Petra Kelly (1947–1992) was a German Green politician and ecofeminist activist. She was a founding member of the German Green Party, the first Green party to gain prominence both in Germany and internationally. In 1982 she received the Right Livelihood Award for linking ecological concerns with disarmament, social justice and human rights. Kelly served in the Bundestag from 1983 and was found shot dead in Bonn in 1992, together with her partner, the former general and Green politician Gert Bastian.
Early life and education
Kelly was born Petra Karin Lehmann in Günzburg, Bavaria, and took the surname Kelly after her mother married a United States Army officer. Her family moved to the United States in 1959, and she lived and studied there until returning to West Germany in 1970, while keeping her German citizenship. She admired Martin Luther King Jr. and campaigned for Robert F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey in the 1968 U.S. elections. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science from American University and a master's degree from the University of Amsterdam.
Political career
Kelly worked at the European Commission in Brussels and took part in numerous peace and environmental campaigns. In 1979 she co-founded Die Grünen, and she was elected to the Bundestag in 1983, being re-elected in 1987. In 1983 she and other Green members staged a protest banner in East Berlin, and she later confronted East German leader Erich Honecker over the repression of peace activists. In the final years of her life she became estranged from many party colleagues over the Greens' pragmatic turn.
Death and legacy
In October 1992 the decomposed bodies of Kelly and Gert Bastian were discovered in her house in Bonn. Police determined that Kelly had been shot while sleeping by Bastian, who then died by suicide. She was buried in a forest cemetery in Würzburg. In 2006 the UK Environment Agency ranked her 45th on its list of people who had done the most to save the planet.