STORY: His bicycle was one of his trademarks. Christian Ströbele co-founded the Greens and sat for them in the Bundestag for 21 years. In 2002, the former RAF lawyer was the first Green to be elected to the Bundestag by direct mandate in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg constituency in Berlin, and thus went down in party history. Ströbele was considered a pugnacious politician who did not shy away from confrontations with representatives of his party. For example with the former Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor Joschka Fischer. He was against German participation in the Kosovo war, the deployment of the German armed forces in Afghanistan and the Hartz IV reforms. In Parliament, he repeatedly voted against the line of his group. In recent years in the Bundestag, Ströbele has devoted himself intensively to the subject of secret services and made headlines with a visit to US whistleblower Edward Snowden in Moscow. The Greens politician and Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck said on Wednesday: “Christian Ströbele, a politician who has impressed many people, me too. Because of his straightforwardness, his unwavering commitment to civil rights, to social politics. And he will be missing.” It was not until 2017, at the age of 78, that Ströbele left active politics for health reasons. His last years were determined by serious illnesses. Christian Ströbele died on August 29 at the age of 83.