Petra Karin Kelly and her «green initiative»

The article is devoted to Petra Karin Kelly, an active participant in the anti-war movement in the Federal Republic of Germany, one of the founders of the West German Green Party, a member of the Bundestag, who is undeservedly deprived of national historiography. Based on the works of P. Kelly, party and government documents, materials of German and foreign media, an analysis of the “green alternative” by P. Kelly is presented in a theoretical aspect and in terms of its practical implementation. The purpose of the article is to find out the reasons for the evolution of attitudes toward P. Kelly on the part of German society, from the sharp increase in its popularity to oblivion. The emergence of the “green” FRG party is seen as the result of the intensification of new social movements that had significant democratic potential in the conditions of the transition of West German society from materialistic to post-materialistic ones. The formation of the worldview and life position of P. Kelly is studied in the historical and political context taking into account the circumstances of her personal life, which contributed to the development of P. Kelly as a committed human rights defender, advocate of nonviolent actions, an active participant in the movement to save humanity from a nuclear and environmental disaster. Already at the turn of the 1970-1980s she acted as one of the first theorists of globalization, as her “green alternative” represented the system of views that was distinguished by extra-class “planetary” consciousness. The pillars of the “green policy” - protection of the environment, support for the socially deprived strata of the population, basic democracy, freedom from violence - did not have a national framework. The created party, which proclaimed itself as “anti-party”, represented the interests of the protest potential outside the existing party-parliamentary system. It was at this stage - from the creation of the party to the first years of being in the Bundestag (1980-1984) - that P. Kelly's popularity in West German society reached its peak. When P. Kelly, as a member of the Bundestag (1985-1990), began to defend the security of human society on an international scale, seeking the “globalization of consciousness” of the German parliament, her strategy came into conflict with the political realities of the Federal Republic of Germany. The Green Party was becoming increasingly institutional, systemic, seeking to raise its status in power in the face of declining anti-war and environmental movement; P. Kelly in her turn was less institutional and non-systemic, striving to “be, not to have”, who wanted to preserve her spiritual component and individuality. The end of the Cold War, changes in Western and Eastern Europe and their consequences for the development of the Third World countries were perceived by her as an imposed “globalization from above” which she contrasted to “globalization from the bottom”. She reacted negatively to the unification of Germany, which led, from her point of view, to weakening of the “green” color of the “green” party. And that abandoned “non-German” Petra Kelly. The tragic, violent death, and so far unexplained, contradicted her whole life concept. For the German regional organizations of the “green” and the international civil society, she remained an example of a person who introduced the concept of “conscience” into political discourse.

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