Theologist Edelbert Richter, 55, was a student pastor in Naumburg and a member of the dissident peace movement in the German Democratic Republic. In 1989–together with two other cleargymen, Rainer Eppelmann and Friedrich Schorlemmer–he founded the civil rights group Democratic Awakening (DA), which became one of the leading opposition movements. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, when DA was linked to the Christian-Democratic Union, Richter and Schorlemmer left the movement. Richter became active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and has been an SPD representative in parliament since 1990.
