Background
Vogt was born in Gelnhausen, Hesse-Nassau.
politician member of the German Bundestag
Vogt was born in Gelnhausen, Hesse-Nassau.
In 1975, he became involved with the anti-nuclear power movement in southwestern Germany and in succeeding years edited environmental magazines. In 1978, he was one of the co-founders of a regional predecessor to the Green party in Berlin, and campaigned for the European parliament in 1979. In the elections of 1983, Vogt was elected to the Bundestag, but resigned two years later because of the then prevailing Green rules of "rotation", which specified that legislators should share their terms with others, rather than serving out a full term.
In the following legislative period, he served as a legislative aide to the Green caucus of the Bundestag.
In this job, he drew on experiences from Rhineland-Palatinate, whose economy was heavily influenced by United States military bases. The Green party had opposed the United States military presence in the 1980s in Rhineland-Palatinate and developed numerous alternative concepts.
In 1996, Vogt joined the Brandenburg central committee of the Green party, and in 2000 was elected party chair of Brandenburg, serving until 2003. In the regional elections of 2004, he campaigned for the Brandenburg parliament, but the Green party failed to reach the 5% minimum required for representation.
He studied law and political science in Berlin. He was succeeded by Willi Tatge, and assumed the post of Rhineland-Palatainate party chair for two years (1986-1987). After the reunification of Germany, Vogt was hired by the "traffic light coalition" government of Brandenburg (consisting of the "red" (Social Democratic Party of Germany), "yellow" (Freie Demokratische Partei (Free Democratic Party)), and "green" (Alliance 90/The Greens) parties) to oversee the process of "conversion" — the transition of local economies that had been based on supporting Soviet military bases to a civilian economy.
He was the first member of the German Green Party to be elected to the Bundestag from Rhineland-Palatinate. He was also a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe between 1983 and 1985.