Hans-Christian Ströbele

Hans-Christian Ströbele (German: [hans ˈkʁɪsti̯a(ː)n ˈʃtʁøːbələ]; 7 June 1939 – 29 August 2022) was a German politician and lawyer. He was a member of Alliance 90/The Greens, the German green party.

Education and early career

Ströbele was born on 7 June 1939 in Halle, Saale, the son of a chemist. He obtained his Abitur in 1959 in Marl, Westphalia. Ströbele completed his military service in the early Bundeswehr's Air Force operations in Aurich as a reserve gunner.

Ströbele studied law and political science at Heidelberg University and at the Free University of Berlin. In 1967, he was a trainee lawyer in the offices of the lawyer Horst Mahler. He practiced law from 1969 in Berlin.

In the late 1960s Ströbele was involved in the student movement. From 1970 to 1974, he was a member of the SPD. He was also a member of the "Socialist Lawyers' Collective" for ten years, and rose to national fame defending militants of the urban guerrilla movement Red Army Faction and other political activists. He defended the Kommunard Dieter Kunzelmann, his colleague Mahler, who had joined the RAF, and finally also the leading figures of the terrorist group, Andreas Baader, Gudrun Ensslin and Ulrike Meinhof.

From 1977, Ströbele was involved in founding the left-wing daily newspaper Die Tageszeitung.

In 1983, Ströbele was convicted by the Berlin District Court of supporting terrorist groups through his smuggling of information between members serving in prison. The Court concluded that Ströbele had significantly assisted in keeping the groups active during their leaders' time in prison.