Petra
Karin Kelly was a German politician and author who helped to found the German
Green Party, which was the first Green party to become successful. As a child,
her mother remarried an American Army officer and she moved to the United States
where she lived until her early 20s. Petra Kelly became politically active while
studying at American University and campaigned for Robert F. Kennedy in the 1968
US elections. After returning to Europe she worked with the European Commission
in Brussels from 1971-1983 and participated in many peace and environmental campaigns
throughout Europe. She helped to found the Green Party in 1979 as "a non-violent
ecological and basic-democratic anti-war coalition of parliamentary and extra-parliamentary
grassroots oriented forces." As one of the national chairs from 1980 to 1982
she helped the party rise to prominence so that by 1983 she and 27 others from
the Green Party had been elected to the West German Parliament. In 1982 Petra
Kelly received the Right Livelihood Award "...for forging and implementing a new
vision uniting ecological concerns with disarmament, social justice and human
rights." In 1992, Petra Kelly was killed under mysterious circumstances. In 1997
the Petra Kelly Foundation was founded to continue promoting her political message,
and each year it presents the Petra Kelly Prize for Human Rights, Ecology and
Nonviolence.
