Self-firing system

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
SM-70 self- firing system exhibited at Point Alpha (fragment mine model 1970).
Replica of an SM-70, the arrangement of the tension wires is visible.

A self- firing system is a device in which - mostly hidden - wires trigger shots or detonate fragmentation mines when touched or other signal transmitters. (see also: booby trap ).

In the German-speaking area, the self-firing system usually means the self-firing systems that were used from 1971 to 1984 by the GDR on the inner-German border over a length of around 447 kilometers. Around 71,000 SM-70 self -firing systems were installed on the front metal mesh border fence. Their sole purpose was to prevent attempts to escape from the GDR by automatically seriously injuring or killing people trying to climb over the border fence. The first victim of a self-shot range was Johannes-Leo Hoffmann from Worbis , who was killed on November 14, 1972 near Teistungen . In addition, a soldier of the border troops of the GDR died during maintenance work. The last victim of a self-shot range was the 20-year-old Frank Mater , who was killed on March 22, 1984 near Wendehausen . Around 140 people were injured by self-shot systems while attempting to escape.

Hunting and grave protection

Early self-firing systems were developed as animal traps . The Teutons already used spear and bow traps for hunting. These traps were set off by a rope stretched across a deer crossing . They had to be oriented so that the arrow would hit the animal. In the Middle Ages these were known as self-shot or weapon traps. With the development of firearms , the Leg rifle was used for the same purpose. The use of such devices is now heavily regulated. For example, B. the Federal Hunting Law Self- Shot Devices. Only self- firing devices for pest control , such as the root scrap device, may still be used. As early as 220 BC Self- firing systems based on crossbow traps were used to secure Chinese royal tombs against grave robbers . Self-firing systems for this purpose were still in use in Britain in the 19th century .

Inner German border

The self- firing systems SM-70 were for years the predominant security elements of the GDR and on the inner-German border between the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic exclusively oriented in the direction of the GDR. The inner-German border had been mined since 1961, initially only with conventional earth mines. These were moved by the GDR at the instigation of the Soviet Union .

Designations

At the time of development, the mine was known as the Schützensplittermine SSM or SSM-1. The completed mine was then named SM-70 Splinter Mine 1970 . Some sources also give conical fragment mines with directivity as the official name. The SM-70 was built into the mine barrier system MS 501 and MS 701. This name is sometimes used synonymously for the mine.

The western media used, among other things, terms such as self-shooting machine, self-shooting machine, self-shooting system, self-shooting device, as well as rhetorically “killing machine”, “killing machine”, or “death machine”.

Development and testing

Erich Lutter , an SS leader who headed Division II D 4 (weapons system) in the Reich Security Main Office , developed a concept for self-firing systems on the fences of concentration camps on behalf of Reinhard Heydrich . This was intended to prevent detainees with little staff from escaping. Lutter's designs were never realized. According to the journalist Georg Bensch, his plans fell into the hands of the victorious Soviet power after the Second World War . In the GDR, these plans were used to develop their own self-firing systems.

At the beginning of 1965, the GDR Ministry of Defense placed the order for the development and production of the self-firing system, initially known as a rifle fragmentation mine (SSM), to VEB Chemiewerk Kapen . This location had been used as an ammunition factory as early as 1936. However, the developers could not meet the requirements of the ministry. In August 1968 the first contact was made with the VUSTE military engineering institute in Czechoslovakia . On February 23, 1967, Czechoslovakia and the GDR signed a contract for the development and testing of a self-firing system and the delivery of 100 prototypes to the GDR. She paid Czechoslovakia 700,000 marks for it . The self-firing systems, now called SM-70 after the year of the planned commissioning, were manufactured from 1969 in the VEB chemical plant in Kapen. The electrical components for the entire system came from VEB Elektroapparatebau Bannewitz .

The test setup took place from the winter of 1970/71 on the inner-German border in the section Salzwedel / Lüchow (5 km) and Arendsee / Prezelle (10 km). The completion of the test set-up was planned for January 1, 1971, but was delayed due to weather conditions and material not available in time until mid-April 1971. At Salzwedel the SM-70s were attached to the fence at three different heights, at Arendsee two rows of SM- 70 on the fence with conventional earth mines in the minefield in front of it. Although the mine showed its effectiveness when triggered by game , there was also triggering by lightning due to insufficient insulation . The effort and the complexity of the construction were considered to be high. Therefore the structure should be simplified by plug connections and more precise markings.

“The splinter effect on the game species shot at: roe deer, wild boar and feathered game leads to the safe conclusion that border violators damaged by SM-70s have been fatally or so seriously injured that they are no longer able to overcome the barrier fence. "

- Partial report on the tactical testing of the SM-70 fragmentation mine from August 17, 1971 (VVS no. G / 079675)

On December 4, 1971, the Ministry of National Defense discussed the introduction of the new mine. With the SM-70 more deadly than the mines previously used, there were concerns about the expected political responses from the West . A proposal was also made to use rubber bullets instead of steel splinters . Because of the highest political importance, the introduction of the mine was submitted to the General Secretary of the Central Committee , Erich Honecker , for a decision. Honecker's approval of the introduction was available on January 10, 1972. The decision to introduce the SM-70 was made by the GDR leadership without the involvement of Soviet military representatives.

Structure and functionality

Schematic representation of an SM-70 with 3 tension wires.

The SM-70 consisted of the firing funnel and the trigger mechanism located in the protective tube underneath. The funnel was made of aluminum and in the rear part was the cable to the trigger mechanism, the electric detonator and the booster charge made of 9 grams of nitropenta . The main chamber of the funnel was filled with explosives and fragments and closed with an inward-facing conical cover.

The mines were attached to the post of the border fence on the GDR side at three different heights. The distance to the next mine at the same height was 30 m. A trigger wire and two bird protection wires were stretched between the mines. The bird protection wires should serve as a seat for birds and keep them away from the trigger wire. The trigger wire was tensioned with a spring . The tension was adjusted so that the frictional resistance of the release mechanism was in equilibrium on both sides. If the release wire was stretched or relaxed two centimeters by pressing it down or cutting it, the mechanical release mechanism snapped forward and closed two electrical contacts . One contact was connected to the firing funnel and ignited it electrically. The second contact led to the command post and provided an alarm signal there.

The SM-70 was able to shoot 80 steel splinters of 4 mm × 4 mm × 4 mm with a charge of 110 grams of TNT explosives at a range of 120 m and lateral dispersion of 15 m. The mine was fatal within 10 m. The modified version, the SM-70 / M fragmentation mine (used in the 701 mine barrier), fired 20 8 mm rolling bearing balls with 98 grams of TNT / Hexogen (45% / 55%) at a range of 280 m and lateral spread of 26 m . The mine was fatal in the range of 20 to 30 m.

There is disagreement in the literature with regard to the assessment of the illegality of steel cubes under international law. At least the prevailing assessment is that the effect of the steel cubes is equivalent to the dum-dum projectiles, which are internationally outlawed in the Hague Land Warfare Regulations . But there is also the opinion that the use of steel cubes violated international law. In fact, however, it was not until 1980 that Protocol II on landmines, booby traps and other devices put pressure on the GDR under international law.

The explosive was arranged in such a way that it had a directional effect while partially exploiting the cumulative effect . After the detonation, a cone-shaped splinter column spread out, the central axis of which ran in the same direction as the central axis of the funnel.

From 1976, the mines were by a housing made of plastic protected. This was to prevent theft and sabotage .

The individual SM-70 mines were combined into a five-kilometer network as mine barrier system 501 or its successor 701. The barrier was divided into 18 sections. Power cables led from the command post via various distribution boxes to the individual mines. If a mine was triggered, an acoustic alarm was triggered in the command post and the corresponding section was visually displayed. The mine barrier could z. B. completely or partially switched off due to maintenance work. Mine barrier 501 also had to be switched off during thunderstorms, since electromagnetic interference caused by lightning could trigger the mines. The mine barrier system 701 represented an improvement because it was insensitive to these disturbances, which also z. B. could be caused by transmission systems .

installation

The self-firing systems were installed on the GDR border with the Federal Republic (not on the Berlin Wall ) since 1971 . Due to the successes in death and mutilation of the facilities, the GDR National Defense Council decided at its meeting on July 14, 1972 that the further pioneering expansion of the border facilities, with a special focus on the construction of the SM-70 self-firing systems, should be continued.

By the time it was dismantled in 1984, 447 km of the inner-German border had been secured with self-firing systems. In addition, around 60,000 SM-70s were in use (SM for fragmentation mine). Until 1977/78 the border troops built the fragment mine SM-70-Anlage 501. Then they installed the improved type fragment mine SM-70-Anlage 701 (with plastic box) on the border fences.

costs

The installation of the systems cost around 100,000 marks (GDR) per kilometer . Klaus-Dieter Baumgarten , the commander of the GDR's border troops, put the cost of the installation (without maintenance) at 376,600 marks for five kilometers in 1982. Then there were the high operating costs. From December 1, 1974 to May 30, 1982, 52,794 fragmentation mines were detonated, mostly by wildlife. Only 0.3% of the detonations were caused by border violations.

Secrecy and disclosure

The GDR did everything possible to conceal and cover up the existence of these killing machines and the killings they caused on the border from the West. The deaths were not made known to the GDR public either, so that the self-firing systems could not act as a deterrent for those who wanted to flee. Mines and self-firing systems were not officially mentioned in the GDR, but reports in the western media had a deterrent effect. Warning signs pointing to mines were also set up in front of the fence with the self-firing systems.

The first reports about assembly work on the border fences appeared in West German newspapers as early as February 1971, one month after the first systems were installed. The GDR denied these reports. At a meeting of FDJ functionaries in 1973, Erich Honecker was indignant at the shouting about death machines at the state border, which do not even exist . The self-firing systems of the GDR could no longer be denied and became internationally known after the first refugees were injured or killed.

In March and April 1976 the former GDR citizen Michael Gartenschläger successfully dismantled two self-firing systems on the inner-German border and presented them in the mirror . The dismantling and theft of the self-firing systems was possible from the West German side because they were attached to the side of the border fence facing the GDR. To do this, Gartenschläger leaned a ladder against the border fence, climbed it, cut the cable between the trigger mechanism and the firing funnel and then dismantled the system.

After that, the GDR could no longer deny that it had set up self-firing systems. On April 30, 1976 Gartenschläger tried to dismantle a third SM-70. He was shot dead by a special command of the Ministry for State Security .

After the technical features and the functionality of the killing machines were described in detail by the western press after Gartenschläger's dismantling, the number of GDR refugees who managed to cross the death strip unharmed to the west without triggering the self-firing systems increased.

Three months after Gartenschläger's death, Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher complained to the 31st UN General Assembly about the human rights violations at the GDR border and the death -shooting facilities . This severely damaged the international reputation of the GDR.

Dismantling

In the late 1970s, a Central Committee working group found that the SM-70 had significant shortcomings. The high rate of false alarms, the high costs and inadequate theft protection were criticized. The SM-70 was to be retained for the time being, but no longer developed, until a planned new border barrier was introduced in 1986.

On October 10, 1980 decided the United Nations , the Protocol II on landmines, booby-traps and other devices . Article 3 of this protocol says: "It is forbidden under all circumstances to use the weapons to which this article applies, either offensively or defensively or as reprisals against the civilian population as such or against individual civilians." The GDR signed this protocol in April 1981, knowing that this would come into effect on December 2, 1983.

After the conference on security and cooperation in Europe in 1975, Honecker followed the GDR's profile as a peace state and took a critical position towards nuclear weapons. This attitude also made it necessary to support international disarmament agreements.

In any case, the GDR leadership was expecting an international discussion on Protocol II, which forced them to conduct a thorough review of the use of mines at the border. Erich Honecker already mentioned the planned dismantling of the self-firing systems on September 13, 1982 in a confidential conversation with State Minister Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski .

On October 1, 1982, the head of the border troops, Klaus-Dieter Baumgarten , had a conception of future border security. With regard to the border fences secured with fragmentation mines, in addition to the high costs and many false alarms, the risk for the border troops was also mentioned. One border soldier was killed during maintenance work until 1982, two others were seriously injured and seven were slightly injured. Baumgarten rated the mines on the border as "unsuitable from a political point of view as well as from a constructive and visual structure".

On July 1, 1983, the National Defense Council decided to develop a modern border security system without mines. Nevertheless, the earth mine barriers, even if modernized, should remain. The SM-70 was supposed to be dismantled, but in special sections further inland, i.e. H. to be rebuilt to the exclusion of the West German public. Because of the short distance between the mine barrier and the border, refugees made it to the Federal Republic of Germany seriously injured even after the mines were triggered. The rescue of dead or seriously injured people who wanted to flee in the GDR area from the Federal Republic could also be documented. These images impaired the international reputation of the GDR. The functionality was known and described in all technical details. With this knowledge, the refugees managed to overcome the SM-70 systems.

In October 1983 the announcement of the political decision to completely dismantle the mines came as a surprise.

The GDR did not mention the international law context of the decision. Instead, the Bavarian Prime Minister Franz Josef Strauss announced this as a concession in the negotiation of a billion-dollar loan for the GDR. Strauss was under political pressure because of this loan. However, Strauss did not call for the mines to be dismantled. This was offered to him by the GDR.

On November 30, 1984, GDR border troops dismantled the last fragmentation mines on the inner-German border. Even after the self-firing systems were dismantled, the inner-German border remained practically impenetrable because the GDR had meanwhile extensively reinforced it.

Court judgments because of the crimes on the inner-German border after reunification

The GDR leadership claimed that the mines were precautionary defensive measures against reconnaissance and infiltration of enemy forces. From a military point of view, however, this reasoning can only apply to the earth mines. The visible SM-70 mines installed on the fence, which over the years increasingly replaced the earth mines, were in fact no obstacle for those with military training. They were only attached to the side of the fence facing the GDR. This made it possible to safely climb up the fence from the west in order to jump down from it to the side facing the GDR. The SM-70 mines were rather a means of preventing attempts to escape.

The GDR border guards, who installed the self-firing systems and mines and shot refugees, acted illegally under GDR law. According to the Criminal Code, they are perpetrators of manslaughter . The order givers and those responsible for the killing orders were given no justification. The state practice of the GDR accepted the deliberate killing of refugees, which was an obvious and unbearable violation of the elementary precepts of justice and of human rights protected by international law .

After German reunification , charges were brought against various political and military leaders in the GDR for crimes on the inner-German border. On 10 September 1996, the former head of the East German border troops was Klaus-Dieter Baumgarten from the Berlin District Court for eleven times manslaughter sentenced to five counts of attempted manslaughter on the inner German border with a prison sentence of six and a half years. Five of his deputies received terms of between three and four years in prison. Four pioneer officers of the GDR border troops who installed and maintained fragmentation mines were found guilty on November 9, 2004 by the 40th Large Criminal Chamber in Berlin, of aiding and abetting murder in four cases and aiding and abetting of an attempted murder, but only had to pay the legal costs wear because they credibly expressed their regret for the deaths. Because of the fatal shots at the wall, the public prosecutor's office of the GDR initiated an investigation on December 5, 1989 against the former head of state and party Erich Honecker on suspicion of multiple murder and multiple bodily harm August 1990 expanded.

Korea

Samsung SGR-A1 self -firing systems were tested on the border between North and South Korea .

Turkey

According to the Turkish newspapers Yeni Şafak and Hurriyet , the Turkish Ministry of Defense is planning to erect automatic warning and firing watchtowers at intervals of 300 meters along the border with Syria .

See also

  • The automatic death system, drama about the death of Michael Gartenschläger, 2007

literature

  • Jürgen Ritter, Peter Joachim Lapp : The limit. A German building . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin, 7th, updated and expanded edition. 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-560-7 , pp. 103-105: Self- firing systems / fragmentation mines at the border fence .
  • Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle (ed.): Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Documentation , Vol. 2: Acts of violence on the German-German border , edited by Toralf Rummler and Petra Schäfter. De Gruyter, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-89949-006-1 (reprint 2012).
  • Hendrik Thoss : Secured in the downfall: the history of the GDR western border , Verlag K. Dietz, 2004, ISBN 978-3-320-02058-3
  • Hans-Hermann Hertle : Chronicle of the fall of the wall. The dramatic events of November 9, 1989 . Ch. Links, Berlin 1996, ISBN 978-3-86153-541-6 .

Web links

Commons : SM-70  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Meyers Enzyklopädisches Lexikon , 9th edition, Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim, Vol. 21 (1977): Sche – Sm , p. 551.
  2. ↑ Jürgen Ritter, Peter Joachim Lapp: The limit. A German building . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin, 7th, updated and expanded edition. 2009, p. 103.
  3. ↑ Klaus Marxen , Gerhard Werle (ed.): Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Documentation , Vol. 2: Acts of violence on the German-German border , edited by Toralf Rummler and Petra Schäfter. De Gruyter, Berlin 2002, p. 553.
  4. ↑ http://www.fu-berlin.de/sites/fsed/Das-DDR-Grenzregime/Biografien-von-Todesopfern/Hoffmann_Johannes-Leo/index.html
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Jochen Staadt : You damn pigs. GDR head of state and party Erich Honecker made a sovereign decision on the introduction and dismantling of the deadly fragmentation mines on the inner-German border. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , August 14, 2017.
  6. ↑ Kurt Lindner : German hunting tracts of the 15th and 16th centuries , part 2, Walter de Gruyter, 1959, p. 196 .
  7. ↑ a b Richard Kinseher: The bow in culture, music and medicine, as a tool and weapon , 2003, ISBN 978-3-8311-4109-8 , p. 161 .
  8. ↑ Kurt Lindner: The hunt in the early Middle Ages , Walter de Gruyter, 1940, ISBN 978-3-11-145059-9 , p. 336 .
  9. ^ William Hamilton Gibson: Camp Life in the Woods and the Tricks of Trapping and Trap Making by Gibson , Harpers & Brothers, New York, 1881, pp. 20 ff.
  10. ↑ Section 19 of the Federal Hunting Act
  11. ↑ Sigbert Mehl: The use of self-shot devices to fight vole and mole. In: Plant protection: a monthly for practice. Volume 7, Bayerischer Landwirtschafts-Verlag, July 1956, p. 91 .
  12. ↑ Hans Schmid: Law and Crime. In: Telepolis , July 29, 2012.
  13. ↑ a b Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle (ed.): Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Documentation , Vol. 2: Acts of violence on the German-German border , edited by Toralf Rummler and Petra Schäfter. De Gruyter, Berlin 2002, p. 560.
  14. ↑ Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk, Stefan Wolle : Red Star over Germany: Soviet Troops in the GDR , Ch. Links Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-584-3 , p. 186 .
  15. ↑ Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle (ed.): Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Documentation , Vol. 2: Acts of violence on the German-German border , edited by Toralf Rummler and Petra Schäfter. De Gruyter, Berlin 2002, p. 556 .
  16. ↑ Toralf Rummler, Petra Schäfter: Criminal justice and GDR injustice: acts of violence on the German-German border , Walter de Gruyter, 2002, ISBN 978-3-89949-007-7 , p. 516 .
  17. ^ Renate Hürtgen : departure by application. The long way over there. A study of rule and everyday life in the GDR province . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-525-35078-2 , p. 57 .
  18. ↑ a b c Horst Gundlach: The border surveillance of the GDR: State border of the GDR - Description of the border installations and the surveillance system , Verlag Rockstuhl, 2014, ISBN 978-3-86777-771-1 , chapter "The SM-70 fragmentation mine" ( online ) .
  19. ↑ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : How the self-firing systems came to the limit. In: Die Welt , May 10, 2011.
  20. ↑ a b c Deadly Dice. In: Der Spiegel , April 26, 1976.
  21. ^ Toralf Rummler, Petra Schäfter: Criminal justice and GDR injustice: acts of violence on the German-German border , Walter de Gruyter, 2002, ISBN 978-3-89949-007-7 , p. 777 .
  22. ↑ a b c d "Quick the thing off the fence". In: Der Spiegel , April 12, 1976.
  23. ↑ Marc-Oliver Rehrmann: The end of the "death automatons" in the GDR , Norddeutscher Rundfunk , November 30, 2009.
  24. ^ Hendrik Thoss: Gesichert in den Untergang: the history of the GDR western border , Verlag K. Dietz, 2004, ISBN 978-3-320-02058-3 , p. 171 .
  25. ↑ Thoss: Gesichert in den Untergang , 2004, p. 268.
  26. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: Mines detonated in the death strip during a thunderstorm. In: Die Welt , May 12, 2011.
  27. ↑ Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle (ed.): Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Documentation , Vol. 2: Acts of violence on the German-German border , edited by Toralf Rummler and Petra Schäfter. De Gruyter, Berlin 2002, pp. 527-529 .
  28. ↑ a b c Hertle: Chronicle of the fall of the wall. 1996, p. 31 .
  29. ↑ Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle (ed.): Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Documentation , Vol. 2: Acts of violence on the German-German border , edited by Toralf Rummler and Petra Schäfter. De Gruyter, Berlin 2002, p. 559.
  30. ↑ a b c d Jürgen Ritter, Peter Joachim Lapp: The limit. A German building . 7th, updated and expanded edition, Berlin 2009, pp. 103-105.
  31. ↑ Volker Koop : Destroy the enemy: the border security of the GDR , Bouvier Verlag, 1996, ISBN 978-3-416-02633-8 , pp. 189, 192 .
  32. ^ Margit Roth: Two States in Germany: The social liberal policy in Germany and its effects 1969–1978 , Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-322-88732-0 , p. 77 .
  33. ↑ Kollegiumvorlage Nr. 23/71 of the Ministry for National Defense, December 4, 1971. in: Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle (ed.): Strafjustiz und DDR-Inrecht. Documentation , Vol. 2: Acts of violence on the German-German border , De Gruyter, Berlin 2002, pp. 527-528 .
  34. ↑ Robert Lebegern: Wall, fence and barbed wire: Barriers on the inner-German border 1945–1990 Role-Verlag, 2002, ISBN 978-3-936545-00-5 ( online ).
  35. ↑ Thoss: Gesichert in den Untergang , 2004, p. 259.
  36. ↑ Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle (ed.): Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Documentation , Vol. 2: Acts of violence on the German-German border , edited by Toralf Rummler and Petra Schäfter. De Gruyter, Berlin 2002, p. 576 f.
  37. ^ Minutes of the 45th meeting of the National Defense Council of the GDR on May 3, 1974
  38. ↑ Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle (ed.): Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Documentation , Vol. 2: Acts of violence on the German-German border , edited by Toralf Rummler and Petra Schäfter. De Gruyter, Berlin 2002, p. 568.
  39. ^ The fence around the GDR state prison , Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk , July 30, 2010.
  40. ↑ Jochen Maurer: Halt - State Border !: Everyday life, service and interior views of the border troops of the GDR , Ch. Links Verlag, 2015, ISBN 978-3-86153-863-9 , p. 53 .
  41. ↑ Ulli Kulke : The self-firing systems were so murderous. In: WeltN24 , March 31, 2016.
  42. ↑ a b Hertle: Chronicle of the fall of the wall. 1996, p. 32 .
  43. ↑ Jürgen Ritter, Peter Joachim Lapp: The limit. A German building. 7th, updated and expanded edition, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2009, p. 73 .
  44. ↑ Heiner Bröckermann: Model student without ambition? In: Special case of the Bundeswehr? , de Gruyter, 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-034823-1 , p. 120 .
  45. ↑ Thoss: Gesichert in den Untergang , 2004, p. 259 .
  46. ^ The border: a German building , p. 105 .
  47. ↑ Hertle: Chronicle of the fall of the wall. 1996, pp. 32-34 .
  48. ^ Chronicle 1984 , Deutsches Historisches Museum , accessed on November 29, 2009.
  49. ↑ Only a pole vaulter can do that. - Despite the dismantling of the death machines, the GDR border is impenetrable. In: Der Spiegel 13/1984.
  50. ↑ Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle (ed.): Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Documentation , Vol. 2: Acts of violence on the German-German border , edited by Toralf Rummler and Petra Schäfter. De Gruyter, Berlin 2002, pp. 560-561.
  51. ↑ Klaus Marxen, Gerhard Werle (ed.): Criminal justice and GDR injustice. Documentation , Vol. 2: Acts of violence on the German-German border , edited by Toralf Rummler and Petra Schäfter. De Gruyter, Berlin 2002, p. 601.
  52. ^ Jochen Staadt : GDR western border. You damn pigs. In: FAZ of August 22, 2017.
  53. ↑ Friedrich Wolff: Lost processes: My defenses in political proceedings. Edition East, 2015.
  54. ↑ Florian Rötzer : Combat robots to protect borders, airports or pipelines. In: Telepolis , November 15, 2006, accessed November 8, 2017
  55. ^ Yeni Şafak: Turkey to establish smart towers on Syrian border. In: yenisafak.com
  56. ↑ Anke Domscheit-Berg : Turkey: With self-firing systems against refugees. In: The time .
  57. ↑ Son güncelleme: Suriye sınırına 'Akıllı Kuleler' geliyor. In: Hürriyet , April 5, 2016.