Much that is worth fighting for
In the “Talk im Econvent” series, former Minister of Justice Herta Däubler-Gmelin stressed how important it is to take on social responsibility. Given the many people who are getting involved, however, she looks to the future with hope: “There are more people again who take a clear stand.”
For almost four decades, Herta Däubler-Gmelin, who holds a doctorate in law, sat in the Bundestag. She was Federal Minister of Justice and deputy chair of the SPD, and with determination, fighting spirit and commitment she worked to break up encrusted political structures and for democracy and human rights – which did not only make her friends in her own party. In the “Talk im Econvent” series, the now 75-year-old has shown in conversation with EZ editor Alexander Maier that she has lost none of her love of debate.
Although Herta Däubler-Gmelin has since withdrawn from professional politics, her enjoyment of debate and her commitment to policies geared to people’s needs, to fair structures and to a future worth living have not diminished. “I see a lot of things that are worth fighting for,” she says. She is encouraged by the fact that so many people are involved in socially relevant areas. However, this is only partly reflected in official politics. “Many politicians, at state level too, are still well rooted in the life of their communities, but the further up I look, the more I notice that contact with the population and their lives and concerns is being lost. The inward-looking type of politician has increased,” says Däubler-Gmelin.
But criticism of encrusted structures, a lack of internal party democracy or missing visions for the future cannot by itself achieve anything. “We need a direction and a vision and to bring that together with practice – I learned that from Willy Brandt, and it has shaped me,” she says. However, young people with good ideas and political talent often do not find it easy to enter politics. The dominance of business, which offers good career opportunities, seems almost overwhelming, while political structures have become very unwieldy. “Yet there are many good people in the environmental and social sectors, representatives of civil society, and I regret that they don’t go into politics. But when civil society and politics drift apart, it becomes very difficult. We have to take action,” Herta Däubler-Gmelin is convinced.
She sees one possible way of breaking this up and thus reforming parliamentary democracy in including a “critical mass of people from civil society” on the parties’ electoral lists and in the parliamentary groups, and thus in the structures of professional politics. “With proposals like that you don’t only make friends in politics, though, and you can get quite a dressing-down. So it would be hard work, but worthwhile,” she says. She takes great hope from the fact that many young people are currently setting about questioning politics and its protagonists and denouncing their short-term, present-focused view. “Young people sense that the future will be destroyed if nothing changes now,” Herta Däubler-Gmelin notes.
Global consumption of raw materials is rising rapidly every year; by the middle of this month, the amount of resources mathematically available for 2019 will already have been irretrievably used up. “If we think this through, in three years nothing may be produced and traded that is not completely recyclable.” If the current short-term thinking continues, global conflicts over the remaining resources, over water and land, and enormous migration movements for sheer survival can be expected within just a few years. “We are threatened with a world in which nobody would want to live. Young people recognise this, and that is why something will change.”
Sustainable thinking, however, must not relate only to economic issues. “We have social responsibility – in our society and globally,” and the older generations must not sit back either. “It is not enough to praise our children for demonstrating for their future on Fridays. We also have to encourage them not to buy the cheap T-shirts made in Bangladesh on Saturdays,” says Herta Däubler-Gmelin. So despite some political imbalances, there is no reason overall for political pessimism. “There are more people again who take a clear stand, who get involved and who think of others, even when the wind is blowing in their faces – that gives me a lot of hope.”
First published in the Eßlinger Zeitung on 7 April 2019 by the author Peter Stotz