Petra Kelly

Bavarian political human rights activist, ecologist and co-founder of the Green Party. She adopted the name Kelly from her U.S army stepfather. From 1966-1970 she studied World Politics and International Relations. She worked at the European Communities in Brussels, continuing her development of social consciousness and political awareness. In 1979 she helped found a political party that was dedicated to human rights and ecology which was officially named the Green Party in 1985; she was one of 27 Greens elected to the Bundestag.

Abandoned by her dad at the age of six, Petra was educated by Catholic nuns and raised largely by her grandmother while her mom worked to support the family. When she was 11, her mom married an American Army officer who moved the family to the U.S., to Ft. Bening, Georgia. Petra became a classic overachiever; cheerleader, member of the student senate, scholarship winner. Despite physical pain from lifelong kidney ailments and the emotional trauma associated with the death of her younger half sister Grace, she was able to maintain an almost maniacal focus on achievement. She returned to Europe for post grad study and her beginning involvement in European Federalist politics. She began an affair with the 65-year-old married EC president Sicco Mansholt, the first of a number of affairs with politically powerful older men.

Kelly had a long-term companionship with 25-year older Gert Bastian, a former NATO General who had done under-cover spy work. As brilliant, romantic and mercurial as Petra was, Bastian in contrast was plodding methodical and obsessive. To all evidence, their love was compelling and uncompromising.

On 19 October 1992, they were both found dead in their Bonn home with a gunshot to the head.. Whether their deaths were suicide or murder was unresolved and the case remained a mystery.