Bärbel Kampmann

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. Her father was an African American soldier, and her mother was a German woman from Bielefeld.

Her mother, Ilse Hilbert, had been a Nazi sympathizer, and her GI father left before Hilbert realized she was pregnant. 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.

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. She was known for leading anti-racist workshops and founded the Gelsenkirchen Days Against Racism. In addition to her anti-racist and pro-migrant activism, Kampmann was also markedly anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist.

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. However, she found herself disillusioned with the United States and began traveling instead to Guinea, where she came to feel particularly at home.

In 2020, a street in Bremen was named in her honor.