Germany's Greens have been at the receiving end of ever more acrimonious attacks by their political opponents, while their leading politicians are facing a fierce headwind on social media. At a time when the far right and populists are celebrating a string of election successes on a platform of tougher immigration policies, the environmentalists are struggling to push their key issues: The energy transition and climate protection.

Germany's Green Party has a long history of ups and downs: In 1990, the year of German reunification, when the population was chiefly concerned with the two halves of the country coming together peacefully, the Greens wanted to focus on environmental protection. This resulted in a poor result at the ballot box in the general election of that year, and the party almost lost representation in the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, altogether.

Then, in 1999, when the Greens were in government alongside the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), they followed their party's Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and approved Germany's participation in the NATO mission in Kosovo — a break with the party's pacifist traditions. Tens of thousands of members left the Greens at the time.

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The Greens have suffered a series of disappointing election results this year. First, in the European election........

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