Petra Karin Kelly (29 November 1947 – 1 October 1992) was a German Green politician and ecofeminist activist. She was a founding member of the German Green Party, the first Green party to rise to prominence both nationally in Germany and worldwide. In 1982, she was awarded the Right Livelihood Award for "forging and implementing a new vision uniting ecological concerns with disarmament, social justice and human rights." Early life and education Petra Karin Lehmann was born in Günzburg, Bavaria (then the American Zone of Occupation, Germany), in 1947. She changed her name to Kelly after her mother married John E. Kelly, a US Army officer. She was educated in a Roman Catholic convent in Günzburg and later attended school in Georgia and Virginia after her family relocated to the United States in 1959. She lived and studied in the United States until her return to West Germany in 1970. She retained her West German citizenship throughout her life. Kelly admired Martin Luther King Jr., and campaigned for Robert F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey in the 1968 U.S. elections. She studied political science at the School of International Service at American University (Washington, D.C.), from which she graduated in 1970 with a bachelor's degree. She also graduated from the European Institute at the University of Amsterdam in 1971 with a master's degree. Career While working at the European Commission (Brussels, Belgium, 1971–83), Kelly participated in numerous peace and environmental campaigns in Germany and other countries. After working for two years at the European Commission, she moved to an administrative post at the Economic and Social Committee, where she championed women's rights. German Green Party Kelly was one of the founders of Die Grünen, the German Green Party in 1979. In 1983 she was elected to the Bundestag via the Electoral list as a Member of the Bundestag representing Bavaria. She was subsequently re-elected in 1987 with a higher share of the vote. In 1981, Kelly was involved in a protest of 400,000 people in Bonn against nuclear weapons. In 1982, Gerhard Schröder wrote a contribution in Die Zeit for the book Prinzip Leben, edited by Kelly and Jo Leinen, which discussed ecological problems and a possible nuclear war. In the same year, Kelly received the Right Livelihood Award "...for forging and implementing a new vision uniting ecological concerns with disarmament, social justice, and human rights." On 12 May 1983, Kelly,