5. Asserting Women’s Power: Petra Kelly and Women’s Transnational Antinuclear Weapons and Peace Activism in the 1980s

Fifth chapter of Stephen Milder et al.’s virtual exhibition, Petra Kelly: Life and Legacy of a Transnational Green Activist.

Petra Kelly: Life and Legacy of a Transnational Green Activist

This exhibition considers the transnational life and legacy of the activist and cofounder of the West German Green Party, Petra Kelly. The exhibition shows how Kelly’s transatlantic childhood and education enabled her to become a transnational activist. It follows the connections to friends, companions, and fellow activists all over the globe that shaped her approach to green politics and underpinned her contributions to the peace movement. Examining how the German and international press reported on Kelly, the exhibition reflects on how her profile as a Green celebrity was shaped. An analysis of the spiritual dimensions of Kelly’s green politics demonstrates how “deep green” frameworks helped the activist to think beyond the boundaries of “politics as usual.” Finally, the exhibition looks at Kelly’s legacy, considering how her ideas and her career have resonated differently in different parts of the world.

About the exhibition

About the author

Stone, Adam

Rutgers University, USA

Adam J. Stone is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at Rutgers University studying women’s transnational antinuclear and peace activism across the Cold War Eastern and Western blocs in the 1980s. His dissertation, “Women Citizen Activists and the End of the Cold War: Soviet Bloc and Western Transnational Connections, 1980–1989,” takes women’s activism as a primary lens of analysis to explore activists’ challenges to Cold War politics. His work has been supported by the University of Pittsburgh’s Summer Language Institute, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), the Wilson Center, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the Fulbright Institute of International Education.

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3. Petra Kelly: Transnational Green Politics and Dark Green Spirituality

Third chapter of Stephen Milder et al.’s virtual exhibition, Petra Kelly: Life and Legacy of a Transnational Green Activist.

Petra Kelly: Life and Legacy of a Transnational Green Activist

This exhibition considers the transnational life and legacy of the activist and cofounder of the West German Green Party, Petra Kelly. The exhibition shows how Kelly’s transatlantic childhood and education enabled her to become a transnational activist. It follows the connections to friends, companions, and fellow activists all over the globe that shaped her approach to green politics and underpinned her contributions to the peace movement. Examining how the German and international press reported on Kelly, the exhibition reflects on how her profile as a Green celebrity was shaped. An analysis of the spiritual dimensions of Kelly’s green politics demonstrates how “deep green” frameworks helped the activist to think beyond the boundaries of “politics as usual.” Finally, the exhibition looks at Kelly’s legacy, considering how her ideas and her career have resonated differently in different parts of the world.

About the exhibition

About the author

Nichols, Amanda M.

University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Amanda M. Nichols is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her primary research, which falls at the intersections of environmental history and religious and gender studies, focuses on the roles and contributions of women in the North American antinuclear movement. Using ethnographic research methods, her work contributes to the growing corpus of literature in intersectional environmentalism and religious studies that illuminates the contributions of women to environment-related, or environment-focused, social movements.

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1. The Transnational Education of Petra Kelly

First chapter of Stephen Milder et al.’s virtual exhibition, Petra Kelly: Life and Legacy of a Transnational Green Activist.

Petra Kelly: Life and Legacy of a Transnational Green Activist

This exhibition considers the transnational life and legacy of the activist and cofounder of the West German Green Party, Petra Kelly. The exhibition shows how Kelly’s transatlantic childhood and education enabled her to become a transnational activist. It follows the connections to friends, companions, and fellow activists all over the globe that shaped her approach to green politics and underpinned her contributions to the peace movement. Examining how the German and international press reported on Kelly, the exhibition reflects on how her profile as a Green celebrity was shaped. An analysis of the spiritual dimensions of Kelly’s green politics demonstrates how “deep green” frameworks helped the activist to think beyond the boundaries of “politics as usual.” Finally, the exhibition looks at Kelly’s legacy, considering how her ideas and her career have resonated differently in different parts of the world.

About the exhibition

About the author

Milder, Stephen

University of Groningen, Netherlands

Stephen Milder is an assistant professor of European politics and society at the University of Groningen and research fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich. He is the author of Greening Democracy: The Anti-nuclear Movement and Political Environmentalism in West Germany and Beyond, 1968–1983 (Cambridge University Press, 2017). With support from the DFG (German Research Foundation), he is writing a history of the politicization of climate change and the transformation of post–Cold War Germany.

orcid.org/0000-0001-5650-4003

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Introduction

Introduction of Stephen Milder at al’s virtual exhibition, Petra Kelly: Life and Legacy of a Transnational Green Activist.

Petra Kelly: Life and Legacy of a Transnational Green Activist

This exhibition considers the transnational life and legacy of the activist and cofounder of the West German Green Party, Petra Kelly. The exhibition shows how Kelly’s transatlantic childhood and education enabled her to become a transnational activist. It follows the connections to friends, companions, and fellow activists all over the globe that shaped her approach to green politics and underpinned her contributions to the peace movement. Examining how the German and international press reported on Kelly, the exhibition reflects on how her profile as a Green celebrity was shaped. An analysis of the spiritual dimensions of Kelly’s green politics demonstrates how “deep green” frameworks helped the activist to think beyond the boundaries of “politics as usual.” Finally, the exhibition looks at Kelly’s legacy, considering how her ideas and her career have resonated differently in different parts of the world.

About the exhibition

About the author

Jünger, Andreas

Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU Munich, Germany

Andreas Jünger is a doctoral candidate at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich. In his dissertation project, he studies the history of organic farming in Andalusia. He previously earned his BA from the University of Bonn, majoring in history and minoring in Romance studies, and graduated from the University of Münster with an MA in history focusing on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin American history. His current research interests include the past and present of organic farming, ecological movements, and green parties in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, particularly in Spain, Germany, and Chile.

orcid.org/0000-0003-4716-4611

Milder, Stephen

University of Groningen, Netherlands

Stephen Milder is an assistant professor of European politics and society at the University of Groningen and research fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich. He is the author of Greening Democracy: The Anti-nuclear Movement and Political Environmentalism in West Germany and Beyond, 1968–1983 (Cambridge University Press, 2017). With support from the DFG (German Research Foundation), he is writing a history of the politicization of climate change and the transformation of post–Cold War Germany.

orcid.org/0000-0001-5650-4003

Browse the exhibition

About the Exhibition

About the Exhibition section of Stephen Milder et al.’s virtual exhibition, Petra Kelly: Life and Legacy of a Transnational Green Activist.

Petra Kelly: Life and Legacy of a Transnational Green Activist

This exhibition considers the transnational life and legacy of the activist and cofounder of the West German Green Party, Petra Kelly. The exhibition shows how Kelly’s transatlantic childhood and education enabled her to become a transnational activist. It follows the connections to friends, companions, and fellow activists all over the globe that shaped her approach to green politics and underpinned her contributions to the peace movement. Examining how the German and international press reported on Kelly, the exhibition reflects on how her profile as a Green celebrity was shaped. An analysis of the spiritual dimensions of Kelly’s green politics demonstrates how “deep green” frameworks helped the activist to think beyond the boundaries of “politics as usual.” Finally, the exhibition looks at Kelly’s legacy, considering how her ideas and her career have resonated differently in different parts of the world.

About the exhibition

About the author

Milder, Stephen

University of Groningen, Netherlands

Stephen Milder is an assistant professor of European politics and society at the University of Groningen and research fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich. He is the author of Greening Democracy: The Anti-nuclear Movement and Political Environmentalism in West Germany and Beyond, 1968–1983 (Cambridge University Press, 2017). With support from the DFG (German Research Foundation), he is writing a history of the politicization of climate change and the transformation of post–Cold War Germany.

orcid.org/0000-0001-5650-4003

Jünger, Andreas

Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU Munich, Germany

Andreas Jünger is a doctoral candidate at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society in Munich. In his dissertation project, he studies the history of organic farming in Andalusia. He previously earned his BA from the University of Bonn, majoring in history and minoring in Romance studies, and graduated from the University of Münster with an MA in history focusing on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Latin American history. His current research interests include the past and present of organic farming, ecological movements, and green parties in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, particularly in Spain, Germany, and Chile.

orcid.org/0000-0003-4716-4611

Scharf, Katharina

University of Graz, Austria

Katharina Scharf is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Graz. She is currently working on her research project, “Environmental Women,” a biographically oriented environmental-history study from the perspective of women’s and gender history. She holds a PhD in history from the University of Salzburg. Her dissertation, Alpen zwischen Erschließung und Naturschutz: Tourismus in Salzburg und Savoyen 1860–1914 (The Alps between development and nature conservation: Tourism in Salzburg and Savoy, 1860–1914), was published in 2021. Katharina holds a master’s degree in history and a bachelor’s degree in German studies. Her research interests focus on women’s, gender, environmental, tourism, and regional history, and the history of National Socialism.

orcid.org/0000-0002-1469-2525

Nichols, Amanda M.

University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Amanda M. Nichols is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her primary research, which falls at the intersections of environmental history and religious and gender studies, focuses on the roles and contributions of women in the North American antinuclear movement. Using ethnographic research methods, her work contributes to the growing corpus of literature in intersectional environmentalism and religious studies that illuminates the contributions of women to environment-related, or environment-focused, social movements.

Bruehoefener, Friederike

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, USA

Friederike Bruehoefener is an associate professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Programs and Community Engagement at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, United States. She is the coeditor—together with Stephen Milder and Belinda Davis—of Rethinking Social Movements after ’68: Selves and Solidarities in West Germany and Beyond (Berghahn Books, 2022).

Stone, Adam

Rutgers University, USA

Adam J. Stone is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History at Rutgers University studying women’s transnational antinuclear and peace activism across the Cold War Eastern and Western blocs in the 1980s. His dissertation, “Women Citizen Activists and the End of the Cold War: Soviet Bloc and Western Transnational Connections, 1980–1989,” takes women’s activism as a primary lens of analysis to explore activists’ challenges to Cold War politics. His work has been supported by the University of Pittsburgh’s Summer Language Institute, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), the Wilson Center, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and the Fulbright Institute of International Education.

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The Global Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas)

The EJAtlas is an interactive online platform coordinated and managed by researchers and activists.

Read more about The Global Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas)

Interview with Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua, authors of Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility

In this episode from the New Books Network podcast, Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua are interviewed on their recent book, Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility.

Read more about Interview with Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua, authors of Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility

Defending the Arctic Refuge (website)

This website is a public history project and a companion to the book Defending the Arctic Refuge by Finis Dunaway.

Read more about Defending the Arctic Refuge (website)

“Dave Foreman: Wise Guy”

An essay by Bron Taylor on Dave Foreman first published in the edited volume Wildeor: The Wild Life and Living Legacy of Dave Foreman (Essex Editions, 2023).

Read more about “Dave Foreman: Wise Guy”

Turning to Nature in Germany: Hiking, Nudism, and Conservation, 1900–1940

Book excerpt from Turning to Nature in Germany by John Alexander Williams.

Read more about Turning to Nature in Germany: Hiking, Nudism, and Conservation, 1900–1940