Werner Teske

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Grave slab for Werner Teske on the south cemetery in Leipzig
signature

Werner Siegfried Teske (born April 24, 1942 in Berlin ; † June 26, 1981 in Leipzig ) was a captain of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR , who was illegally sentenced to death and executed in 1981 for allegedly accomplished espionage and attempted desertion . This was the last execution of a death sentence in the GDR or in Germany.

Study and job

Werner Teske studied financial economics at the Humboldt University in Berlin and received his doctorate in 1969 . During his studies he was recruited by the MfS and then worked full-time for its head office for intelligence in scientific espionage in western countries.

Criminal proceedings and execution

From the mid-1970s, Teske developed considerable doubts about the GDR's political system and its role in it. He toyed with the idea of ​​going to the Federal Republic of Germany and brought secret documents home for years as a possible dowry for changing the front. Due to the defection of the MfS officer Werner Stiller in the Federal Republic in 1979, the security measures within the MfS were significantly increased. Teske was also checked. In addition to the completely chaotic contents of his safe, which made it practically impossible to take an inventory of the documents classified as secret, there were also irregularities in the transfer of MfS funds to informants. Only later did the not inconsiderable sum of the embezzled operating funds (20,244.50 DM and 21,478 GDR marks) become apparent. On the evening of September 4, 1980, Teske was taken to a MfS conspiratorial facility under a pretext. However, initially only an internal investigation was carried out there until September 11th. When Teske's apartment was searched, the MfS also found the files that Teske had stolen from the hiding places he had disclosed to an unexpected extent. On September 11, at around 2:00 a.m., he confessed to having thought about fleeing to West Germany in 1978.

In a trial before the 1st Military Criminal Senate of the Supreme Court of the GDR , which was also kept secret within the MfS , Teske was charged - even unlawful under GDR law - with consummate espionage in a particularly serious case involving desertion and " unlawful border crossing " The crimes he was accused of were clearly not completed and GDR criminal law only provided for the death penalty for completed crimes, sentenced to the maximum penalty on June 12, 1981. The reason for the harshness of this judgment was not least Stiller's successful escape. After rejection of his plea for mercy Teske was in the prison Leipzig (Alfred-Kästner-Straße) transferred . In which the central place of execution of the DDR converted caretaker the judgment was last executioner the GDR and head of the penal institution Leipzig, Hermann Lorenz , by means of a gun with an attached muffler by Kopfschuss enforced. As usual in the GDR after the abolition of the guillotine in 1968, the fatal shot was shot from behind and without warning immediately after entering the enforcement area (" unexpected close-range shot "). There, the public prosecutor Teske had previously only informed: “The request for clemency has been rejected. Her execution is imminent ”. The corpse was then taken to the crematorium in the Leipzig South Cemetery and cremated there.

The execution of Teske was also kept top secret within the Stasi. No information was given to the immediate family members either. The MfS told a relative who was looking for Teske that he had died in an accident and forbade further investigation. Teske's widow Sabine and her daughter had to move away from Berlin; both were given a new identity and were obliged to keep silent about the circumstances of Werner Teske's death and their past.

  • Notice of posting dated September 11, 1980

  • Kerberos file from June 11, 1981, on which a life sentence is noted

  • Death sentence against Teske on June 12, 1981

  • Protocol on the execution of the death penalty on Teske on June 26, 1981

Rehabilitation

The verdict against Teske was annulled in 1993 because it was incompatible with the rule of law . In this context, in 1998 the Berlin district court sentenced a GDR military judge and a military prosecutor, who had participated in Teske's conviction, to four years imprisonment for manslaughter and perversion of justice or aiding and abetting . This was justified by the fact that the original decision was completely disproportionate even under the then valid GDR law, since Teske's plans had at no point in time gone beyond the experimental stage. With this argument, Teske's defense attorney had tried in vain to prevent the death sentence.

See also

Web links

Commons : Werner Teske  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Maxwill: Death penalty in the GDR: Erich Mielkes very short trials. In: Der Spiegel . July 17, 2012, accessed July 17, 2012 .
  2. ^ Hans Michael Kloth: Death penalty in the GDR: the executioner came from behind. In: Der Spiegel. July 13, 2007, accessed January 3, 2012 .
  3. ^ The execution of the Stasi officer Werner Teske. ( Memento from June 18, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) on www.mdr.de
  4. ↑ Steffen Könau: Short process. In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung . June 25, 2011, Retrieved April 10, 2012 .
  5. ↑ When Germany no longer wanted to kill. Deutsche Welle , February 18, 2009, accessed December 30, 2013 .
  6. ^ Francisca Zecher: The death penalty in the socialist unitary state. In: The Gazette , January 16, 2004.
  7. ^ The execution of the Stasi officer Werner Teske. MDR , March 6, 2012, archived from the original on June 17, 2012 ; accessed on December 30, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Ansgar Haase: The executioner came from behind. In: Stern.de . July 15, 2007, accessed December 30, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Teske, Werner
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Teske, Werner Siegfried (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German secret service agent, captain of the MfS and last victim of the death penalty in Germany
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 1981
Place of death Leipzig