Eckhard Stratmann-Mertens, formerly known as Eckhard Stratmann, (born 3 April 1948 in Oberhausen,

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more than 18 million inha ...

) is a former politician and

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...

member of the German

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...

. Before and after serving in the Bundestag, he taught at a secondary school in Bochum, Germany.

National and local activity

Stratmann-Mertens was a founding member of the German Green Party and in 1983, when the Greens were first elected to the

, he was one of those elected from the proportional party list (''Landesliste''). He was elected to the 10th German Bundestag from the ''Landesliste'' of

. 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. He was a member of the Bundestag until 31 March 1985, when he left his seat, following the principal of

rotation in office In the United States, term limits, also referred to as ''rotation in office'', restrict the number of terms of office an officeholder may serve. At the federal level, the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution limits the president of ...

. 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. Stratmann-Mertens and other anti-war activists called at a special Green Party convention in

Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Detmold and the ...

on 13 May 1999 for an immediate halt to the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

bombing in the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the wa ...

, 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. Stratmann-Mertens is the spokesman of the ''Bochumer Bürgerinitiative gegen die DüBoDo,'' (a Bochum citizens' initiative against a proposed

autobahn The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track' ...

that would connect

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

, Bochum and Dortmund, rather than expand already existing highways). He has been a member of

attac The Association pour la Taxation des Transactions financières et pour l'Action Citoyenne (''Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Citizen's Action'', ATTAC) is an activist organisation originally created to promote the e ...

since 2001. Following his terms in the Bundestag, Stratmann-Mertens returned to his teaching position at the

Albert-Einstein-Schule 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 Böck ...

, a German-English bilingual '' gymnasium'' in Bochum, Germany, where he taught

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...

, history and religion (Protestant).Group photo and faculty list
Albert Einstein School, Bochum. Retrieved February 21, 2010 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 The Gymnasium am Ostring was the oldest gymnasium in Bochum. It was founded in 1860 and closed after the 2009-2010 school year. The school was located in downtown Bochum, near the main train station. In the 2005-2006 school year, there were 78 ...

. He retired in July 2013.

References

External links

Eckhard Stratmann-Mertens website
* in Essen, Germany (May 28, 2011). Retrieved June 28, 2011
Albert Einstein School, Bochum, Germany

(Bochum citizens' initiative against a new highway) 1948 births Living people People from Oberhausen Members of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia People from Bochum Members of the Bundestag for Alliance 90/The Greens {{Alliance 90/The Greens