FoE Germany was founded in 1975 as a federation of pre-existing regional groups. Some local branches, like the Bavarian wing, Bund Naturschutz , date back to 1913. BUND has its origins in the nature conservation movement as well as the anti-nuclear protest movement of the 1970s. Today the organization is one of the most powerful environmental organizations in Germany. BUND has 365,000 members and supporters. Members are active in some 2,200 local and regional groups.
BUND joined Friends of the Earth International in 1989. BUND works on all of today's major environmental issues. Campaigning priorities are sustainable transport, fighting nuclear power, improving nature protection laws, and greening the German tax system. Internationally, BUND works on climate and trade policy and used to coordinate Friends of the Earth International's campaign on the World Summit for Sustainable Development (=Rio+10) in August 2002. BUND campaigns for workable alternatives to the current process of economic globalisation and has been at the forefront of the sustainable development debate.
In 1996, BUND published its national blueprint for a sustainable economy. The Sustainable Germany study is available as a book in English under the title "Greening the North" (Zed Books ; ISBN : 1856495086).

BUND´s particular strengths are its diverse local groups. Not only are our groups trusted on the local level, they also allow us to mobilize mass support on the national level when necessary. BUND thus was able to host one of the largest ever Friends of the Earth International actions in 2001: 4,000 activists from more than 30 countries came to the global climate talks in Bonn to build a giant "Lifeboat".

BUND also has its own youth branch, BUNDjugend , which consists of young people up to the age of 25 carrying out their own projects and campaigns. The most successful campaign so far has been " The Bet ", in which 150 schools had a bet against the German government. They maintained that they would be able to save more CO2 in eight months than the government has promised to save in eight years (-8%). They won - and The Bet afterwards entered in a second European -wide phase. .