Calendar page: 10.6.1982: Grand demonstration against NATO double-decision

In the mid-1970s, the East-West conflict entered a new, aggravated phase due to growing tensions between the United States and the then USSR, particularly with regard to the deployment of nuclear medium-range missiles. The USSR equipped with SS-20 missiles - and Europe was thus in their field of attack.

In response, the foreign and defense ministers of the NATO member states decided on December 12, 1979, the NATO double-decision. In contrast, protest movements formed in the German public.

These protests were directed in particular against the planned deployment of US Pershing II missiles in the Federal Republic. The fear of a new armaments spiral and a threat of nuclear danger grew, it formed the peace movement.

Nuclear weapon-free zone

On June 10, 1982, the demonstrations reached its climax when US President Ronald Reagan arrived in Bonn on the occasion of the NATO summit. At one of the largest demonstrations in the history of the Federal Republic gathered around 400,000 participants on the Bonner Hofgartenwiese. They followed the call for a social alliance of parts of the churches, the unions, the SPD and the Greens. The demonstrators warned of the danger of another arms race between the superpowers and called for the repeal of the NATO double-track decision and the "creation of a nuclear weapon-free zone in Central Europe".

A speaker at the rally said at the Hofgartenwiese: "On the occasion of the NATO summit conference we will be demonstrating against the aggressive arms policy of Ronald Reagan and the Nato retrofit decision on June 10. By stationing weapons that destroy all life on earth in an emergency "We feel threatened." The NATO retrofit decision increases the danger of a war that none of us will survive, and that's what scares us. "

Opponents from the CDU and CSU, as well as the FDP and parts of the SPD, were among the supporters of the NATO double-decision. They warned of the threat of Soviet missiles. These would jeopardize the strategic balance in Europe as well as the loss of the protection of the Federal Republic by the Americans.

Double-zero option

Despite these protests, the Bundestag after a change of government in October 1982 under the leadership of then ruling CDU / FDP coalition narrowly approved the deployment of Pershing II missiles in the Federal Republic of Germany. It began in late 1983.

The dispute over the SS-20 and Pershing II rockets ended only with the so-called double-zero solution of 1987: Signed by the then US President Ronald Reagan and the Soviet party leader Michael Gorbachev, she saw an agreement between the two Blocks on the dismantling of all nuclear medium-range missiles.