70 FRANK BÖSCH AND JENS GIESEKE
of political demarcation. Similar to the social democratic and Catholic
milieus of the late nineteenth century, West German university towns and
large cities became home to a milieu with its own leftist-alternative infra-
structure, shared living spaces, ecologically friendly shops, “red” book-
stores, alternative childcare facilities, and a separate press. A colorful
youth culture emerged out of this scene around 1980 that sometimes tried
to consciously set itself apart from the rest of the milieu. This not only ap-
plied to the early punks who actually sought to defy the culture of the hip-
pies, but also to the so-called poppers, who aimed to create a seemingly
apolitical, consumption-based self-image that was in fact political in that it
attempted to establish a separate identity.^94 Lifestyles thus took the place
of older forms of expressing political convictions associated with social
classes. Despite the formation of new groups, lifestyles stood for individu-
alization because they off ered more choice than the old milieus, although
social background continued to play a major role in their profi les.^95
With the establishment of the Green Party, the alternative milieu and
the new social movements acquired a parliamentary foundation in the
West, which served to politically anchor and institutionalize its interests.
This move echoed developments in other Western countries, such as the
British “Ecology Party” (1975) or the “écologistes” in France who gained
over 10 percent of the vote in some major cities in the local elections in
- The German Green Party thus symbolized this transformation of
politics on several levels. For one, it united diff erent currents of political
thought. Although the undogmatic Left from the alternative milieu was
the largest group in the party, antiauthoritarian anthroposophists and
ecologically minded conservatives with rather preindustrial ideas, as well
as some communists, found themselves drawn to the Greens. One of the
main bonds holding the party together was its critique of consumption.^96
Following the dissolution of many leftist groups at the end of the 1970s,
the Green Party was like a political reservoir that was fed by the anti–
nuclear power and peace movements in particular. Simultaneously, it was
the indirect successor of the (Left-)Liberals who had attracted many mo-
tivated, well-read academics in larger cities and university towns. Even
the CDU saw the Greens as a serious threat to its voter base.^97 The Greens
were a symbol for the reformation of the rather rigid political system of
the FRG. They also stood for an attempt to alter party politics and the
way elections and parliamentary aff airs were being conducted. This was
refl ected in the Green’s ideas of grassroots democracy, the rotation of
parliamentary representatives, dual leadership, and the depersonaliza-
tion of politics.
Essentially, the Greens sought to build a new kind of bridge between
the protest movements in the East and the West. In 1983, for example,