Heiko Runge

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Heiko Runge (born April 29, 1964 in Merseburg ; † December 8, 1979 at Sorge ) was a German student who was shot by GDR border guards at the age of 15 while attempting to escape across the inner-German border. He is one of the few young victims of the border.

Life

Runge lived with his mother and sister in Halle-Neustadt . He was a rather average student and felt disadvantaged compared to the more successful sister. His classmate Uwe Fleischhauer of the same age, who had problems at school and at home, persuaded him to flee the GDR to the West.

The two young people left their parents' home on December 8, 1979 and took the train to Benneckenstein . There they got out and approached the border fortifications. At around 3 p.m., they crossed the border signal fence and triggered a border alarm unnoticed. As they crept further west, the alarmed border company Sorge set pairs of guards at the front barrier, the metal fence. The two students ran directly towards a pair of guards lying in cover. At the sight of the students, the two border guards loaded their weapons and released the safety catch. Butcher and Runge fled separately. The two border guards opened fire and fired a total of 51 rounds of continuous fire and hit the student in the back. Heiko Runge was bleeding to death at the scene.

Uwe Fleischhauer was arrested at the scene of the crime, then interrogated several times and finally arrested for illegally crossing the border. The two shooters were not brought to account for the killing of Heiko Runge in the GDR, but were awarded the medal for exemplary border service . After the political change , they were sentenced to 14 and 12 months in prison on probation by the Magdeburg Regional Court in 1996. The public prosecutor had demanded two years and 9 months without parole for the post leader. The company commander of the Sorge border company at that time had indoctrinated his soldiers in a special way by twisting the sequence prescribed by the border troops when a "border violator" was detected (call - warning shot - targeted single fire) with his utterances: "When you call, the magazine is changed!" Or " The warning shot goes through the cap at least! ".

The State Security took photos of the mourners at Heiko Runge's funeral.

literature

  • Roman Grafe: German Justice. Trials against GDR border guards and their commanders. Siedler-Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 978-3-88680-819-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Albrecht von Kortzfleisch: The iron curtain in the Harz: how borders were secured and overcome . 1st edition. Papierflieger-Verlag, Clausthal-Zellerfeld 2014, ISBN 978-3-86948-342-9 .
  2. ^ A b Heiko Runge , SED State Research Association , Free University of Berlin
  3. ↑ “Simply mowed around”. In: Der Spiegel , September 11, 1995
personal data
SURNAME Runge, Heiko
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German students, victims on the inner-German border
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Merseburg
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1979
Place of death Concern