A Life for the Cause
German Green Party co-founder Eva Quistorp turns 80.
In 1979, she founded the German Green Party with Petra Kelly. In the 1980s, she organized the large peace marches in the then capital, Bonn. She also fights for women's rights. Today, Eva Quistorp turns 80.
Four hundred years ago, she might have been burned as a witch. Not only for her lion's red mane, but above all for her argumentativeness, stubbornness, and even persistence when it comes to expressing her own opinion. It was also because of this characteristic, which can be quite exhausting for those who listen to her or debate with her, that I have come to value Eva Quistorp as an interview partner for my own radio programs for many years.
Eva-Maria Quistorp was born on August 27, 1945, in Detmold, in western Germany. The family has been influenced by theologians since the 17th century, and Eva's father was a pastor of the Confessing Church. Starting in 1965, the daughter studied German, political science, and—one might almost say "naturally"—Protestant theology at the Free University of Berlin, under Helmut Gollwitzer, among others, who became known as a member of the Confessing Church during National Socialism. Eva Quistorp then initially became a high school teacher, but then moved to the federal chair of Alliance 90/The Greens and served on their behalf in the European Parliament from 1989 to 1994.
Eva was there when students protested against the state visit of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Persia in front of the Deutsche Oper in West Berlin on June 2, 1967. The student Benno Ohnesorg was shot in the back of the head by a policeman and died. At a subsequent "shock teach-in" in the packed Audimax of the Free University, Eva Quistorp took the "pulpit." “That's how I first met Eva”, a longtime friend Annette Eckert recalls, "how she stood courageously on the podium, truly all alone, and then, in a high, delicate, yet determined voice began.. to sing". Benno Ohnesorg's death spurred the growth of the left-wing German student movement. Eva Quistorp was friends with their spokesman, Rudi Dutschke. Since the 1970s, she has fought for women's rights and was involved in the preparation of World Women's Conferences. In 1983, she spoke in Washington at the 20th anniversary commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.'s legendary March on Washington and met, among others, his wife Cora, Stevie Wonder, and Angela Davis. The many famous names that bubble out of Quistorp's mouth when you talk to her feel less like name-dropping than a necessary list of personalities she has met in the course of her lengthy political engagement.
In the book "Cosmopolitan Germany? – Ten Theses That Will Change Our Country" (Herder, 2018), Eva Quistorp, co-author alongside former GDR civil rights activists Richard Schröder and Gunter Weißgerber, criticizes the federal government's immigration policies. The authors argue that a clear distinction between asylum seekers and economic migrants is essential in order to reduce incentives for uncontrolled migration. With this position, Eva Quistorp opposes the Green Party's party line. She also rejects the Islamic headscarf and the right to self-determination (Self-ID), which, since November 2024, has allowed people to change their gender once a year through an official registration. Despite her opposing views, Eva Quistorp has remained a member of the Green Party.
What impresses me most about this political activist is her tireless fighting spirit, despite all the setbacks – and her sense of humor. While it's often tinged with sarcasm, it's always tongue-in-cheek. She's never gotten over how, in her view, she was ruthlessly outmaneuvered within the party, primarily by male Greens. On the other hand, Eva Quistorp is realistic and honest enough to acknowledge that, in part, she herself – typically female, one might say – gave way to her fellow party members, both male and female, for the sake of the "greater cause." They didn't let this opportunity slip away – and are now the ones reaping generous pensions. Therefore, alongside her gallows humor, there's often a certain justifiable dose of bitterness when Eva Quistorp talks about her life.
She most recently did this for me in my June 2025 radio feature on a specific feminist method of peaceful resistance: "Sex Strike as Protest". In 2022, I asked the peace activist who, in the 1980s, called for "Get out of NATO" and a "No" to the stationing of American Pershing missiles in Germany, and who now supports arms deliveries to Ukraine: "Was it all in vain?" Were all the peace initiatives, including her own, in vain?
Then there was the call "Berlin must support the Iranian opposition" (2020). The "Beginning of the New Women's Movement" (2018) addressed the often underestimated role of women in the Extra-Parliamentary Opposition (APO) during the 1968 student revolts in Germany. And, last but not least, Quistorp's touching obituary for her political companion Petra Kelly, with whom she once founded the Green Party, along with Roland Vogt and the performance artist Joseph Beuys.
The Green Party-affiliated Heinrich Böll Foundation congratulates Eva Quistorp on her 80th birthday with a find from their Green Memory Archive - an interview published in 2010 with the title “The soul of the Greens”.
Dear Eva,
I wish you all the best for your birthday from the bottom of my heart! Continued strength, courage, and confidence for your political activities.
This text was first published on my German website.
PS: After reading my portrait for her birthday, Eva Quistorp e-mailed:
I find your first sentence terribly fitting. As a child, I was also looked at askance as a witch. And I was probably only so clever because of my long hair.. (..) And in West Berlin, I took my teacher's exam on the topic of witches. Then the students asked, “Ms. Quistorp, why didn't the witches organize themselves?” As you've noticed, that's stuck with me to this day: I love organizing potential witches.”. (..)