Atomkraft? Nein Danke! The Secret to Germany's Anti-Nuclear Success.

• Author: Hockenos, Paul

Late this March, at the biggest anti-nuclear energy rally in Germany--and, very possibly, ever in all of Europe--this determined mass movement was, unknowingly, on the brink of its greatest triumph after nearly four decades of resistance.

It was a chilly but sun-blessed Saturday in Berlin as the high-spirited procession--an estimated 120,000 protesters--snaked along the banks of the Spree River and through the Kaiser's one-time playground, the lush Tiergarten, en route to the cube-shaped, cement monstrosity that is the Kanzleramt, the office of Germany's chancellor. Grandmas and grandpas walked along as young couples pushed strollers, teenagers zipped by on rollerblades, African drummers performed, followed by anarchist rappers on the heels of DJs playing techno tracks. Under banners and hand-painted placards, you could make out the loose clusters of organized supporters: the leftwing parties, Protestant parishes, trade union branches, the national anti-nuclear organizations, and a bewildering array of local, environmentally minded citizens' groups, many bused in from across northern Germany.

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In this colorfully do-it-yourself demo, there was one ubiquitous symbol emblazoned on balloons, flags, stickers, and faces: the smiling, red sun against a yellow background with the simple message that read Atomkraft? Nein Danke! (Nuclear Power? No thank you!).

Over the course of nearly forty years, Germany's anti-nuclear movement has swayed public opinion against nuclear energy and spawned a political party that took its concerns to the top of the republic. The Fukushima disaster forced the German government's hand, but it was the reservoir of popular distrust and the solid arguments against nuclear energy that left Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration with no alternative but to abruptly reverse itself in late May and commit Germany to abandon the atom once and for all. In an epic U-turn--a crowning achievement for Germany's nonukes movement--Merkel shut down eight of the country's seventeen reactors and pledged to close the others by 2022, when more than a third of Germany's energy needs will be fueled by renewable sources.

"This happened so fast in Germany and not elsewhere because so much groundwork had been done," explains Luise Neumann-Cosel of the group x-tausendmal quer, which organizes blockades of nuclear waste transports. "Fukushima brought more people than ever into the streets, but we had been mobilizing like...