Introduction: The Nuclear Crisis, NATO’s Double-Track Decision, and the Peace Movement of the 1980s

In the fall of 1983 more than a million people all across West Germany gathered under the motto “No to Nuclear Armament” to protest the implementation of NATO’s Double-Track Decision of 12 December 1979 and the resulting deployment of Pershing II and cruise missiles in West Germany and other European countries.¹ The media overflowed with photos of human chains, sit-in blockades, and enormous protest rallies. The impressive range of protest events included street theater performances, protest marches, and blockades of missile depots. During the final days of the campaign there were huge mass protests with several hundred thousand participants, such