The Green Party and the New Nationalism in the Federal Republic of Germany

When the editors of the New Left Review asked Rudolf Bahro to explain why, of the major capitalist countries, only West Germany had produced an ecology party of any importance, his answer was strangely evasive. While Bahro correctly identified the Greens as having a much broader base than ecology alone, he on the other hand not only failed to explain the astonishing rise of the German Greens but he also explicitly refused to acknowledge its peculiarly German characteristics. Although Bahro who officially left the party at its convention in June 1985-is certainly not representative of overall Green sentiments, the lack of reflection on the peculiarly German nature of the Greens is widespread within and outside the party