Wall rifle trials

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As Wall Protect processes are court proceedings because of the fatal shootings at the Berlin Wall and the firing order during the German division called (1961 to 1989). In the proceedings before regional courts in Berlin , Neuruppin , Potsdam , Schweinfurt and Schwerin from 1991 to 2004 , both executives and politically and militarily responsible persons of the GDR regime were indicted.

legitimation

The proceedings against the wall protectors could be carried out because the decisions of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) determined that the killing of refugees was also a criminal offense in the GDR. The BGH declared the justification of the Border Act of the GDR to be valid in principle, but only in a human rights-friendly interpretation , in that the BGH removed the principle of proportionality from the constitution of the GDR . In the proceedings for the death of Manfred Weylandt in 1994, the Federal Court of Justice specified that the targeted killing of unarmed refugees "because of an obvious, intolerable violation of elementary principles of justice and human rights protected under international law" was also injustice in the GDR and added in the Politburo decision, if the border law of the GDR were not accessible to a human rights-friendly interpretation, it would certainly not be able to justify the use of firearms on the German-German border . With this renaissance of Radbruch's formula , possible justifications of GDR law were discarded. The convictions of high GDR functionaries took place as “ perpetrators behind the perpetrator .” In 1995, the Federal Constitutional Court saw no violation of the prohibition of retroactive effects in judgments , nor did the European Court of Human Rights in 2001 . The shots at deserted soldiers and prisoners on the run were a special case , as this was also a criminal offense in the Federal Republic of Germany. In the legal literature, the procedures were largely viewed critically due to the retroactive effect . In politics, the PDS spoke of the continuation of the Cold War, Mikhail Gorbachev of witch hunt, while the CDU and SPD endorsed the verdicts. In Brandenburg, Volkmar Schöneburg's appointment as Minister of Justice in 2009 sparked a heated argument, as in an essay in 2002 he denied the legality of the wall rifle trials.

Procedure

The proceedings were essentially based on documents that had been collected by the central registration office of the state justice administrations in Salzgitter since it was founded in 1961.

In total, there were 112 proceedings in Berlin and Potsdam against 246 people who had to answer in court as shooters or those involved in the crime. About half of the defendants were acquitted . 132 defendants were sentenced to imprisonment or suspended sentences for their acts or involvement in acts. These included 10 members of the SED leadership, 42 military leaders and 80 former border soldiers. In addition, there were 19 trials with 31 defendants in Neuruppin, which ended with suspended sentences for 19 shooters. For the murder of Walter Kittel , the shooter was given the longest prison sentence of 10 years. Typically, the shooters received sentences of between 6 and 24 months on probation, while those in command received higher sentences with increasing responsibility. There were separate proceedings at other courts against the executing soldiers at the inner-German border.

accused

Most of the accused were former border soldiers and crew ranks of the border troops of the GDR who shot at the border or helped the riflemen. In addition, people from the political leadership of the GDR were charged.

In June 1991 the charges were brought in the first trial. It was directed against four border guards who were involved in the shooting of Chris Gueffroy on February 5, 1989 at the Berlin Wall . Gueffroy was the last person who was shot while trying to escape on the wall.

Trial of the government

The first major trial began on November 13, 1992 before the 27th Chamber of the Berlin Regional Court. However, proceedings against individual defendants were separated. The following people were charged:

Politburo process

In 1997 the trial of members of the SED Politburo ended before the Berlin Regional Court . On August 25, the judgments were passed against Egon Krenz (six and a half years imprisonment), Günter Schabowski and Günther Kleiber (each three years imprisonment). After the judgment was upheld by the Federal Court of Justice in early 2000 and the constitutional complaint lodged against it was unsuccessful, the three began their prison sentences. The proceedings against the also accused Harry Tisch , Kurt Hager , Erich Mückenberger and Horst Dohlus were discontinued because of Tisch's death or for health reasons. The conviction of Fritz Streletz , Heinz Keßler and Egon Krenz was confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

Quorum process

On March 1, 1994 charges of assisted manslaughter and attempted manslaughter were brought against ten former officers of the NVA in the rank of general or admiral who had been members of the College of the Ministry of National Defense of the GDR. The public prosecutor's office relied on annual orders on measures at the inner-German border that had been decided by the college.

The following people were charged:

The proceedings against six of the defendants were discontinued due to age and / or illness. Goldbach, Handke, Ludwig and Peter were convicted. The sentences ranged from one year and ten months suspended to three years and three months.

Last processes

In a second trial against members of the Politburo in August 2004, Hans-Joachim Böhme and Siegfried Lorenz were sentenced to suspended sentences by the Berlin Regional Court . The proceedings against Herbert Häber , who was originally co-accused , were separated by the regional court on March 25, 2004. On May 11, 2004, Häber was found guilty by the Berlin Regional Court for inciting a triple murder, but received no penalty for attempting to relax the border regime.

The last trial against GDR border guards ended on November 9, 2004 - exactly 15 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall - with a guilty verdict.

Literature (selection)

Web links

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. ↑ a b c BGH, judgment of March 20, 1995, Az. 5 StR 111/94, full text = BGHSt 41, 101 - Mauerschützen III.
  4. ↑ a b BGH, judgment of July 26, 1994, Az. 5 StR 167/94, full text = BGHSt 40, 218 - indirect perpetrators of high GDR functionaries.
  5. ^ BGH, judgment of November 8, 1999, Az. 5 StR 632/98, full text = BGHSt 45, 270 - indirect perpetrators of high GDR functionaries.
  6. ^ Horst Dreier: Gustav Radbruch und die Mauerschützen, JZ 1997, pp. 421, 428
  7. ↑ BVerfG, decision of October 24, 1996, Az. 2 BvR 1851, 1853, 1875 and 1852/94, BVerfGE 95, 96 - Mauerschützen.
  8. ↑ a b ECHR, judgment of March 22, 2001 - complaints No. 34044/96, 35532/97 and 44801/98 (Streletz, Keßler and Krenz ./. Germany), full text .
  9. ↑ a b Herlte, 2009 p. 24 f.
  10. ↑ Eberhard Schmidt-Aßmann : Der Rechtsstaat, in: Josef Isensee / Paul Kirchhof (ed.), Handbook of the State Law of the Federal Republic of Germany (HdStR), Volume II, 3rd edition, Heidelberg 2004, § 26 Rn. 98; Josef Isensee: Rule of Law - Specification and task of the unification of Germany, in: HdStR, Volume IX, 2nd edition, Heidelberg 1997, § 202 Rn. 158.
  11. ↑ Uwe Wesel : The judgment against Egon Krenz and others is astonishingly similar to the case law by the GDR justice system , Der Tagesspiegel of November 10, 1999
  12. ^ Volkmar Schöneburg: The lost charm of the constitutional state. Or: what did the wall rifle trials bring? , WeltTrends 34, p. 97; to Erardo Rautenberg : Wall shooters were prosecuted for Law , Der Tagesspiegel, November 2, 2009
  13. ↑ spiegel.de December 18, 1989: Flood in the files. - East Berlin scouts now want the documents from the West German collection point for GDR crimes. , The mirror
  14. ↑ Tactically clever and correct , Der Spiegel 27/1991; Protocols on shooting orders and flight from the Republic, Part II
  15. ^ Bridegroom, p. 971 ff.
  16. ^ Criminal justice and GDR injustice: acts of violence on the German-German border, p. 599ff
  17. ↑ Federal Agency for Civic Education : Politburo process
  18. ↑ Politburo process at chronikderwende.de (editorially supervised by rbb and the ARD)
  19. ↑ Michael Mielke: NVA generals blow a certificate to withdraw. In: Die Welt , August 17, 1995, accessed on September 11, 2018
  20. ^ Karl-Wilhelm Fricke: Border violators are to be arrested or destroyed. , Website of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation . Retrieved September 11, 2018
  21. ^ GDR functionary Herbert Häber guilty and still unpunished. In: Berliner Morgenpost . May 12, 2004, accessed May 25, 2020 .
  22. ↑ Art. 7 ECHR and the acts of violence on the German-German border | On the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights | Kreicker, Helmut | Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag - the publisher for sophisticated scientific specialist literature. Retrieved August 23, 2019 .
  23. ^ Weinke, Annette: Review of: G. Mouralis: Une épuration allemande. Retrieved February 25, 2020 .