Rudolf Bahro - Work in West Germany

Work in West Germany

In West Germany, Bahro soon joined the nascent party "The Greens". He has made a commitment to unite socialist and conservative currents in the new party. Given the ecological crisis is a "historic compromise" between these two political directions was necessary. That he formulated in the book elements of a new policy - the relationship between ecology and socialism (1980). A major difference to the position he had held in the alternative, was the fact that he now wanted to overcome the classical Marxism, as it fundamentally changed the environment is no longer appropriate.

Another new major motif in Bahro's thinking was religion. While in custody he had been heavily involved with the Bible, and when confronted with the reality of life in the West, he noticed that people in spite of material prosperity were not happy. He interpreted this as a lack of interiority and transcendence, and thus rejected the traditionally materialistic orientation of socialism. The decisive point is the goal of human emancipation, which had been represented in different ways by Karl Marx and Jesus Christ. In this context, Bahro was referring mainly to the early Christianity and to liberation theology.

Bahro was the beginning of 1980 graduated with Oskar Negt at the University of Hanover with his thesis rejected in Merseyside, which then appeared as a book entitled A Plea for Creative Initiative. In 1983 he gained his habilitation there in social philosophy.

At the Open, where Bahro in 1982 elected as assessor in the national board, he took more radical positions, with whom he soon fell by the wayside. In view of the then economic crisis, he advocated a fundamental restructuring of society in economic, environmental and social policy terms, which should be linked, among other things is a broad retreat from the world market and a move away from the fixation on the capitalist industrial system. He also became involved in the peace movement, where he advocated to overcome the confrontation and a nuclear-free Europe.

"Dare Commune" under the heading of the Bahro mingled in the discussion on alternative communities, led lively in the initial phase of the Greens. He intervened in the already mentioned alternative motive. The transformation of society must begin on a small scale, and that requires a change in the people themselves, which also includes a re-discovery of spirituality. He referred in particular to the Congregation of the Benedictines and the mystical experience of God.

In 1981 he visited the Korean People's Democratic Republic, where he was received as a state guest. This trip, he saw himself as his most important journey: be it a state, "done admirable building power" who had, and there is there a system "to satisfy all the basic requirements of security" in the.

Bahro spent in summer 1983 as part of a lecture tour of the United States a few weeks in the municipality of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (Osho) in Rajneeshpuram (Oregon). About this experiment he was very complimentary. Even during this lecture tour, and then also in the green environment in Germany, he looked so serious hostility. Rajneeshpuram was dissolved soon after it and Bhagwan left the United States had to Bahro indicated as a key reason for the failure of this project, the unreflective power structures.

After the Green Party in March 1983 for the first time entered the Bundestag, the question arose whether they would in the medium term join a coalition with the government (the SPD) or remain in opposition. Bahro was strongly committed to the latter option and was thus especially in conflict with Joschka Fischer. There was so Bahro said, no need for green reforms, but for a fundamentally new policy. In this context he used in his sensational "Hamburg speech" in December 1984 to make a comparison with the political and social situation in the Weimar Republic: At that time there had also been a broad movement in society, which was dissatisfied with the prevailing conditions and wanted to change this. What matters now, given the expected escalation of the crisis to prevent the former error and thus a renewed political disaster. In the Weimar Republic had the "brown" pole of the political spectrum (the Nazis) add the system-critical activity can because the left with the "Nationalist mythology in the guise, therefore, coming resistance to the alienating capitalist development" could not start. This could extend the expected Bahro "popular uprising" this time without violence, it was important that the Greens "are not lost" by being part of the system. Bahro also called for the overcoming of the right-left scheme: To get out of the minority position, the Greens should also "penetrate into the territory of the Bavarian CSU". Bahro's Hamburg speech culminated in the allegation that the "realos" to Joschka Fischer would seek out of greed for power, a situation that could lead to civil war and subsequent dictatorship, sparking violent protests by the addressee. But the competing "fundamentalists" or eco-socialist order Ditfurth were surprised.

In the summer of 1985 Bahro left the party and focused on the work on a new book published in 1987 under the title Logic of Salvation. In it he described a "logic of self-extermination", the consequences to humanity at present, and presented the a "logic of life" moment, which need substantially in a "leap in consciousness" exist, if the destruction of mankind should be avoided. required a radical conversion and a far-reaching withdrawal from the industrial "mega-machine" is. It was important to conduct an appropriate "rescue policy" in the way, before the worsening environmental crisis in a state of emergency and thus inevitably leads to an emergency government. As a feature of this policy called rescue Bahro Others the orientation toward long-term goals, the withdrawal of short-term tactics and the decentralization of sovereignty. But had to be found a majority of the population, and this policy must be supported by a movement that called Bahro as "Invisible Church" which he emphasized in his opinion necessary spiritual dimension. Useful approaches to such a policy, he expected more from a conservative on the left, noting in particular took up the CDU politician and critic Kurt Biedenkopf growth reference. Inspired by Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika Bahro was hoping for a "Prince of environmental change", and he suggested the establishment of a consensus-oriented, similar to the individual interests related to the British House of Lords before. The book first met with only limited and mostly negative response. Bahro's speech was criticized, especially by a prince and a turn of the invisible church.

Bahro 1986 held at his home in Worms so-called learning workshops, where people discussed his ideas and was meditating. Then he met Beatrice Ingermann, who in the Lower Town area (Eifel) had bee operating since 1983 a similar project that was also a community. Bahro joined in this project. In 1988 he married Beatrice Ingermann, with whom he soon had a daughter.