Horst Böttger (doctor)

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Horst Böttger (born May 31, 1939 in Leipzig ) is a German medic. From 1978 to 1988 he was a forensic psychiatrist in the detention hospital of the Central Remand Detention Center of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen . As an "interrogator in a white coat" he listened to patients for years and passed the information on to the MfS.

Life

Childhood and youth

Horst Böttger grew up as an illegitimate child without a father in Leipzig. He first learned the profession of forestry worker. He got involved in the FDJ early on . At the age of 18 he joined the SED and became an honorary party secretary. In 1956 he entered the service of the Erfurt riot police, which, after completing basic training, sent him to the Medical School of the Ministry of the Interior in Leipzig. He completed his training as a nurse with a good grade . After taking up his military service with the National People's Army , Böttger volunteered for two years, became a non-commissioned officer in the medical service and was trained as a medical assistant in 1961. In order to start studying medicine, he resigned from the riot police and took the mandatory high school diploma at evening school.

Stasi career

After studying medicine in Leipzig and Erfurt, he committed himself to a career as a professional soldier in the State Security at the beginning of July 1971 and completed training as a specialist in psychiatry / neurology . In his declaration of commitment, Böttger declared that he was ready “to fight the enemies of the GDR with all determination”. From January 1976 Böttger was delegated by the MfS to the department for forensic psychiatry at the Charité . He did not only do his doctorate in medicine, but also obtained the “Dr.” in 1985 at the University of the Ministry for State Security in Potsdam. jur. "with a collective dissertation on the optimization of decomposition under the title" On the causes and conditions for the development of hostile-negative attitudes and for the transformation of these attitudes into hostile-negative actions by GDR citizens. Consequences for the further increase of the effectiveness of the prevention and fight against hostile-negative actions by the MfS ”. Between January 1978 and 1988 he worked as a forensic psychiatrist and captain of the state security in the MfS detention hospital in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen. As a doctor, he violated Hippocrates ' oath by stealing the prisoners' trust and passing on the information they had given in confidence to the interrogators. According to statements from former prisoners, he administered drugs to them against their will and thus obtained manipulated confessions as a basis for subsequent prison sentences.

In 1979 and 1984 he received the Medal of Merit of the National People's Army in bronze and silver, respectively. On the occasion of his 50th birthday, he was also proposed for the Gold Medal of Merit. The MfS judged Böttger that he was taking “operational issues” into account and that he was effectively involved in the area of ​​so-called state crimes and that he was working on “solving operational issues in cooperation with” the MfS interrogators.

From 1988 he worked as an officer on special assignments at the Humboldt University of Berlin (HU), Criminology Section . In the same year he was awarded the title of Medical Councilor. The reason given was that he had drawn up “qualified assessments of all criminal offenses, especially in the area of ​​state crimes”, which “always met the requirements of the court, public prosecutor and investigative body in terms of content and form”. “Comrade Böttger is always aware of the great political importance of his work”. In the course of the liquidation of the MfS, renamed “Office for National Security”, his assignment at the HU was ended on December 31, 1989 and Böttger was released with a transitional allowance of several thousand marks.

After German reunification

Although numerous former prisoners testified publicly against Böttger after the fall of the Wall and the peaceful revolution in the GDR , he continues to practice as a doctor just three streets from the former Stasi prison. In addition to his medical degree, Böttger still has his doctorate degree from the MfS University to this day.

Böttger was the only physician in the detention hospital against whom main legal proceedings were initiated after 1990. The Berlin Regional Court acquitted him on September 22, 2000 for lack of evidence. Another trial ended with an acquittal due to the statute of limitations . Böttger was represented by his lawyer Frank Osterloh , who used to work as an interrogator for the MfS.

Horst Böttger is a member of the German Academy for Acupuncture and Auriculomedicine e. V.

literature

  • Tobias Voigt / Peter Erler : Medicine behind bars - The Stasi detention hospital in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen . Jaron-Verlag, Berlin 2011.

Movie

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk : “Nobody forced him” - a doctor in the service of the Stasi . Federal Agency for Civic Education , viewed on May 14, 2009.
  2. ↑ Cf. Tobias Voigt / Peter Erler: Medicine behind bars - The Stasi detention hospital in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen , Berlin 2011, p. 70f.
  3. ↑ a b c cf. Voigt / Erler: Medicine behind bars , p. 71.
  4. ↑ See The Lives of Two Others . In: Playboy 09/2002, pp. 58–63, christoph-woehrle.de (PDF; 1.6 MB)
  5. ↑ Cf. Kowalczuk: “Nobody forced him” .
  6. ↑ Authors: Peter Jaskulski (Lieutenant Colonel), Christian Rudolph (Lieutenant Colonel), Horst Böttger (Major), Wolfgang Grüneberg (Major), Albert Mautsch (Major). Supervised u. a. by the head of HA VIII, Karli Coburger , and from the deputy head of HA IX of the MfS, Klaus Herzog. BStU ZA MfS. JHS No. 237/85 / JHS 21975, quoted from: Georg Herbstritt: German citizens in the service of GDR espionage: an analytical study. S. 112f, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2011
  7. ↑ See Renate Oschlies: The proximity of the past . In: Berliner Zeitung , October 3, 2010.
  8. ↑ Cf. Hubertus Knabe : The perpetrators are among us - About the glossing over of the SED dictatorship . Berlin 2008, p. 109.
  9. ↑ See Harro Albrecht: Well or bad . In: Der Spiegel Spezial , 7/1996, p. 78.
  10. ↑ a b quotation from Voigt / Erler: Medicine behind bars , p. 72.
  11. ↑ See Renate Oschlies: "Everything was possible in prison" - the Stasi doctor acquitted of the charge of bodily harm to prisoners . In: Berliner Zeitung , September 23, 2000.
  12. ↑ Cf. Oschlies: The proximity of the past .
personal data
SURNAME Böttger, Horst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German medic
DATE OF BIRTH May 31, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig