Lothar Hennig

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Memorial plaque , Kladower Straße 1, in Potsdam

Lothar Hennig (born June 30, 1954 in Potsdam ; † November 5, 1975 there ) was a victim of the Berlin Wall . A member of the GDR border troops shot him dead while walking home in Sacrow, which is close to the border.

Life

Lothar Hennig grew up in Sacrow . During the division of Germany , the place was an exclave of the GDR , surrounded by West Berlin, which could only be reached via a single access road and was under special guard by the border troops and the Ministry for State Security (MfS). A pass or a special stamp was required to get into the village. After school he trained as a painter at the VEB equipment and control plant in Teltow. Since May 1975 he worked at PGH Autoservice Potsdam.

On the afternoon of November 4, 1975 he was in Potsdam for a conversation with his MfS command officer. Since April 1975 he was an unofficial employee of the MfS. He then went to a pub and got drunk before taking the bus back to Sacrow. The bus driver, a cousin of Lothar Hennig, let him out on the corner of his residential street. He had previously informed him that there was an escape alarm in Sacrow and that the border guards were on the way with reinforcements. He covered the distance of 400 meters from the corner of the street to his parents' house in a continuous run , during which he was seen by a border guard. He said he had called Lothar Hennig to stop before he fired a shot in the direction of the runner on his knees. A projectile hit Lothar Hennig in the back. It remained unclear whether it was a ricochet or a second shot. Together with another border guard, the shooter provided first aid . An hour later a doctor came and the transport of the injured man to the Drewitz Army Hospital began. Lothar Hennig died there around 1.30 a.m. the following day. The autopsy revealed that his lungs had been destroyed by the shot and that he was bleeding to death internally.

A forensic investigation of the crime scene and an investigation by the military prosecutor did not take place, although the killing was also a criminal offense under GDR law. After the end of the GDR, the shooter had in 1996 before the District Court of Potsdam in a wall protecting process responsibility and was sentenced to imprisonment for 14 months on probation.

Web links

Commons : Lothar Hennig  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ BGH, judgment of November 3, 1992, Az. 5 StR 370/92, full text = BGHSt 39, 1 - Mauerschützen I.
  2. ↑ BGH, judgment of March 25, 1993, Az. 5 StR 418/92. Full text = BGHSt 39, 168 - Wall contactors II.
  3. ↑ BGH, judgment of March 20, 1995, Az. 5 StR 111/94, full text = BGHSt 41, 101 - Mauerschützen III.
personal data
SURNAME Hennig, Lothar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German fatality on the Berlin Wall
DATE OF BIRTH June 30, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Potsdam
DATE OF DEATH 5th November 1975
Place of death Potsdam