Petra Kelley (1947-1992) was a lifelong campaigner of extraordinary energy and dedication. She was a cofounder of the German Green Party, then its chairman and then a German MP. She was murdered in 1992 in strange circumstances.
She
was born Petra Karin Lehmann in Bavaria
but changed her name to Kelley after her mother remarried. She was educated in
Bavaria and the USA and won degrees from universities in Washington and Amsterdam.
After graduating she worked for the European Commission and then for the Economic
and Social Committee.
From
1968 till her death she engaged in a range of political campaigns for peace,
non-violence, ecology, feminism, human rights and for the support of cancer
sufferers.
In the US she campaigned
for Bobby Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. In Germany she first supported Willy
Brandt but left the Social Democrats over defence and energy policy. In 1979
she became a co-founder of the Green Party and party chairman in 1982. She was elected to the Bundestag in 1982 and again in 1987 where her high profile and energy made her the world’s best-known Green campaigner. Despite this the Greens did badly in the 1990 elections and Kelley lost her seat, but continued to campaign on the issues she cared about.
In 1992 the bodies of Kelley and her long-term partner Gert Bastian were found in their flat. They had been shot using the same gun. The German Police concluded that Bastian killed Kelley and then himself but, if so, his motive remains obscure.
Kelley was awarded
the Right
Livelihood prize in 1982 “...for forging and
implementing a new vision uniting ecological concerns with disarmament, social
justice and human rights."
Her most
distinctive insight was the connection between environmental, peace and human
rights issues. Her greatest achievement was to embody the advocacy of those
rights in her own life through writing, parliamentary politics, grassroots
politics and civil disobedience.
For
more information see:
- BBC Radio 4 - Great Lives, Series 24, Petra Kelly
- Kelly, Petra (1984). Fighting for Hope. South End Press.
- Hertsgaard, Mark (1993): "Who Killed Petra Kelly?". Mother Jones. Jan–Feb 1993.
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