Hermann Lorenz (executioner)

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Entrance to the central execution site of the GDR in Leipzig

Hermann Lorenz (born August 2, 1928 in Neudek , Czechoslovakia , † 2001 in Leipzig ) was an officer in the penal system of the Ministry of the Interior (MdI) of the GDR and its last executioner .

Lorenz performed his service mainly in the prison facility in Leipzig . In the central GDR execution site housed there , he carried out the last 20 executions on German soil between 1969 and 1981 , most of them for murder , some for espionage or crimes against humanity . Lorenz carried out the last two death sentences as captain of the penitentiary system and department head of the penitentiary institution in Leipzig, when he allegedly accused ex- frigate captain Winfried Baumann in the NVA intelligence service with an unexpected close-range shot with his P 38 and on June 26, 1981 the unlawful one MfS- Captain Werner Teske executed convicted of accomplished espionage and attempted desertion .

Lorenz was considered a careful, conscientious and punctual department head of his prison. He received 200 marks for each execution , his helpers 125 marks each. Only the director of the institution, Hugo Friedrich, was privy to Lorenz's activities.

Lorenz retired as a major in 1980 for health reasons, which he briefly interrupted for his last execution in 1981. The death penalty in the GDR was abolished in 1987.

After the fall of the Wall , Lorenz spoke about his work several times in interviews and in front of the camera, for example to Roger Willemsen in 1991 . This interview can be seen in part in the film Executioner - Death Has a Face , a documentary by Jens Becker and Gunnar Dedio (2001).

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Footnotes

  1. Simon Akstinat : Test your general education - Oh !? Fascinating facts , Baden-Baden: Humboldt 2004 ISBN 3-89994-018-0 , p. 149 ( online at Google Books).
  2. Märkische Allgemeine from 3./4. November 2001.
  3. The "Red Admiral" Baumann, born on May 17, 1930, now an unemployed "alcoholic and impostor", had previously been convicted in a three-day secret trial. Cf. Andreas Kabus: WINDROSE commission - The GDR's military secret service. Berlin 1993, p. 91.
  4. Mielke's Revenge - The Execution of a Stasi Officer. Film documentation of the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR)
  5. “There was no room for feelings” - portrait of the last executioner in the GDR, article about an interview with Hermann Lorenz from 1991 on www.mdr.de.
  6. a b Results of the six years of research by the author duo Jens Becker / Gunnar Dedio for a film production on the subject and the book The Last Henker , Verlag Das Neue Berlin 2002. www.progress-film.de. ( Memento of the original from November 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 59 kB) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.progress-film.de
  7. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: For every execution 150 marks premium for the executioner. In: welt.de. June 26, 2016, accessed May 3, 2018 .
  8. Richard J. Evans : Rituals of Retribution - The Death Penalty in German History 1532-1987. Kindler and Hamburger Edition, Hamburg 1996 ISBN 3-463-40400-1 , p. 1027.
  9. Birger Dölling: Execution of sentences between turning point and reunification. Criminal policy and prisoner protests in the last year of the GDR. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-527-0 , p. 43.
  10. Der Spiegel  : Death Penalty in the GDR. The executioner came from behind , Hans Michael Kloth, July 13, 2007