Editing Joschka Fischer (section)

==Green politician==
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F065084-0014, Bonn, Pressekonferenz der Grünen, Bundestagswahl.jpg|thumb|150px|left|Joschka Fischer on 17 February 1983]]

From 1983 to 1985, Fischer was a member of the [[Bundestag]] for the Green party. His stint in federal parliament saw him frequently engage in a frank and confrontational debating style, exemplified by an incident on 18 October 1984, when he addressed [[Richard Stücklen]], then vice president of the parliament, with the words: "If I may say so, Mr. President, you are an asshole" (German: "Mit Verlaub, Herr Präsident, Sie sind ein Arschloch."). In 1985, Fischer became Minister for the Environment in the [[Landtag of Hesse]] in the first governmental [[Red-green alliance|Red-Green coalition]] between the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD) and the Greens. Fischer caused a stir when he appeared at his oath of office ceremony wearing [[Athletic shoe|trainers]]. These trainers are now part of the shoe collection at the [[German Leather Museum|German Leather and Shoe Museum]] in [[Offenbach, Hesse]].

Fischer also expressed his thoughts very frankly in the periodical of the Hessian Green party "Stichwort Grün". In the edition of October 1989—one month before the fall of the Berlin Wall—he penned an article with the heading: "Der Wiedervereinigung die Schnauze verbieten!" (Shutting up the re-unification!){{Citation needed|date=May 2011}}

Fischer was again environment minister in Hessen from 1991 to 1994 and then became co-chairman of the Greens' parliamentary faction in the Bundestag. Fischer was respected for his oratory skills, as well as for his charisma on the political stage. For a large part of the 1990s, with the social democrats languishing in the opinion polls, Fischer's admirers referred to him as the "real" leader of the opposition.{{Citation needed|date=May 2011}} He parlayed his clout into political success, as he moved the Greens to the centre ground of German politics, paving the way for their first participation in the nation's federal government.