Bärbel Bohley — born Bärbel Brosius — was an artist and an opposition figure in East Germany.

She trained as an industrial clerk and in 1969 started studying to be a painter at Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee. In 1970, she married the painter Dietrich Bohley and had a son in the same year. She worked as a freelance artist, inspired by Francisco de Goya and Käthe Kollwitz.

Bohley campaigned for civil and human rights in the GDR and as a result, was arrested and targeted multiple times. After the fall of the Wall, she continued to be politically active. Starting in 1996, she worked on humanitarian issues in the former Yugoslavia, leading a programme in Bosnia enabling orphans and children from refugee families to go on holiday together in Croatia. She married a teacher named Dragan Lukić, and after 12 years, returned to Berlin to receive treatment for lung cancer. Before succumbing to her illness, she gave lectures on the power of peaceful revolution and democracy.

Sources:

Wikipedia