A man is shot in the back at the GDR border crossing at Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse in East Berlin. It will take decades before charges can be brought. Now comes the trial.
Almost 50 years after a fatal shot at a Pole at the GDR border crossing at Friedrichstrasse station in East Berlin, the trial against an ex-Stasi employee begins today. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office has charged the now 80-year-old Leipzig man with treacherous murder. Decades passed before this happened. It was only last year that the authority saw an opportunity to take the case to court.
The first lieutenant is said to have shot the 38-year-old victim from behind on March 29, 1974 at the busiest border crossing between East and West. At the time of the crime, the Leipzig man is said to have belonged to an operational group of the GDR Ministry for State Security (MfS) and was tasked with “rendering the Pole harmless”. It is said that the 38-year-old tried to force his departure to West Berlin at the Polish embassy.
Crucial information only came in 2016
The case was recorded by the central registration office of the state justice administration in Salzgitter, which documented acts of injustice in the GDR and collected evidence. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he continued to be persecuted. However, according to the public prosecutor’s office, the investigation did not make any progress for many years. It was only in 2016 that a decisive clue to the identity of the shooter came from the Stasi records archive. According to a spokesman, the public prosecutor’s office initially assumed it was manslaughter. In this case the crime would have been statute-barred. In the meantime, however, the authorities see the murder characteristic of insidiousness fulfilled.
The court has so far followed this argument and allowed the prosecution. Because of its historical significance, the process is recorded. According to historian Gerhard Sälter from the Berlin Wall Foundation, it is the first time that a murder order from the Stasi has come to court and has been carried out. “So far we only knew of unexecuted murder plans, a proven murder attempt and speculation about whether the Stasi was not involved in deaths,” he explained.
The victim’s children are co-plaintiffs
Children of the killed Pole – a son and a daughter – appear as co-plaintiffs in the proceedings. According to the court, a chief detective was invited to the first day of the trial. The defendant has not yet commented on the allegations. The Berlin regional court initially planned seven trial days. A verdict could therefore be pronounced on May 23rd.
