Overview
- Police confirmed on Thursday that a lifeless person was found in a cellar at Hansaplatz in Hamburg and have not released identifying details or an official cause.
- Multiple media outlets report the circumstances point to suicide while authorities continue an investigation and have given limited public information.
- Kusch had been voted out as president of Verein Sterbehilfe Deutschland days before his death after months of internal disputes that included financial accusations and leadership fights.
- The 71-year-old was Hamburg’s justice senator from 2001 to 2006, resigned during a 2006 protocol affair, left the CDU and later founded the Sterbehilfe association and a controversial self-built injection device in 2008.
- Kusch’s long campaign for assisted dying helped shape public debate and court cases that preceded the Federal Constitutional Court’s 2020 ruling on commercial assisted suicide, and his death raises fresh questions about the association’s governance and the legal oversight of assisted-suicide support.