Germany

This chapter discusses German nuclear energy policy in the entire post-war period. The use of nuclear energy gradually declined after a peak in the 1990s. Three major policy reversals occurred: first, the phasing-out phase by the SPD-Green government from 2002, second, a partial annulment of those measures by the CDU/CSU-FDP government in 2010, and, third, a new phasing-out phase after the Fukushima catastrophe in 2011. The chapter argues that the features of the German electoral system in combination with the decentralized federal system allowed a Green Party to cross the thresholds of parliamentary representation and relevance (executive participation) and to become the ‘owner’ of the nuclear energy issue. This issue ownership was essential for maintaining a high level of attention to nuclear energy and made possible the policy reversals.