Eckhard Stratmann-Mertens, formerly known as Eckhard Stratmann, (born 3 April 1948 in Oberhausen, North Rhine-Westphalia) is a former politician and Green Party member of the German Bundestag. Before and after serving in the Bundestag, he taught at a secondary school in Bochum, Germany.
Stratmann-Mertens was a founding member of the German Green Party and in 1983, when the Greens were first elected to the Bundestag, he was one of those elected from the proportional party list (Landesliste). He was elected to the 10th German Bundestag from the Landesliste of North Rhine-Westphalia. He was the first member of the Green Party faction to speak before the German parliament. Wearing corduroys and an open shirt, he introduced himself in the Bundestag, first to the citizens of Germany, then to the members of the German parliament. [1]
He was a member of the Bundestag until 31 March 1985, when he left his seat, following the principal of rotation in office. He served a second time as a Green Party faction member of the 11th German parliament from 1987 to 1990. Stratmann-Mertens was the political spokesman for the economic and energy faction in the Bundestag. [2]
Stratmann-Mertens and other anti-war activists called at a special Green Party convention in Bielefeld on 13 May 1999 for an immediate halt to the NATO bombing in the Kosovo War, but were unsuccessful getting the party to adopt the position. In protest, he and others resigned that day. Stratmann-Mertens announced he would launch a new national network for other peace activists who also wanted to leave the Greens. [3]
Stratmann-Mertens is the spokesman of the Bochumer Bürgerinitiative gegen die DüBoDo, (a Bochum citizens' initiative against a proposed autobahn that would connect Düsseldorf, Bochum and Dortmund, rather than expand already existing highways). He has been a member of attac since 2001. Following his terms in the Bundestag, Stratmann-Mertens returned to his teaching position at the Albert-Einstein-Schule, a German-English bilingual gymnasium in Bochum, Germany, where he taught social sciences, history and religion (Protestant). [4] He then taught at the Neues Gymnasium Bochum, a new school formed by a merger of the Albert Einstein School with the Gymnasium am Ostring. He retired in July 2013.
The German Green Party has been present in the German parliament (Bundestag) continuously since 29 March 1983 as a parliamentarian party. The status as a fraktion was lost from 1990 to 1994, being demoted to a Gruppe (group), after only the East German wing managed to pass the 5% election threshold in the December 1990 German federal election.
Antje Vollmer was a German Protestant theologian, academic teacher and politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens. She became a member of the Bundestag in 1983 when the Greens first entered the West German parliament, before joining the party in 1985. From 1994 to 2005, she was Vice President of the Bundestag, the first Green in the position. She was a pacifist.
Philipp Mißfelder was a German politician and a member of the German Bundestag. From January through March 2014, he served in the German government as the Coordinator for Transatlantic Cooperation in the Field of Intersocietal Relations, Cultural and Information Policy.
Josef Philip Winkler is a German nurse and politician of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen who has been chairing his party's chapter in Rhineland-Palatinate since 2016. He previously served as a member of the Deutscher Bundestag from 2002 to 2013. During that period, he was his parliamentary group's deputy chairman from 2009 to 2013.
Lamya Kaddor is a German writer and scholar of Islamic studies of Syrian ancestry who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since the 2021 elections. She is the founder and chairwoman of the Liberal-Islamic Association and is known for introducing Islamic education into German public schools.
Gerhard Schick is a German economist and finance expert who heads Finance Watch Deutschland. He previously served as a member of the German Bundestag for the Green Party.
Kai Gehring is a German politician of the Green Party who has been serving as a Member of the German Parliament since 2005.
Albert-Einstein-Schule was a Gymnasium for boys and girls from grades 5–13 in Bochum, Germany. It had about 900 students. Just south of downtown Bochum, the school was in the Wiemelhausen section of town and shared a campus with the Hans Böckler Realschule. The school had an emphasis in natural science and English. It had a bilingual program, where some classes were taught in English, rather than German. In 2008, the school was certified as a "Europaschule" (de) by the Ministry of Schools of North Rhine-Westphalia. The school held its final day of classes on 14 July 2010.
Rüdiger Sagel is a German politician currently with the Left Party and previously with the Alliance '90/The Greens. From 1998 until 2012 he was a member of the state parliament (Landtag) for North Rhine-Westphalia. On 30 June 2012 he and Gunhild Böth were elected in Münster as state spokespersons for the Left in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Irene Mihalic is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens from Gelsenkirchen. A former police officer, Mihailic has been a member of the Bundestag since 2013.
Olaf in der Beek is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2017.
Karlheinz Busen is a German civil engineer and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2017.
Maria Anna Klein-Schmeink is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2009.
Markus Kurth is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2002.
Sven Lehmann is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2017.
Bernhard Daldrup is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2013.
Janosch Dahmen is a German physician and politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since 2020, representing the Hagen – Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis I district.
Nyke Slawik is a German politician and member of the Bundestag representing the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia on the Alliance 90/The Greens list. Upon her election in the 2021 German federal election, Slawik and fellow politician Tessa Ganserer together became the first openly transgender people elected to the German parliament.
Felix Banaszak is a German politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since the 2021 German federal election.
Ophelia Johanna Nick is a German veterinarian and politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since the 2021 national elections, representing the Mettmann II district.