Josef Göppel has often been asked why he is still in the CSU. The long-standing member of the Bundestag and forester from Herrieden in Middle Franconia always answered that because of the C, the Christian in the name of the party.
Göppel was a practicing Catholic throughout his life. It was the Christian idea of creation that made him join the CSU in 1970 – when Göppel was 20 years old. And it was precisely this idea of creation that made him the most distinguished environmental politician that the CSU had in its ranks to date. As an environmental politician, Göppel has so often crossed paths with the Union that some in the CSU wished that Göppel would finally leave the party.
Living and working in harmony with nature, that was Josef Göppel’s basic political concern. He opposed nuclear power and was in favor of a speed limit on the Autobahn. He was against genetic engineering in agriculture and in favor of the energy transition. He supported the referendums against the widespread consumption in Bavaria and for the preservation of biodiversity.
From 1991 to 2017, Göppel was chairman of the working group on environmental protection and regional development of the CSU. In 2001, when he was still a member of the state parliament, he shaped his party’s first environmental program. When he moved to the Bundestag a year later, he was involved in the Renewable Energy Sources Act.
Even after his time as a member of the Bundestag, he remained combative. In 2018, Göppel took part in the successful lawsuit against the Federal Government’s inadequate climate protection law before the Federal Constitutional Court. In recent years he has been active as the Energy Commissioner for the German Development Ministry for Africa.
Josef Göppel has repeatedly been called the “green conscience of the Union”. He himself was much more ambivalent about his role. “There is a risk of being misused as a fig leaf,” he once said in retrospect. But he remained undeterred. He has had it confirmed by the Bundestag administration 27 times that he has voted against the federal government’s bills in the Berlin parliament. And quite a few times he supported initiatives by the Greens, for example when they mobilized against the cultivation of genetically modified maize.
Josef Göppel died on Wednesday at the age of 71. He leaves behind his wife Rosalinde and four adult daughters.