Hu Dehua, son of former liberal Chinese leader Hu Yaobang, dies at 76

Hu Dehua, son of former liberal Chinese leader Hu Yaobang, dies at 76

The younger Hu is remembered as an outspoken proponent of political reform and press freedom – rare among China’s princelings.

Federal President Steinmeier recognized the late East German civil rights activist Gerd Poppe as a major democrat. Steinmeier said in Berlin that Germany had lost an effective, courageous and impressive political personality - as well as a champion of democracy and human rights.

Gerd Poppe died at the age of 84, one of the defining figures of the peaceful revolution in the GDR, who stood up early against the SED state and later became the first human rights commissioner of the Federal Republic.

He was only a "forethinker" of the Peaceful Revolution in 1989, later a member of the Bundestag of the Greens: GDR civil rights activist Gerd Poppe died at the age of 84.

He was active in the opposition of the GDR early on, sat for the Greens for the Bundestag after the turnaround and was the first representative of the Federal Government for Human Rights. Now Gerd Poppe died at the age of 84.

He sought out the East German superiors and urged the Greens to a more realistic view of foreign policy. Gerd Poppe has now passed away.