Joschka Fischer turns 75: from revolutionary to advisor to the establishment

He came to the swearing-in in sneakers. His bad moods are legendary. And even as foreign minister, he had to deal with crises and disasters. Now the revolutionary from the past turns 75.

“I’m not alien to a certain personal radicalism, I can’t deny that. (…) I’ve always had an authority problem,” says Josef Martin Fischer, aka Joschka, the revolutionary with an authority problem.

He was the first politician to be sworn in in sneakers. A minister in sneakers – they say disrespectfully in Hesse and have no idea how Fischer will later torpedo the authority of the Bundestag Vice President in Bonn. Richard Stücklen had excluded him from the meeting because of several heckling. In Pepe Danquart’s cinema documentary “Joschka und Herr Fischer”, Fischer remembers: “Then I got up and the words were said that are no longer in the record: With all due respect, Mr. President, you are an asshole.”

These are the times when the Greens are still considered a strange species: Easter marchers, feminists, bushy beards, eco slippers. And of course Fischer: He is standing at the lectern with sunglasses and baggy pants. In the early days, his appearance was pure provocation. He – the school dropout, taxi driver, stone thrower – falls out of all frames. Like Robert Habeck today, but very different. “We are different, very different. I appreciate Robert very much, but I’m a completely different guy,” says Fischer.

change over the years

The type of fisherman changes over the years. Trade sneakers for brogues. Sometimes he’s fat, sometimes he’s thin. And he’s rarely in a good mood. His bad mood is legendary. Journalists in particular feel it. “Seeing you all here like this makes me wonder what you actually want from me,” he once said to a few of them.

With the Greens, Fischer is fighting the Fundis – they are questioning his authority. At the party conference in Bielefeld in 1999, bags of paint fly – because Fischer, who has arrived in the establishment of foreign ministers, wants to send German soldiers to go to war in the Balkans. He bluntly shrugs off criticism: “Yes, come on now, I was just waiting for it. This is a warmonger speaking and you’re nominating Mr. Milosevic for the Nobel Peace Prize soon, aren’t you?”

US authority openly challenged

Crises, conflicts, catastrophes are Joschka Fischer’s job. In the Iraq war, the United States met a German foreign minister who did not follow their line and openly questioned US authority. It is the first time that a federal government has taken a stand against the United States. That was in 2003. Two years later, Red-Green was voted out.

Foreign Minister Fischer left the political arena and turned his career around. The revolutionary of the past now advises the establishment. Entrepreneurs and politicians seek his advice. “Overall, I can’t complain,” he says with satisfaction.