Michael Gartenschläger

Michael Gartenschläger memorial stone with cross in the municipality of Langenlehsten near the place of death

Michael Gartenschläger (born January 13, 1944 in Strausberg near Berlin ; † April 30, 1976 on the inner-German border between Leisterförde / Schwerin district and Bröthen / Schleswig-Holstein ) was a political prisoner in the GDR and a refugee . He was shot dead by a special command of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) while trying to dismantle a self-firing system at the border. In a judgment of February 16, 2005, the Federal Court of Justice acquitted a defendant who was accused of organizing and causing the killing of Gartenschläger; Among other things, it is based on the fact that the court of fact was unable to rule out the fact that Gartenschlag was the first to shoot.

Life

Michael Gartenschläger was arrested in August 1961 - at the age of seventeen - together with five friends after protests against the building of the wall and the associated arson at the barn of an LPG and in September for " propaganda and agitation that was dangerous to the state as well as diversion " after a three-day show trial in the Strausberg culture house of the NVA sentenced to life imprisonment by the district court of Frankfurt (Oder) .

In 1971 he was after almost ten years in prison health by solitary confinement strongly attacked and lack of meals, from the Federal Republic of Germany for 40,000 DM ransomed . He started his own business in Hamburg as a leaseholder of a gas station.

Michael Gartenschläger was still committed to his political convictions, participated in escape assistance for a total of 31 people and personally helped six people to flee the GDR to the Federal Republic.

In order to expose the propaganda of the GDR , which denied its use of self-firing systems on the inner-German border since the installation of the first systems in 1970, he dismantled an SM-70 type self-firing system on March 30, 1976, which he sold to Der Spiegel magazine for 12,000 DM along with his life story. He dismantled another SM-70 on April 23, 1976 and sold it on April 26, 1976 to the Arbeitsgemeinschaft 13. August e. V. for 3,000 DM.

Circumstances of death

On the night of May 1, 1976, Gartenschläger and two supporters wanted to dismantle a third SM-70 at the border bend at border column 231, where he had already dismantled the other two. All three people were armed. Knowing the project, but without knowing the exact place and time, extensive security measures had been started on the GDR side since April 24, 1976 by 29 members of an operations company of Department I of the Ministry for State Security. The aim of the measure was to “arrest or destroy” garden bat after entering the GDR territory. Gartenschläger posted his two companions on the border line and entered GDR territory alone to at least detonate an SM-70. He ran towards the kink of the border fence, where two double posts from the emergency company were already in position.

At the trial of the case in 2000, the court held that Gartenschlag was very likely to open fire on the guards with his pistol after one of the guards carelessly made a noise. The guards returned fire. Gartenschääger was hit from the front by several shots. After this first series of shots, a spotlight was aimed from the other side of the border fence at the garden racket, who was now lying on his back. One of the shooters went to Gartenschlag and found that he was still alive. After the lieutenant in charge of the double guard heard noises from the west, he ordered the lights to be turned off and to take cover again. A second series of shots began. Gartenschläger's companions stated that they fled after the first series of fires and made noises in the process. One of the companions reported that as a headlight cone approached him, he shot with a sawed-off rifle, whereupon the second series of shots started, which would have been aimed at him.

The fatally injured garden bat was transported through the border fence. Gartenschläger was still alive at this point. A military doctor who was called up determined the time of death to be 11:45 p.m. The investigation showed that Gartenschääger was probably shot through the heart with the first hit, after which he would have had little chance of survival even with immediate surgical intervention.

Gartenschläger's remains were burned on May 10, 1976 at 3 p.m. in the crematorium of the Schwerin forest cemetery as an “unknown corpse of water”; the ashes were anonymously buried in a meadow in the forest cemetery. The opponents of the regime should not have a grave. It was only after the reunification that his sister found out where her brother's remains were, whereupon friends of Gartenschlagers dug a grave.

Former column path in the "Gartenschläger Eck" area, facing southeast

Memorial cross at the place of death of Michael Gartenschläger, former inner-German border , looking towards Schleswig-Holstein

Inscription memorial cross Michael Gartenschläger

Legal processing

In March 2000 the trial against three members of the double posts took place before the Schwerin Regional Court . The subject of the negotiation was the second series of shots. Since Gartenschläger had already been fatally hit after the first series of shots, which he himself had very likely started, the charge was attempted murder of the Gartenschläger lying on the ground (Sections 211, 22, 23, 25 (2) StGB). The defendants were acquitted because, according to the evidence, it could be assumed that "the defendants' behavior was justified by self-defense in accordance with Section 32 of the Criminal Code or at least by the assumption of self-defense ( putative self- defense )".

In April 2003, the superiors of the double posts, the Stasi Colonel Helmut Heckel and Stasi Lieutenant Colonel Wolfgang Singer, were tried before the Berlin Regional Court. The trial against co-defendant Lieutenant General Karl Kleinjung was separated and later discontinued after Kleinjung died. The defendants were charged with having given an order to kill Gartenschlagers. The defendant Heckel was acquitted. The proceedings against Singer were discontinued due to the statute of limitations. The public prosecutor's office appealed against the termination of the proceedings. In its judgment of February 16, 2005, the Federal Court of Justice ruled that “the executives involved in the GDR, including the accused, had planned the killing of Gartenschlagers and his helpers, which is hardly hidden in the documents behind the word 'destroy', in the event that they People would not be able to be arrested ”. This determined unsuccessful request to commit an act would be punishable according to § 227 StGB of the GDR, but is now statute-barred. The BGH recognized that the proceedings should not be discontinued in the case and acquitted the defendant Singer.

The verdict of “life imprisonment” passed in 1961 by the GDR judiciary against Michael Gartenschläger was largely overturned in 1992 by the Frankfurt (Oder) regional court following an application for rehabilitation by his sister .

Others

In 2006, in Gartenschläger's hometown of Strausberg, the application to name a street after Michael Gartenschläger was rejected by the city council.

literature

Andreas Frost: Michael Gartenschläger: The trial: alleged GDR injustice before a German court . Schwerin: State Commissioner for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for the documents of the State Security Service of the former GDR, 2002. ISBN 3-933255-15-5 .
Lothar Lienicke, Franz Bludau: Automatic death: the state security and the death of Michael Gartenschläger . Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt am Main 2003, ISBN 3-596-15913-X and L. Lienecke, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-929171-01-5 .
Freya Klier : Michael Gartenschläger. Fight against wall and barbed wire . Bürgerbüro e. V. Berlin, 2009, out of print, new edition: Polymathes-Verlag, Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-942657-06-8 .
Christoph Left : Gartenschläger, Michael . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle: Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 .

TV documentary

Against the border. The life of Michael Gartenschläger , television documentary (44 min.) By Alexander Dittner & Ben Kempas, production: Xframe GmbH Munich for Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) 2004.

Exhibitions

Michael Gartenschläger - Living and Dying between Germany and Germany (traveling exhibition of the Marienborn memorial )
ELVIS in Germany , House of History in Bonn 2004/05

motion pictures

The automatic death, ZDF film based on the book of the same name by Franz Bludau and Lothar Lienicke, production: Polyphon Film- und Fernsehgesellschaft Hamburg, director: Niki Stein, camera: Arthur Ahrweiler, script: Wieland Bauder, actors: Mišel Matičević , Stephan Kampwirth , Loretta Pflaum, Katrin Bühring , Werner Wölbern , Hark Bohm u. a. First broadcast in November 2007.

Play

Open the gate , On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Michael Gartenschläger's death, the Berlin theater company Interkunst e. V. a stage play that deals with his tragic life story.

Web links

Commons : Michael Gartenschläger - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Literature by and about Michael Gartenschläger in the catalog of the German National Library
Spiegel TV report from June 30, 1991 on spiegel.tv
Article about Michael Gartenschläger on jugendopposition.de with extensive picture material.
Michael Gartenschläger at the SED State Research Association
Roman Grafe : The self-assertion of an injustice state , The trials against Stasi employees for the killing of the resistance fighter Michael Gartenschläger, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (2006)
Karsten Krampitz : Enemy from the barriers. The death of Michael Gartenschläger. , New Germany , December 14, 2015

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b Klaus Marxen , Gerhard Werle: Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 , p. 471 ff.
↑ BGH 5 StR 14/04 - judgment of February 16, 2005 (LG Berlin).
^ ^A ^b Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle: Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 , p. 473.
^ Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle: Criminal Justice and GDR Injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 , p. 483.
^ Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle: Criminal Justice and GDR Injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 , p. 478.
^ Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle: Criminal Justice and GDR Injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 , p. 485.
↑ https://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/fsed/Das-DDR-Grenzregime/Biografien-von-Todesopfern/Gartenschlaeger_Michael/index.html
↑ Grave of Michael Gartenschläger ( courage to maladjustment and a sense of resistance. State Commissioner for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for the coming to terms with the SED dictatorship, August 13, 2013, accessed on September 4, 2019 (subsequently created grave of Michael Gartenschläger, report also contains a picture of the Grabs (by T. Balzer). )
^ Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle: Criminal Justice and GDR Injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 , p. 488.
^ Judgment of the LG Berlin, AZ: (531) 25 Js 2/97 -Ks- (8/97)
^ Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle: Criminal Justice and GDR Injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 , p. 489.
^ Judgment of the BGH 5 StR 14/04 of February 16, 2005
↑ Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk: Stasi specifically surveillance and repression in the GDR . CH Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-63838-1 , p. 301 ( preview in Google Book search).

53.477777777778 10.702138888889Coordinates: 53 ° 28 ′ 40 " N , 10 ° 42 ′ 7.7" E

personal data
SURNAME	Gartenschlag, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German escape agent
DATE OF BIRTH	January 13, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH	Strausberg near Berlin
DATE OF DEATH	April 30, 1976
Place of death	Inner German border between Leisterförde , Schwerin and Bröthen districts , Schleswig-Holstein

[marxen471-1] A ^b Klaus Marxen , Gerhard Werle: Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 , p. 471 ff.

[2] BGH 5 StR 14/04 - judgment of February 16, 2005 (LG Berlin).

[marxen473-3] A ^b Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle: Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 , p. 473.

[4] Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle: Criminal Justice and GDR Injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 , p. 483.

[5] Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle: Criminal Justice and GDR Injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 , p. 478.

[6] Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle: Criminal Justice and GDR Injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 , p. 485.

[7] ttps://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/fsed/Das-DDR-Grenzregime/Biografien-von-Todesopfern/Gartenschlaeger_Michael/index.html

[8] Grave of Michael Gartenschläger ( courage to maladjustment and a sense of resistance. State Commissioner for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for the coming to terms with the SED dictatorship, August 13, 2013, accessed on September 4, 2019 (subsequently created grave of Michael Gartenschläger, report also contains a picture of the Grabs (by T. Balzer). )

[9] Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle: Criminal Justice and GDR Injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 , p. 488.

[10] Judgment of the LG Berlin, AZ: (531) 25 Js 2/97 -Ks- (8/97)

[11] Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle: Criminal Justice and GDR Injustice. Volume 6, De Gruyter Recht, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-89949-344-3 , p. 489.

[12] Judgment of the BGH 5 StR 14/04 of February 16, 2005

[13] Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk: Stasi specifically surveillance and repression in the GDR . CH Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-63838-1 , p. 301 ( preview in Google Book search).