Monika Griefahn (born 3 October 1954) is a German politician and one of the co-founders of Greenpeace. She is a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Griefahn was a member of the German Parliament (1998–2009), serving as an expert on cultural affairs and media as well as foreign (cultural) policy. From 1990 to 1998 she was the State Minister of the Environment in the State of Lower Saxony. From 1980 to 1990 she was an activist in the environmental organization Greenpeace and the first woman on the international board of Greenpeace (1984–1990). Early life and education After finishing school in 1973 Griefahn went to the universities of Göttingen and Hamburg to study mathematics and social sciences. She left university in 1979 with a diploma in sociology. Starting in 1973 she worked for the German-French Youth Organization and for YMCA Hamburg, offering adult education seminars for trade unions, church organizations and NGOs for more than a decade. Political career Early activism From 1980 onwards she became active in establishing Greenpeace in Germany, with its main office in Hamburg. She was the executive director until 1983. With Greenpeace Germany she organized campaigns against, among other environmental issues, chemical pollution as well as campaigns for the protection of the North Seas and the rivers Rhine and Elbe. In 1984 she became the first female member of the international board of Greenpeace. She was responsible for developing programs and skill training for the people working for Greenpeace all over the world until 1990. Additionally she helped found new offices in Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Latin America and the former Soviet Union. Griefahn joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD) Germany in 1992. State Minister for the Environment, 1990–1998 In 1990 Minister-President Gerhard Schröder of Lower Saxony named her as the Minister for the Environment, where she started special programs to support removable energy systems (wind, solar, biomass) in order to stop the use of nuclear power (more see "Public Offices"). One of her central concerns in environmental policy was to quit to the use of nuclear energy. Her plans, which finally became reality in 2011, were blocked by directives of the Federal Ministry of the Environment, headed by Klaus Töpfer (1990–1994) and Angela Merkel (1994–1998). Parallel to her commitment against nuclear power Griefahn hurried along the extension of renewable energy in Lower Saxony with measures like an eco-fund and an atlas for wind energy. Her