Blues musician Abi Wallenstein turns 80.
Abi Wallenstein was born on December 8, 1945, in Jerusalem, the son of German Jews who had emigrated during the Nazi era. He has lived in Germany since 1960, when his parents returned there. He has been considered one of Europe’s blues greats for almost as long. More here.
The opera composer and singer Carol Sams just turned 80.
Carol Sams wrote nearly 40 operas for adults and children. She was the first woman in the US to receive a doctorate in composition. On November 25, she celebrated her 80th birthday. Listen to our podcast here.
November 25: Third anniversary of my friend Gitti Czirr’s death
Gitti was also a journalist, a “gem of children’s radio.”
I miss her.
Those who speak German can listen to some of Gitti’s stories on my website. Or in English more here.
The German Ernst Friedrich and his fight for peace
On October 1, 1925, the pacifist Ernst Friedrich opened the world’s first anti-war museum in Berlin. In 1992, his grandson was able to reopen the museum, which had been destroyed by the Nazis. More here.
On the death of the German-South African journalist, writer and human rights activist
Born in 1924 to Orthodox Jewish parents in Fürth near Nuremberg, Ruth Weiss had to flee from the Nazis to South Africa as a young girl. There she experienced the apartheid regime. This made her a lifelong fighter for human rights. More here.
German Green Party co-founder Eva Quistorp turns 80.
In 1979, she co-founded the German Green Party. In the 1980s, she organized the large peace marches in the then capital, Bonn. She also fights for women’s rights. Today, Eva Quistorp turns 80. More here.
On the 100th birthday of the human rights activist Malcolm X
Malcolm X was one of the most prominent figures of the US Black rights movement. He preached separatism and resistance against whites. It was only shortly before his death in 1965 that he adopted a more conciliatory tone. What traces did Malcolm X’s ideas leave behind? More here.
Navajo activist and artist receives environmental award.
Indigenous activist Klee Benally is being honored with the Nuclear-Free Future Award for his work against uranium mining in his native Arizona. Posthumously, because Benally joined his ancestors on December 30, 2023. He was 48 years old. More here.
Guest post: Film “Petra Kelly – Act Now!” about Green icon
Petra Kelly, born in Germany, grew up in the USA in the 1960s. As a student, she worked in Robert F. Kennedy’s election campaign team. Her role model was Martin Luther King Jr. with his philosophy of civil disobedience. In the early 1980s, she mobilized hundreds of thousands of people in Germany against the deployment of US nuclear missiles. More here.
July 27: 30th anniversary of Kevin Carter’s death
His photo from Sudan went around the world in March 1993: a child, emaciated to the skeleton, crouches in the sand while a vulture lurks behind him. Kevin Carter received the Pulitzer Prize for this work. Two months later, the South African committed suicide in Johannesburg. More here.
