【2025-2026台灣世界史討論會 第71回講論會】Petra Kelly and the making of the Global Green Movement
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摘 要：
Green political parties are typically studied as separate national case studies, with West Germany's Die Grünen often treated as a distinctly German phenomenon following their 1983 Bundestag success. Yet many scholars link Green parties across Western Europe and North America to broader "value change" in the 1960s, while activists themselves described a "global green movement." This raises key questions: Were Green parties truly transnational, or merely parallel national developments? Why did they emerge primarily in the West?
Green political parties are typically studied as separate national case studies, with West Germany's Die Grünen often treated as a distinctly German phenomenon following their 1983 Bundestag success. Yet many scholars link Green parties across Western Europe and North America to broader "value change" in the 1960s, while activists themselves described a "global green movement." This raises key questions: Were Green parties truly transnational, or merely parallel national developments? Why did they emerge primarily in the West?
Petra Kelly, Die Grünen co-founder and its first "figurehead," uniquely embodied global Green politics. Her transnational biography—childhood in Bavaria, adolescence in the United States, education at American University and the University of Amsterdam, work at the European Community in Brussels—shaped her approach to West German activism. As a Bundestag member (1983-1990), she took 119 foreign trips, supporting local movements worldwide and networking activists across borders. While celebrated internationally—receiving the Right Livelihood Award and recognition as possibly "the best-known Green in the world"—her frequent absences and international focus distanced her from parliamentary colleagues, leading scholars to dismiss her as marginal to Die Grünen's development.
Kelly's biography reveals both transnational influences on West German Green politics and the tensions between national political structures and global environmental concerns, suggesting that understanding Green politics requires examining how movements and ideas transcend borders even within nationally-organized parties.
敬祝 鈞安
台灣世界史討論會主持人 吳孟軒（中研院史語所）
2025年11月7日
