By Angelika Hellemann and Nadja Aswad
Mourning at Bellevue Palace. The former GDR civil rights activist and later Green Party politician Werner Schulz is dead. He died on Wednesday in the Federal President’s palace, where he was supposed to take part in a commemoration event on November 9th as a panelist.
This was announced by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier during the conference. Schulz was 72 years old.
At around 12 noon, Schulz collapsed in the toilet. As BILD knows, Josef Schuster (68), President of the Central Council of Jews in Germany and a doctor by profession, tried to resuscitate Schulz. In vain.
It was noticed that Schuster left the Great Hall in Bellevue Palace immediately before his planned speech – because of an “emergency”, as the moderator of the conference put it.
A good hour later, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (66) broke off the memorial event, informed the guests about the sad news and gave a short speech with a minute’s silence for the deceased. Steinmeier: “There was an emergency operation here for a person who was dear to us, who was a good advisor to me in all things East-West.” Schulz was one of those “who brought the wall down”. .
Steinmeier: “We had an emergency medical service. Thank you also to Mr. Schuster for helping with the resuscitation efforts. Unfortunately, they didn’t lead to success in the end. Werner Schulz is dead. I would ask you to observe a minute’s silence.”
The event dealt with the ambivalence of the German day of remembrance and the historical events that fall on November 9, including the proclamation of the republic in 1918, the Kristallnacht in 1938 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Mourning for Werner Schulz (✝︎72)
Schulz was born on January 22, 1950 in Zwickau. He studied food chemistry and technology at the Humboldt University in Berlin. From 1968 he was active in various opposition groups in the GDR. In 1989 he was one of the founding members of the New Forum, which he represented at the Round Table. In 1990 Schulz became a member of the first elected People’s Chamber of the GDR. From October 1990 to October 2005 he was a member of the Bundestag for Bündnis 90/Die Grünen and from 2009 to 2014 of the European Parliament.
Schulz was honored with the German National Prize last June for his commitment to democracy and the opposition in Russia.
The Federal President and his predecessor Joachim Gauck praised him as an opinionated campaigner for 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,” said Gauck at the time.