Debates about environmental protection shaped politics and society in the old Federal Republic during the 1970s and 1980s. The Greens entered parliaments and sustainably changed the political landscape. But what was it like on the other side of the wall? The study illustrates, through the environmentalists in the state mass organization Kulturbund, the role that environmental protection played in the GDR, the opportunities available to advocate for the environment, and how the topic eventually became political in the synchronized East Germany.