Former GDR civil rights activist and then Green Party politician Werner Schulz, who died this Wednesday at an event at Berlin’s Bellevue Palace, has died. This was announced by the federal president Frank-Walter Steinmeier, according to the participants of the conference. Schultz was 72 years old. The Federal President’s staff ended the event early on November 9, citing the death of one of the participants. He wanted to inform his relatives immediately.
Schultz is together in the conference circle. Joseph Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, who is a doctor, tried to revive the green politician. However, it didn’t work out. Schuster was seen leaving the Great Hall of the Bellevue Palace shortly before his scheduled speech due to an “emergency,” as the conference host put it.
Schultz was born on January 22, 1950 in Zwickau. He studied food chemistry and technology at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Since 1968, he has been active in various opposition groups of the GDR. In 1989, he was one of the founding members of the New Forum, which represented the Round Table. In 1990, Schultz became a member of the first freely elected People’s Chamber of the GDR.
From October 1990 to 2005 Last June, Schulz was awarded a German national award for his commitment to democracy and the opposition in Russia.
The federal president and his predecessor, Joachim Gauck, praised him as a supporter of democratic values. “Our time, characterized by sometimes hateful, fact-denying debates and a remarkable number of angry citizens who reject liberal democracy, needs such role models,” Gauck said at the time.