Antje Vollmer (German:[ˈantjəˈfɔlmɐ]; 31 May 1943 – 15 March 2023) 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.
Vollmer was born in Lübbecke (Westphalia). Her parents ran a textile shop which they later had to close.[1] After graduating from Wittekind-Gymnasium Lübbecke in 1962, she studied Protestant theology in Berlin, Heidelberg,[2]Tübingen, and Paris,[3] completing her first theological exam in 1968, her second in 1971, and receiving her doctorate in 1973.[4] From 1969 to 1971, she was a research assistant at the Kirchliche Hochschule Berlin.[5] In 1971, she started a postgraduate course in adult education, which she completed in 1975.[1] From 1971 to 1974, she worked as a pastor in Berlin-Wedding, a problematic district at the time.[6] From 1976 to 1982, she was an instructor in adult education at the Heimvolkshochschule [de] of the Bethel Foundation in Bielefeld;[1] she collaborated with the local Protestant and Catholic organisations for rural young people (Landjugend), and experienced the beginning of the ecological movement.[3] She wrote a book related to the 20 July plot together with Lars-Broder Keil, Stauffenbergs Gefährten: Das Schicksal der unbekannten Verschwörer ("Stauffenberg's companions: The fate of the unknown conspirators"), which was published in 2013.[7]
In the 1970s, Vollmer was politically active in the Anti-Imperialist League (Liga gegen den Imperialismus [de]), close to the MaoistKPD/AO, but did not join the party.[8][9][10] They were activists against the Vietnam War.[1] She became a member of the Bundestag in 1983 on the ticket of the Green Party, although she was not a party member.[11] In 1985, she joined the Greens.[12] In 1984, she was elected to the party's board in parliament, as one of three women.[11][8][9] In 1985, she initiated a dialogue of the state and prisoners of the Red Army Faction. Within the party, she called in "Grüner Aufbruch" for a bridge between the "Realos" and "Fundis", those adjusting to the realities of possible developments, and fundamental thinkers.[11] Due to the party principle of rotation she had to give up the parliamentary seat in 1985, but was reelected in 1987 and again in 1994, 1998, and 2002.[13]
In November 1994, Vollmer was the first politician of the Green Party to be elected into the Presidium of the Bundestag. She remained vice president of the Bundestag until the 2005 elections, at which point, she did not run for re-election.[3]
In 1979, Vollmer gave birth to a son, Johann, whom she raised as a single mother.[6]
Vollmer died on 15 March 2023, at age 79.[11][17][18]
Katrin Göring-Eckardt, vice president of the Bundestag then, said of Vollmer, "She was there from the beginning and fought through much of what we benefit from today. And she kept her own head, unbending!" ("Sie war von Beginn an dabei und hat Vieles von dem durchgekämpft, wovon wir heute profitieren. Und sie hat ihren eigenen Kopf behalten, unbeugsam!)[11]
Vollmer, Antje; Wenzel, Hans-Eckard; AB Die Andere Bibliothek GmbH & Co. KG (2019). Konrad Wolf : Chronist im Jahrhundert der Extreme (in German). Berlin. ISBN978-3-8477-0416-4. OCLC1119103549.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
——; Dahn, Daniela; Klein, Dieter; Zimmer, Gabriele; Schulze, Ingo; Brie, Michael; Brandt, Peter; Gruppe Neubeginn (2022). Neubeginn Aufbegehren gegen Krise und Krieg : eine Flugschrift (in German). Hamburg: VSA-Verlag. ISBN978-3-96488-138-0. OCLC1313608482.
—— (2015). Hinter den Bildern die Welt : die untergegangene Bundesrepublik in den Filmen von Rainer Werner Fassbinder : ein Briefwechsel (in German). Berlin. ISBN978-3-941155-44-2. OCLC919438422.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
—— (2016). Die Neuwerkbewegung zwischen Jugendbewegung und religiösem Sozialismus (in German). Freiburg: Verlag Herder. ISBN978-3-451-31504-6. OCLC949778514.
Nida-Rümelin, Julian; Kumm, Mattias; Vad, Erich; Müller, Albrecht von; Weidenfeld, Werner; —— (2022). Perspektiven nach dem Ukrainekrieg Europa auf dem Weg zu einer neuen Friedensordnung? (in German). Freiburg: Verlag Herder. ISBN978-3-451-39524-6. OCLC1346145450.
—— (1984). --und wehret euch täglich! : Bonn, ein Grünes Tagebuch (in German). Gütersloh: G. Mohn. ISBN3-579-00570-7. OCLC12422216.
—— (1996). Heisser Frieden über Gewalt, Macht und das Geheimnis der Zivilisation (in German). München. ISBN978-3-423-30563-1. OCLC75816566.((cite book)): CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
—— (1986). Kein Wunderland für Alice? : Frauenutopien (in German). Hamburg: Konkret Literatur Verlag. ISBN3-922144-58-6. OCLC17413214.
—— (1991). Die schöne Macht der Vernunft : Auskünfte über eine Generation (in German). Berlin: Verlag der Nation. ISBN3-373-00468-3. OCLC27409029.
Vollmer, Antje (1973). Die Neuwerkbewegung : 1919-1935 : ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Jugendbewegung, des Religiösen Sozialismus und der Arbeiterbildung : Inaugural-Dissertation ... (in German). Berlin: [A. Vollmer]. OCLC868252249.
^Kühn, Andreas (2005). Stalins Enkel, Maos Söhne : die Lebenswelt der K-Gruppen in der Bundesrepublik der 70er Jahre (in German). Frankfurt/Main: Campus. p. 230. ISBN3-593-37865-5. OCLC62143825.
Oltmanns, Reimar; Schlei, Marie (1990). Frauen an der Macht : Marie Schlei, Renate Schmidt, Irmgard Adam-Schwaetzer, Rita Süssmuth, Antje Vollmer : Protokolle einer Aufbruchsära (in German). Frankfurt am Main: A. Hain. ISBN3-445-08551-X. OCLC24702191.
Speaker: Marieluise Beck-Oberdorf, Petra Kelly, Otto Schily until 3 April 1984; Annemarie Borgmann, Waltraud Schoppe, Antje Vollmer until 30./31. January 1985;
Sabine Bard, Hannegret Hönes, Christian Schmidt until 1 February 1986; Annemarie Borgmann, Hannegret Hönes, Ludger Volmer until 18 July 1986); Willi Hoss (8 September 1986)