POLITICAL TRANSFORMATIONS 71
fi gureheads Petra Kelly and Gert Bastian unrolled a large poster to-
gether with other parliamentarians on Alexanderplatz in Berlin that read,
“Schwerter zu Pfl ugscharen” (swords to plowshares). When they were
later invited to meet with Erich Honecker in the fall of the same year,
Kelly also wore a t-shirt bearing this symbol.^98
But, just how infl uential were these political groups? One can certainly
say that they were successful when it came to setting the agenda. They
also fostered an awareness of a looming crisis among the population that
was not retrospective in nature, but rather looked toward the future in
matters such as renewable energy sources, gender equality, or disarma-
ment.^99 Likewise, they pushed the West German government to try to
catch up with the environmental protection policies of forerunners such
as the United States and Japan. That said, historians still disagree over
the role of these groups in the peace movement. Some scholars suggest
that the peace movement brought about disarmament, but the majority
contend that Gorbachev and the economic crisis in the Communist bloc
were the main factors.^100 However, it has often been overlooked that other
actors such as the state, the schools, or the media also contributed sig-
nifi cantly to reforms and shifts in attitudes.
Regardless of these debates, the question still remains as to just how
closely all of this was related to the parallel development of an “alterna-
tive,” antiauthoritarian milieu in the GDR that set itself apart not only
from the state, but also from mainstream society. Waves of a youth sub-
culture certainly spilled over from the West, which were easily recogniz-
able by a common habitus on both sides of the Wall. Church-based peace
and youth groups also worked with partners across the border, and even
the punks maintained cross-border contacts. Likewise, the axis between
West German Greens and East German opposition initiatives was one of
the most stable elements of the 1980s. A kind of “biotope” marked by in-
tensive exchange developed between East and West Berlin in particular,
not least thanks to the many people within this scene who left the GDR
for the West.^101
Yet, the East German “alternative scene” faced diff erent problems than
its Western counterpart. In terms of “politics,” the main diff erence was
that this scene spawned fewer organized political activities, and it was
marginalized in a much more fundamental way. A broad movement of
citizens’ initiatives was not an option; all the activities of such initiatives
relied on the most rudimentary forms of organization within the private
sphere. These circumstances made it necessary for this scene to main-
tain a fundamental distance from the established political realm. Con-
sequently, this broad milieu developed a truly distinct political quality
because it may have fl irted with the literary subculture and the organized