War and Peace and the Greens of Germany (Green Political Party‪)‬

The color green is not usually associated with anger. But some leaders of the Green political party in Germany have turned purple with rage in recent months. And they are still simmering. The party of the Greens is not the same as the related party in the USA or other countries. True, when it developed in West Germany during the 1970s and 1980s it was a militant fighting outfit devoted to environmental protection, feminism, anti-fascism, social improvements and pacifism as well as to opposing atomic energy plants. In those days, it was a leading party on the left, and its unusually informal clothing, taking babies to meetings, and male and female members busy knitting during conferences were ridiculed in the press, but brought some fresh wind into the stuffy legislatures of the day. Then there was a split between the so-called Fundies--the fundamentalists, who insisted on left-wing goals and slogans like socialism--and the Realos, the realists, the pragmatic wing of the party. The latter won out, and many leftists quit. They were partially replaced after 1990 by members of the "Alliance 90" from East Germany, made up of intellectuals who had been active in bringing about the downfall of the East German government and who were hardly leftist in their views.