Alliance 90/The Greens (Germany)

Bündnis 90/Die Grünen

Last modified: 2002-04-12 by santiago dotor
Keywords: politics | green party | gruenen | alliance 90/the greens | bündnis 90/die grünen | text: german | sunflower | hedgehog |
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3:5
by Marcus Schmöger

• Introduction
• Description
• Green Party 1980-1993 (Grüne Partei / Die Grünen)
• Alternative List Berlin (Alternative Liste (Berlin))
• Alliance 90 1990-1993 (Bündnis 90)
• Flag Variant

See also:

• Political Parties (Germany)
• Germany

The Green Party (Die Grünen or The Greens) has been the most successful of new party foundations in Germany of the last decades. Die Grünen were founded in 1979 and successfully took part in federal parliament elections since 1983. In 1993 they merged with the civil rights union Bündnis 90 (Alliance 90) of the former German Democratic Republic. Since then the party is known as Bündnis 90/Die Grünen. Since 1998 they are part of the coalition government of chancellor Schröder (SPD), the most significant politician of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen being foreign minister Joschka Fischer. Bündnis 90/Die Grünen are an ecological party, a civil-rights party, an antimilitary and antinuclear party.

Marcus Schmöger, 14 August 2000

Alliance 90-The Greens don't use flags very frequently. The Bavarian branch does have one or a few of the flags (as shown on FOTW). However, up to now I have always seen flags with a plain reverse (i.e. there is nothing printed on the reverse, only on the obverse).

The Berlin branch of the party (Alternative Liste Berlin), that has a remarkable autonomy in the party, seems to use a different flag with a hedgehog.

Marcus Schmöger, 20 March 2002

Bündnis 90/Die Grünen sent me an e-mail with information on the party flag. The flag is actually just an enlarged party logo. It has been used for several years during major party events. I found some pictures on Internet, where two prominent green politicians took part in a Christopher Street Day demonstration, on their truck there were two of the party flags as a decoration. After these pictures I made the image above. Further pictures of the logo etc. can be found at the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen website.

Marcus Schmöger, 14 August 2000

Grüne Partei / Die Grünen

3:5
by Jens Pattke
Flag used c.1980-c.1993, possibly later

The Green Party (Grüne Partei) was established 1980 and was called in short simply The Greens (Die Grünen). The party was a union of citizen initiatives and ecological groups. The Greens had a completely green flag with their logo of a sunflower and the white inscription Die Grünen.

Jens Pattke, 27 March 2001

Alternative Liste (Berlin)

3:5
by Jens Pattke
Flag adopted 1980

In the city-states of Berlin and Hamburg, the Green Party was not present, ecological ideas being supported there by the Alternative List Berlin (Alternative Liste (Berlin)) and the Green Alternative List Hamburg (Grüne Alternative Liste (Hamburg)). The Berlin Alternative List flew a blue flag with in the middle a white hedgehog on a green base.

Jens Pattke, 27 March 2001

Bündnis 90

With the peaceful revolution, a political alliance of citizens originated in the German Democratic Republic and East Berlin. On the 7th February 1990 the citizen movements New Forum (Neues Forum), Democracy Now (Demokratie Jetzt) and Initiative for Peace and Human Rights (Initiative Frieden und Menschenrechte) merged into the Alliance 90 (Bündnis 90). It only had a blue logo on white. In September 1990, the alliance became a party in the five East German states.

In May 1993 the Green Party (including the Alternative List Berlin and the Green Alternative List Hamburg) and Alliance 90 joined into Alliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen).

Jens Pattke, 27 March 2001

3:5
by Jens Pattke

Alliance 90/The Greens used a white flag with in the centre the logo: a blue and a green horizontal stripes, surrounded by a wreath of sunflower yellow leaves. On the stripes the names of both original parties in white lettering. As variation, a flag of the Alliance 90-The Greens is used without the white border.

Jens Pattke, 27 March 2001

One of the problems with German party flags is that there are always variants available, either homemade or made somewhere more centrally. One never knows if these are official or semi-official variants, or old variants etc. If they are old variants, they would be used until unserviceable. You wouldn't get any good information from the party headquarters on the flag variants.

Marcus Schmöger, 20 March 2002