Benito Corghi

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Benito Corghi (born May 26, 1938 in Rubiera ; † August 5, 1976 in Hirschberg (Saale) ) was a fatality on the inner-German border .

Life

Benito Corghi was an Italian truck driver. Corghi was married with two children, who were fifteen and eighteen years old in 1976. Corghi worked for the company Ara (Autisti Riuniti Autotrasporti), which handled the meat transport from the GDR to Italy. Corghi was an active member of the Italian Communist Party .

On the morning of August 5, 1976, he had crossed the Rudolphstein / Hirschberg border crossing on federal motorway 9 with his refrigerated truck in the direction of Germany. He went back across the border on foot to fetch papers that he had forgotten when clearing the GDR. However, crossing the border on foot was not allowed. When a GDR border guard told Corghi to stop and raise his hands, he turned and ran back, whereupon he was shot.

On August 7, 1976, the GDR Chargé d'Affaires in Rome was summoned by the Foreign Ministry to clarify the facts and demand compensation for the family. The GDR ambassador, Klaus Gysi, negotiated the compensation payment, which Erich Honecker set at 80,000 DM ( value mark ).

The shooter S. and his immediate superior, who had ordered the shooting, received medals for exemplary border service and bonuses of 250 marks each. After the political change in 1994, both were acquitted by the Gera district court.

literature

  • Karsten Krampitz : 1976. The GDR in crisis . Verbrecher Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-95732-145-9
  • Jochen Staadt , Thomas Böttger: More Objectivity: The Death of Benito Corghi on the Inner-German Border , in: Journal of the Research Association SED-State: ZdF, 35, 2014. P. 91-102
  • Jochen Staadt , Klaus Schroeder : The Fatalities of the GDR Border Regime on the Inner-German Border 1949–1989. A biographical manual . Wissenschaftsverlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2017, ISBN 978-3-631-72594-8
  • Michael Gehler : The man shot was "of all things an Italian comrade": on dealing with the death of Benito Corghi on the German-German border in 1976 , in: Politics and the military in the 19th and 20th centuries: Austrian and European aspects: Festschrift for Manfried Rauchsteiner . Vienna: Böhlau, 2017, pp. 335–372 ISBN 978-3-205-20417-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grenzschützen trial ended with acquittal in: Berliner Zeitung , May 14, 1994.
personal data
SURNAME Corghi, Benito
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian fatality on the inner-German border
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Rubiera
DATE OF DEATH 5th August 1976
Place of death Hirschberg (Saale)