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Bärbel Kampmann

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Bärbel Kampmann
Born(1946-03-26)March 26, 1946
Bielefeld, Germany
DiedOctober 27, 1999(1999-10-27) (aged 53)
Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Alma materRuhr University Bochum
OccupationPsychologist
Known forAnti-racism and integration efforts in Germany

Bärbel Kampmann (March 26, 1946 – October 27, 1999) was an Afro-German psychologist, writer, and civil servant. A well-known anti-racist activist in Germany, she led innovative integration programs in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia that served as a model for the rest of the country.

Early life

Bärbel Kampmann was born in Bielefeld, Germany, in 1946.[1][2][3] Her father was an African American soldier, and her mother was a German woman from Bielefeld.[4][5]

Her mother, Ilse Hilbert, had been a Nazi sympathizer, and her GI father left before Hilbert realized she was pregnant.[4] As a child, she was forbidden to talk about her father.[4][6] Her mother, along with her grandmother—who primarily raised her and often tried to protect her from racism—would try unsuccessfully to bleach her skin with Drula bleaching wax and hydrogen peroxide.[4][5]

She was one of the first Afro-descendent children born in Germany after the end of Nazi rule, and she experienced a great deal of racism and isolation in her youth, including physical violence from other children.[2][4][7]

Career

After studying at a teachers' college in Cologne and working as a secondary school teacher, during which time she was an active trade unionist, Kampmann obtained a psychology degree from Ruhr University Bochum.[1][2] She worked as a clinical therapist, primarily serving black Germans and migrants.[5]

Kampmann settled in the German city of Gelsenkirchen, where beginning in 1986 she worked for the regional government to promote the welfare of migrant children and other young people.[1][2] She was then promoted to the government in the regional capital of Düsseldorf, where she worked on issues of integration and discrimination in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.[1][2][4]

Her work in the North Rhine-Westphalia government on anti-discrimination projects was used as a model across Germany.[2] These trend-setting efforts were noted for their then-novel emphasis on actually centering the perspectives of those facing discrimination.[1]

She was a well-known anti-racist activist within the Afro-German community, considered a central champion of integration in this period.[1][2][8] She was known for leading anti-racist workshops and founded the Gelsenkirchen Days Against Racism.[3][4][5] She was also involved with ADEFRA, a black women's organization in Germany, and the Initiative of Black People in Germany [de].[5][9] In addition to her anti-racist and pro-migrant activism, Kampmann was also markedly anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist.[6]

Kampmann wrote a number of essays on the experiences of minorities in Germany,[3][5] notably "Schwarze Deutsche. Lebensrealität und Probleme einer wenig beachteten Minderheit", in the 1994 book Andere Deutsche. Zur Lebenssituation von Menschen multiethnischer und multikultureller Herkunft.[10]

Personal life

Kampmann's first marriage ended in divorce, in part due to the stigma against interracial relationships at the time. She later remarried, wedding fellow psychologist Harald Gerunde.[6]

In her late thirties, Kampmann traveled to the United States in search of her father, John T. Ballinger, whom she was eventually able to meet.[4][11] However, she found herself disillusioned with the United States and began traveling instead to Guinea, where she came to feel particularly at home.[5][6][11]

Death and legacy

After falling ill, Kampmann died in 1999 in Gelsenkirchen, at age 53.[1][2][3]

Her husband Harald Gerunde wrote a biography of her titled Eine von uns: Als Schwarze in Deutschland geboren (One of us: Born Black in Germany) in 2000.[3][4][6][12]

In 2020, a street in Bremen was named in her honor.[8][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Bärbel Kampmann". Gelsenkirchener Geschichten (in German). Retrieved 2021-03-29.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "Nachruf auf Bärbel Kampmann". Vorstand und Mitglieder der Initiative Schwarze Deutsche & Schwarze in Deutschland, ISD-NRW (in German). 1999-11-08. Archived from the original on 2007-01-30.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Bärbel Kampmann". Unrast Verlag (in German). Retrieved 2021-03-29.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Mesghena, Mekonnen (2000-12-04). "Harald Gerunde: Eine von uns. Als Schwarze in Deutschland geboren". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Retrieved 2021-03-29.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Locating African European studies : interventions, intersections, conversations. Felipe Espinoza Garrido. Abingdon, Oxon. 2020. ISBN 978-0-429-49109-2. OCLC 1127643432.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. ^ a b c d e Wall, Christina Noelle (2014). "American Blackness and Vergangenheitsbewältigung in Twenty-first Century German Literature and Film" (PDF). University of Maryland, College Park.
  7. ^ Ani, Ekpenyong (2006-05-01). ""Say it loud!" Afro-Diasporische Lebensgeschichten im deutschen Kontext". Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung (in German). Archived from the original on 2020-08-08. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
  8. ^ a b Wilke, Simon (2020-06-10). "Bismarckstraße in Bremen: Falsche Adressen bei Bahn und Versicherung". WESER-KURIER (in German). Archived from the original on 2020-06-15. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
  9. ^ "Audre Lorde – Bestärkung und Bestätigung". Marion Kraft | Afro-deutsche Autorin – Literaturwissenschaftlerin (in German). Archived from the original on 2014-11-26. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
  10. ^ Florvil, Tiffany N. (2016-07-27). "ANN: Black Germany and Austria Bibliography". H-Black-Europe. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
  11. ^ a b Poikāne-Daumke, Aija (2006). African diasporas: Afro-German literature in the context of the African American experience. Berlin: Lit. ISBN 978-3-8258-9612-6. OCLC 86075032.
  12. ^ "Eine von uns : als Schwarze in Deutschland geboren". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 2020-11-08. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
  13. ^ Beneke, Maren (2020-03-08). "Erst der Empfang, dann die Demo". WESER-KURIER (in German). Archived from the original on 2020-03-09. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
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