The Green politician Hans-Christian Ströbele is dead. He died on Monday at the age of 83, his lawyer Johannes Eisenberg announced on Wednesday.
Ströbele, who sat in the Bundestag for 21 years, was the first Green to be elected to the federal parliament by direct mandate in the Berlin constituency of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in 2002. He thus went down in party history.
Ströbele left active politics in 2017 at the age of 78.
Berlin’s immigrant community will remember him as a stout defender of their interests.
“Hans-Christian Stroebele was the first German politician and member of the Bundestag to campaign for the erection of the memorial to the African victims of enslavement and colonisation in Berlin. As long as he could move, he always took part in the memorial march,” Moctar Kamara, immediate past chairman of the Central Council of African Communities in Germany (Zentralrat der afrikanischen Gemeinde in Deutschland e.V.), said in reaction to the death of the German politician.
“He was of great integrity. He was a righteous man. We will always be grateful to him,” he added. “Eternal peace be with his soul.”
Hans-Christian Ströbele will be remembered for his tireless efforts for the deepening of the democratic culture in Germany, say journalists.
Sola Jolaoso