European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 4, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Of inter of Watt Gorman often parly Federal Board voting during a session in University City of Freiburg. Black Forest everything s coming up Green  new York Tissa Lovely medieval University City cradled Between the Rhine and the Black Forest Freiburg boasts of having the most hours of Sunshine in the Federal Republic making it very roughly a German Florida a lot of older germans corns South to retire there. Some of them join an even larger number of their Kelsow Cill Zens in backing the Green parly. This has brought about a gentle upheaval in the City s political life. In last january s parliamentary elections 21 percent of Freiburg s voters cast their ballots Lor the greens More than anywhere else in the country in some City Dis if ids Iho parly topped 40 percent. Well before this coup the greens had entrenched themselves in Freiburg s politics enabling a social democratic spa mayor to get elected and so infiltrating the social democratic party s thinking that the organization resembles a Green clone. Erma Bombeck even the once robustly conservative Christian democrats cd have caught the Green Bug and. In the aftermath of the chernobyl catastrophe joined the res of the City Council in demanding abandonment of nuclear Power a position 180 degrees removed from that of a Christian democratic Chancellor n Distant Bonn. With 20 percent greens in Freiburg the other parties can t do politics the Way they do elsewhere said jargon Biller a 30-year-old Green politician and out of work sociologist. We have Learned that we can make majorities and push things through. We be Learned the rules of the  the greening o1 Freiburg is More than a decade old and goes Well beyond the presence of 22,000 University students in a population of 180,000. The first catalyst was a protest movement started in Trie Early 1970s in the nearby town of Syhl by Farmers who feared that a planned nuclear Power Plant would ruin their vineyards. The f a Mars were joined by University students and townspeople and the Christian democratic governor of Baden Wurt Troberg state made the Blunder of branding them nil Tell Wing radicals Tho accusation Inlet Silion Tho movement ant Iho Syhl Plant was ultimately hoi a tilt. It was really Iho  1h.il took to the.  said Michael diffs Iho courtly editor of the Badt Scho Zeitung. A newspaper int is somewhat to Tho left of most West German regional dailies. So Iho environmental discussion started sooner Here than anywhere in the Federal Republic or even in  the Whf experience spawned some of the bunders of the coalition that became the greens in 1979. The Young parly won 3.6 percent of the City s vote in the 1980 parliamentary elections and 13 4 percent three years later. One of the most striking consequences of the greens ascent has been a sleep drop in the social democrats electoral fortunes in this Corner of West Germany the social democrats have drawn inspiration irom Ellard up plur a protestant Layman pacifist and anti american guru whose general View of the world is pretty Green. Vet the More the spa sounds Hoo Tho greens Iho less Well they do it is simply that the greens Are More credible particularly in their engagement for he  said Margot Oslo tech a local social democratic Leader who pronounced the greens showing in january "unnerving.". The greens have not suffered from a Lack of causes the movement against the deployment of american medium Range missiles prompted the City Council to proclaim Freiburg an Alom free  the Industrial poisoning of the Black Forest and the Rhine and nuclear Power projects in neighbouring prance and Switzerland have spurred other protests. The latest action is a Boycott of the West German census on the grounds that ii Isan invasion of privacy. In Freiburg the greens have pushed bicycle paths the recycling of waste the advancement of women in the bureaucracy Energy saving programs and cheap bus tickets. They have also championed an underground counter culture radio station that broadcasts illegally irom a transmitter that is moved from House 1o House one jump ahead of the police card Zielke. A University political scientist said one secret of the greens Success was a finely structured subculture of bookstores cafes and restaurants pottery carpentry and bicycle repair shops and groups for women homosexuals and psycho social encounters which can All be mobilized Tor political goals. Yet in elections the greens cast their nets wider to lawyers architects doctors University professors end other professionals in a City that has no real Blue Collar class. The greens Are not themselves members of the establishment Mielke said but they Are certainly part of the  As they become enmeshed in daily politics the greens have gradually shed some of their More extravagant objectives. At the National level the party is torn Between its realist and fundamentalist wings but in Freiburg the realists have clearly triumphed. Mayor Roll Bohme who depends on the greens to Gal legislation through the City Council gives the Young party High Marks for the Quality of its legislative work and the expertise it brings to various questions. But the mayor who As a right Wing social Democrat is out of step with his left listing party in Freiburg placed Tia Rosa of the greens in a gloomier context of weakened institutions discredited politicians and a nation disconnected irom its history and inclined to emotionalism in politics. All the big institutions have been Stven the Christian democrats. The social democrats the Trade unions said the mayor who was a High finance ministry Cal Ileal when Helmut Schmidt was Chancellor. The other Day i was separating hamburger patties by balancing a Large meal Cleaver Between the slices and tapping the handle with a rotting pin. My husband stood at my Elbow and said you Are going to Cut your hand off with that knife when it  Are to Haifa no surprises in Lite i said dryly. You know what i mean he said. For years the Prince of darkness has seen fit to Slink around my Kitchen looking Over my shoulder and making Diro predictions. I know that if i continue la poke lettuce Down a spinning disposer i will never throw another Frisbee with my right hand As Long As i live. If i insist upon putting he Blades of my food processor in the dishpan i can say goodbye to gloves with 10 fingers. And i be never Lakan a casserole out of an oven in my Lite balanced tool Woon iwo works that to has t said you Page 16 the stars and stripes Are going to Burn yourself beyond  what most men Don t realize is that is average Kitchen is a War zone. Tubes of biscuits exploding All around you pots boiling Over floors mined with grease and steam fogging up your glasses bringing visibility