Why Strößenreuther, founder of the Climate Union, is leaving the CDU

Heinrich Strößenreuther does not skimp on harsh criticism: “The CDU is consciously negating the drama of the climate collapse and its economic consequences,” he writes on the social platform X (formerly Twitter). The CDU party leadership shows “too little willingness to deal with scientific facts.” Instead, one hears “increasingly Trumpian populist and anti-climate protection tones.”

It is the party of which he was most recently a member that Strößenreuther is talking about. At the beginning of 2021, the well-known, sometimes polemical, bicycle and climate activist joined the CDU. Only a short time later he co-founded the so-called Climate Union. The association, of which Strößenreuther was chairman from its founding until the beginning of 2022, says it is committed to ensuring that the “CDU/CSU becomes a pioneer for pragmatic climate policy”.

Now, in a high-profile move in the middle of the election campaign, Strößenreuther is not only announcing that he is leaving the Union, but also joining the Greens: This is “currently the only party that recognizes both the drama of climate collapse and the opportunities and risks for it the German economy,” said the 57-year-old.

He was a member of the Green Party until 2015 – but left at that time in order to be independent for his involvement in a citizens’ initiative for bicycle traffic. So wasn’t the Union serious anyway? Was it even an attempt at infiltration, as some in the party suspected?

This accusation always bothered him, Strößenreuther now told “Spiegel”. As he has repeatedly emphasized in the past, he comes from a middle-class family and was influenced by the church community. While studying business informatics at the University of Mannheim, he received a scholarship from the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

He then worked, among other things, as a campaigner at Greenpeace and as a manager at Deutsche Bahn before becoming self-employed as a transport consultant. In 2015, the man with a knack for sensational campaigns initiated the bicycle referendum in Berlin, which led to the country’s first mobility law at the state level.

He has been “at the interface between ecology and economy” for 30 years, he told “Spiegel” and has tried to “translate the Union’s commitment to climate protection into concrete Christian Democratic politics.” The Climate Union was therefore a serious concern. When founding the association, he also saw the problem that “the climate protection movement had tilted to the left” and did not offer “concerned citizens” a platform.

When Strößenreuther joined the Berlin CDU, chairman Kai Wegner, now the governing mayor of Berlin, spoke of a “prominent and exciting member” for his party. Because in Germany he helped to “change the discourse on the necessary climate protection efforts in a way that was free of ideology and based on values.”

However, the climate union was controversial in the party from the start – and Strößenreuther repeatedly caused offense. When he told “Welt” at the beginning of 2022 that energy should not be too cheap, CDU leader Friedrich Merz commented on X: “Mr. Strößenreuther and the Climate Union do not speak for the CDU.”

After just a little less than four years of membership, Strößenreuther is obviously not just leaving the Union because its climate protection efforts are not enough for him. But because he complains about a “shift in the discourse ever further to the right.” “Merz and Söder are increasingly adopting AfD language not only on migration issues, but also on climate and environmental protection,” he told the “Tagesspiegel”.

As a simple Green Party member, Strößenreuther now wants to get involved in the Green Party election campaign. He has been an avowed fan of black and green for years. After the early elections in February, this could be an option when forming a government – and for the Greens it is currently the only realistic power option.