Mysterious criminal cases in the GDR
| Television broadcast | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Mysterious criminal cases in the GDR |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| length | 45 minutes |
| Episodes | 5 ( list ) |
| genre | documentation |
| First broadcast | September 30, 2017 on ZDFinfo |
Mysterious Criminal Cases of the GDR is a ZDF program that has been broadcast since 2017 and deals with criminal cases that were hardly known to the public. Since capital crimes did not correspond to the socialist image of man that socialism in the GDR provided, numerous crimes were hushed up, suppressed, and concealed by the responsible authorities .
content
In order to pretend to GDR citizens that their country was free from crime, it was hardly reported in the press. Nevertheless, the state attached great importance to clearing up these crimes and so the perpetrators were searched for with a high level of personnel and great effort. In many cases the investigations were even conducted by the Ministry of State Security , which often resulted in spying on relatives of crime victims, or in cover-ups if the crime was committed by a party official, a Stasi employee or a Soviet soldier.
The film series shows numerous criminal cases that have occurred in the GDR and illuminates the background to the search for perpetrators. According to the published statistical yearbooks of the GDR, there were a total of 2263 murder and manslaughter cases in the GDR from 1969 to 1989. Very typical GDR topics are dealt with, such as the flight from the republic , privileges of Stasi employees and the relationship to socialist brother countries such as the Soviet Union or Cuba .
Original (recordings by amateur filmmakers) and archive recordings were used for the film scenes and the film is re-shot at the original locations. There are also numerous reports from relatives, experts, eyewitnesses and contemporary witnesses that make it clear by what means the regime tried to preserve its reputation.
consequences
| episode | Send date | title | subjects |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | September 30, 2017 | In the crosshairs of the Stasi | The murder in Eberswalde in 1969: contemporary witnesses report the execution of the perpetrator Hagedorn in 1970; Mittweida 1977, murder of 19-year-old Petra Lange with investigations by the criminal police; Mass brawl between Cubans and Germans in Merseburg in 1979, in which there are two deaths, which the Stasi dismissed as an "accident" in order not to stir up political entanglements; The murder of 20-year-old Marion Mitscherlich in Pirna in 1977 remains unsolved after 35 years; The robbery murder of Ingolf Hauser in Völpke in 1982 led to the perpetrator Frank Weißgerber's flight from the republic in 1983. As a FRG citizen, he was not initially called to account, but years later he was convicted |
| 2 | September 30, 2017 | Deadly taboos | a Stasi employee shoots three men for no reason - evidence was manipulated to protect the perpetrator; the murder of an 11-year-old girl is taken over by MfS employees; a Soviet soldier shoots two teenagers; Murder of a pastor from Wernigerode in 1988 |
| 3 | 20th September 2018 | Greed among comrades | Double murder of a couple from Jena in 1976; Case of the Leipzig knife robbers, in which Stasi people were behind it; Murder of a man from Straussberg; Investigation into a car dealer and foreign exchange dealer; For years a locksmith from VEB Sachsenring managed to divert and sell new Trabi vehicles |
| 4th | 20th August 2019 | Deadly abyss | fivefold baby murder in Wernigerode; Series of murders in Neubrandenburg in 1984 in which five minors and young men were killed by an NVA soldier who was sentenced to life imprisonment for this; |
| 5 | 20th August 2019 | State power in sight | Police murder in Leipzig in 1981, investigation into a sex murder in which an NVA officer was involved, a psychopathic perpetrator puts children in danger by telephone; an to this day unexplained death of an Italian truck driver |
On May 12, 2020, the broadcast format ZDFzeit showed a 45-minute summary of all episodes under the title Covered up, repressed, concealed .
criticism
The Hamburger Abendblatt evaluated: The documentation is "with a lot of information [provided] and for a better understanding [was] also embedded the political events. The documentary gives [...] like so many GDR reports the opportunity to get angry about the countless cover-ups. For the historically interested viewer, however, there are hardly any surprises. "
Web links
- Mysterious crimes of the GDR in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Mysterious criminal cases of the GDR on Fernsehserien.de
- Mysterious criminal cases of the GDR [1] Official website of the ZDF