Klaus-Peter Braun

Klaus-Peter Braun

Klaus-Peter Braun (born October 21, 1958 in Bleicherode [?]; † August 1, 1981 near Rustenfelde ) was a GDR border soldier killed while on duty . Braun was shot dead by a GDR border soldier who then fled to the West.

Life

Klaus-Peter Braun served ten years as a professional sergeant in the GDR border troops . During the first half of his service, he was trained at the "Egon Schultz" non-commissioned officers' school in Perleberg . This was followed by the appointment as a non-commissioned officer and the transfer to the border service in border regiment 4 " Willy Gebhardt " / 12th border company based in Rustenfelde . Usually, professional non-commissioned officers were appointed sergeant-major after one year of service in the troops , and after another six months they were appointed sergeant , the rank of Braun at the time of his death.

On August 1, 1981, Klaus-Peter Braun was deployed to the command post of his border company ( FüSt. Rustenfelde ) in the night elevator to manage border security ( GSi ) in the section of his company. The 24-year-old Roland H. and probably the alarm group were under his control at the command post. The command post was located on an observation tower and equipped with a map table and communications equipment. These larger towers have 3 stories and a larger footprint than normal observation towers. Down in the tower is a toilet and a news room. On the middle floor there are two double bunk beds for the alarm group. This usually consists of 4 soldiers. The actual command post is located on the top floor. From here a professional soldier, usually an officer, leads the border section. At 11:35 p.m. the border signal fence (GSZ) in the hinterland was triggered , whereupon the alarm group left the command post with appropriate orders. It is said that Roland H. duly took his weapon out of the weapon rack to go downstairs with the alarm group. There the alarm group left the command post. Roland H. should then lock the building from the inside and come back to his post leader. Klaus-Peter Braun and Roland H. were now alone. Soldier Roland H. fired three shots at Braun, one of which "penetrated the apex of the heart, opened the lungs, stomach, pancreas and the aorta in the abdomen [...], which led to immediate death". Roland H. left the observation tower, ran straight to the border fence and climbed over it with the help of his carrying frame . Klaus-Peter Braun was buried in his hometown of Bleicherode .

Work-up

Posthumously Braun was promoted to ensign . In the GDR u. a. a clubhouse in Bleicherode named after him.

On 23 July 1982, the condemned Military High Court Leipzig the perpetrators in absentia for murder to life imprisonment . The defendant's defense counsel was Friedrich Wolff . Through investigations by the Forensic Medicine Institute at the University of Jena , the prosecution tried to prove that the gunshot channel of the fatal shot (from the front, diagonally downwards) could only come about through a shot by the standing perpetrator at Braun, who was sitting at the card table, but not in the scuffle, as this was presented in the proceedings in West Germany.

In 1983, the condemned District Court Göttingen Roland H. for manslaughter to imprisonment of one year, the probation was suspended. At the trial, the perpetrator stated that he threatened the unarmed Braun with a Kalashnikov and announced that he would flee . Thereupon Braun came up to him and held the gun barrel, whereupon three shots were released. The court followed suit.

literature

• Friedrich Wolff : Lost processes 1953-1998: my defenses in political proceedings Nomos, Baden-Baden 1999, ISBN 3-7890-6001-1 . (In it Chapter 29: The Death of Sergeant Braun , p. 177ff.)

Web links

Commons : Klaus-Peter Braun  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} The eyes wet with anger . In: Der Spiegel No. 28/1991 of July 8, 1991, pp. 109-110
2. ↑ In: Neue Justiz , Volume 37, No. 1 (1983), pp. 277f. ISSN  0028-3231 .
3. ↑ Regional Court of Göttingen, file number 6 JS 648/81 - 18/83 II.