence. They dominated the Greens in Hamburg from 1980 to 1987 and also held a strong, but not long-term dominant position in Schleswig-Holstein. With Jürgen Trittin , Group Z had a top politician in Lower Saxony who, however, did not spark any state political current conflicts. In North Rhine-Westphalia, Group Z only appeared in Bielefeld municipal politics.

Hamburg

The green election movement in Hamburg was dominated by KB and Group Z in the first few years . The conservative Green List was only of marginal importance. After the KB split, the remainder of the KB retained the majority in the Bunter List founded in 1978 . The group Z took over since 1980 in parallel with existing green National Association completely. In 1982, Bunte List and Greens merged to form the Green Alternative List (GAL), which was recognized as the Hamburg State Association of Greens in 1984.

In the GAL, the influence of the rest of the KB was increasingly lost, while the Z-line became the GAL-line at the latest after the success in the state elections in June 1982 (7.7 percent). This was personified by Thomas Ebermann, who, alongside Thea Bock, was the first green parliamentary group leader in the Hamburg parliament. After failed exploratory talks for a coalition with the SPD, new elections were held in December 1982. The GAL achieved 6.8 percent. The state elections in 1986/1987 took a similar course: In September 1986 a GAL women list around Adrienne Goehler achieved 10.4 percent; in the new elections in May 1987, the GAL only got 7.0 percent. In between, there were tolerance talks with the SPD aimed at failure.

The players in the Z-Network began to lose importance rapidly. Ebermann and Trampert were bound by national politics, Reents and Stamm had meanwhile oriented themselves differently and the second Z-row in Hamburg, weakened by personal retreats, was not able to cope with the growing resistance of reform left and reallos. In 1990 the former members left the Greens and the GAL collectively. In April 2012, the GAL, whose name was a relic of the KB-Z conflict, was renamed Alliance 90 / The Greens Hamburg .

Schleswig-Holstein

In Schleswig-Holstein two irreconcilable blocs faced each other in the constitutional phase of the Greens. The Schleswig-Holstein Green List (GLSH), which emerged from successful district voter communities, rigidly refused admission to communists and socialists. Then the leftists formed a list for Democracy and Environmental Protection (LDU), whose members are predominantly group Z belonged. The Z assets either originated from the northern Hamburg area ( Pinneberg , Stormarn ) or from the strong KB local group in Flensburg .

With the founding of the federal party, the GLSH and LDU merged in 1980 to form the state association of the Greens . However, the unit lasted only a few weeks. Since the Saarbrücken party program seemed too left-leaning to the conservative, bourgeois Greens, they reactivated the GLSH. Many of them, however, maintained double membership. After tough, in the meantime already failed, merger negotiations, the federal board of the Greens forced its state association to merge with the GLSH in November 1982.

The policy of the Schleswig-Holstein Greens was strongly influenced by actors from the Z context until 1990. Lars Hennings, head theorist of the North Greens in the early years, ran twice in state elections (1983 and 1987) on the first male place on the state list. Tamara Tschikowani from Flensburg was the top candidate in 1988. The entry into the state parliament was clearly missed in each case.

With a short delay, the Schleswig-Holstein Z politicians followed their comrades in Hamburg and left the Greens in May 1990. This step was commented by the incumbent state board spokesman Nico Sönnichsen - formerly a Z member himself - with the words: "No more paralysis, free travel for green politics!"

Split of the Z-leadership body due to programmatic adjustment to the Greens

At first, the left in the Greens was not concerned with the ecological issue. With The Future of the Greens: A Realistic Concept for a Radical Party , Thomas Ebermann and Rainer Trampert presented programmatic statements in 1984, revising earlier positions that had been represented by Group Z : “In fact, we always find an unjustified one among Marxist theorists Optimism regarding the current possibilities of knowledge and technological possibilities available to mankind to avoid the destructive effects of their mode of production. ”The necessary rescue of human living conditions in external nature requires radical changes in production and thus in the consumption habits of people in the industrial metropolises. That is only possible by overcoming the current social system. Jürgen Reents and Michael Stamm then accused Ebermann / Trampert of opportunism. That was the prelude to the ongoing split of the Z management committee into the tandems Ebermann / Trampert and Reents / Stamm.

The "K-group paradox"

Why former members of radical K groups (such as KPD and KBW ) made permanent careers in the Greens, such as Winfried Kretschmann , Antje Vollmer or Ralf Fücks and Willfried Maier , but former KB and Z members only in the early years of the party ( and then left almost completely), explains Joachim Rasche with the "K-group paradox". The origin of many activists of the KBW or KPD from the upper middle classes probably contributed to the fact that after the surprising "class betrayal" people quickly sought to reconnect with their own class . The KB (and thus also the later Group Z), on the other hand, had a broader catchment area, which also went into the area of ​​formally weak qualifications, which was evident right down to the management level. While former KPD and KBW activists (if at all, the former top cadres never became members of the Greens) only joined the Greens as individuals and then mostly assigned themselves to the real current, KB and Group Z were the only ones who had an organizational structure outside of the Had greens. In this way a radicalizing cohesion could be maintained through interaction , communication and social control .

According to Raschke, the “K-group paradox” in the Greens consisted in the fact that former members of very radical Maoist groups were rather moderate as individuals within the party. The former, more traditionally communist-oriented KB members as members of Group Z, on the other hand, formed the radical wing of the Greens and also had a strong influence on the federal party in the first few years, but withdrew when this influence waned. Ebermann / Trampert and some of their supporters organized themselves into the radical left after the collective exit from the party ; they saw the reason for their political (non-party political) failure not in radicalism, but in a lack of radicalism. Reents / Stamm and few others continued to follow a traditional Orthodox line and approached the PDS.

literature

Individual evidence

Evidence on Joachim Raschke : The Greens. How they became what they are . Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1993, ISBN 3-7663-2474-8 without additional author names always refer to articles by Raschke himself

  1. ↑ See Michael Steffen: Tales of the Truffle Pig. Politics and Organization of the Communist Federation 1971 to 1991. Berlin 2002, p. 79.
  2. ↑ Klaus Goltermann (code name "Willi") (born November 14, 1943 in Hamburg; † May 2, 2016 in Portugal) was the initiator of the Socialist Workers' and Apprenticeship Center (SALZ), one of the KB's predecessor organizations, and was part of the KB up to Split always to the central governing body. Together with Knut Mellenthin and Hartmut Wojahn, he formed the informal head of the association. He never appeared in public, his diverse authorship in the workers' struggle remained invisible. Only after the spin-off of Group Z did he publish in newsletters and later in the monthly magazine Moderne Zeiten (MOZ) with the name Willi. K. Goltermann. He never took on functions in the Greens. In 1982 he retired completely from politics, founded and ran the Zardoz record store in Hamburg and later moved to Portugal, where he died and was buried in Loulé . See biographical note in: Michael Steffen, Stories from the Truffle Pig. Politics and Organization of the Communist Federation 1971 to 1991. Berlin 2002, p. 302 f. and obituary in Neues Deutschland on May 21, 2016.
  3. ↑ Gerd Koenen : The red decade. Our little German cultural revolution 1967–1977. 5th edition, Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-596-15573-6 , p. 309.
  4. ↑ Michael Steffen: Stories from the Truffle Pig. Politics and Organization of the Communist Federation 1971 to 1991. Berlin 2002, p. 242 ff.
  5. ↑ Michael Stamm was one of the very few Z members who did not come from the KB. He had made his “first political career” as the chief ideologist of an organization at the University of Marburg, which later became the Marxist group . Stamm never applied for a seat in parliament in the Greens. See Joachim Raschke (ed.): The Greens. How they became what they are. Cologne 1993, p. 324, note 168.
  6. ↑ See Joachim Raschke: The Greens. How they became what they are. Cologne 1993, p. 148, note 21.
  7. ↑ See Joachim Raschke: The Greens. How they became what they are. Cologne 1993, p. 324, note 168.
  8. ↑ Cf. biographical note on Bettina Hoeltje in: Michael Steffen, stories from the truffle pig. Politics and Organization of the Communist Federation 1971 to 1991. Berlin 2002, p. 305
  9. ↑ See Joachim Raschke: The Greens. How they became what they are. Cologne 1993, p. 147 f.
  10. ↑ See Joachim Raschke: The Greens. How they became what they are. Cologne 1993, p. 148.
  11. ↑ Goltermann was no longer there, he had withdrawn from politics.
  12. ↑ See Joachim Raschke: The Greens. How they became what they are. Cologne 1993, p. 157 f.
  13. ↑ See Joachim Raschke: The Greens. How they became what they are. Cologne 1993, p. 158
  14. ↑ See Joachim Raschke: The Greens. How they became what they are. Cologne 1993, p. 166.
  15. ↑ Reents made a career as a press spokesman and party-affiliated journalist, Stamm withdrew from politics after an episode as a PDS advisor for the western left.
  16. ↑ Cf. Jürgen Oetting, Grüne: Leiser Abgang statt Spaltung , die tageszeitung , April 9, 1990, p. 1.
  17. ↑ See Jürgen Oetting, Eco-Socialists turn their backs on the party , the daily newspaper, May 21, 1990, p. 4.
  18. ↑ See Jürgen Oetting, Another party is not hip , interview with Rainer Trampert, the daily newspaper, April 9, 1990, p. 4.
  19. ↑ Günter Hopfenmüller (* 1944 in Freising ) came to KB and Group Z via the DFU and SALZ . In none of the organizations he was one of the financially released cadres, but was one of the demonstration leaders of large anti-nuclear demonstrations in Brokdorf, Grohnde and Kalkar. See biographical note in: Michael Steffen, Stories from the Truffle Pig. Politics and Organization of the Communist Federation 1971 to 1991. Berlin 2002, p. 306 f.
  20. ↑ Christian Schmidt did not come from Group Z, but was added to the informal network around Ebermann / Trampert since the mid-1980s.
  21. ↑ Regula Schmidt-Bott did not come from Group Z, but has been part of the informal network around Ebermann / Trampert since the mid-1980s.
  22. ↑ Angelika Beer was elected to the top of the state list for the 1990 Bundestag elections by the Schleswig-Holstein Greens months after the Z-Aktives left the party. See Jürgen Oetting, Eco-Socialist Northern Lights , the daily newspaper, September 18, 1990, p. 6.
  23. ↑ The following presentation is based on the country study written by Joachim Raschke: Rise and decline of left-wing radicalism in ders., Die Grünen. How they became what they are. Cologne 1993, pp. 295-327.
  24. ↑ The following presentation is based on the country study written by Jürgen Oetting: Self-blockade in the north in Joachim Raschke, Die Grünen. How they became what they are. Cologne 1993, pp. 378-384.
  25. ↑ Trittin fitted in with the integrative Lower Saxony state association almost without a hitch. Other Z activists in the southern outskirts of Hamburg encountered dominant conservative currents in the district associations. See also the country study by Christopp Hohlfeld Green Eintracht Niedersachsen , in: Joachim Raschke, Die Grünen. How they became what they are. Cologne 1993, pp. 348-359, especially p. 351.
  26. ↑ See the country study by Raschke Linker Traditionalismus , in: ders., Die Grünen. How they became what they are. Cologne 1993, pp. 360-366, here p. 365.
  27. ↑ Information on the development in Hamburg is based on Joachim Raschke's country study Rise and Fall of Left-Wing Radicalism (Hamburg) . In other words: The Greens. How they became what they are. Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1993, pp. 295–327.
  28. ↑ For the Flensburger KB cf. the biographical note on Henning Nielsen (who was part of the remaining KB after the split) in: Michael Steffen, stories from the truffle pig. Politics and Organization of the Communist Federation 1971 to 1991. Berlin 2002, p. 312.
  29. ↑ Hennings, who came from Wilstermarsch and had played an important role in the resistance against the Brokdorf nuclear power plant, oriented himself towards Michael Stamm and the Left Forum after the election defeat and finally withdrew from politics
  30. ↑ Thereupon the local association of the Greens in Wedel (Pinneberg district) was dissolved and the work of the Greens also came to a standstill in the independent city of Flensburg. See Jürgen Oetting, Eco-Socialist Northern Lights , the daily newspaper, September 18, 1990, p. 6.
  31. ↑ Sönnichsen himself came from the KB local group Flensburg and had gone to Kiel for group Z. There he had come closer to realpolitical positions in years of local political work.
  32. ↑ See Jürgen Oetting, Eco-Socialists turn their backs on the party , the daily newspaper, May 21, 1990, p. 4.
  33. ↑ Gerd Langguth , Search for traces of the history of the Greens . In: Volker Kronenberg and Christoph Weckenbrock (eds.), Black-Green. Die Debatte , VS-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2011, ISBN 978-3-531-18413-5 , pp. 27-46, here p. 42.
  34. ↑ Thomas Ebermann , Rainer Trampert : The future of the Greens: A realistic concept for a radical party , Hamburg: Konkret-Literatur-Verlag, 1984, ISBN 3-922144-40-3 , p. 196.
  35. ↑ Thomas Ebermann, Rainer Trampert: The future of the Greens: A realistic concept for a radical party , Hamburg: Konkret-Literatur-Verlag, 1984, p. 194 f.
  36. ^ Joachim Raschke .: The Greens. How they became what they are. Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1993, p. 302.
  37. ↑ Joachim Raschke: The Greens. How they became what they are , Bund-Verlag, Cologne 1993, p. 473 ff.
  38. ↑ You tried to prevent criticism of the Eastern bloc within the Greens; Regina Wick: The wall has to go - the GDR should stay. The Greens' German policy from 1979 to 1990 . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2012, ISBN 978-3-17-022944-0 , p. 47.