Berlin
Ambush murder: Ex-Stasi employee denies crime
At the beginning of the trial, the defendant holds a folder in front of his face. The 80-year-old does not want to comment on the allegations. photo
© Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa
In front of West German students, a man is shot from behind at the GDR border crossing at Friedrichstrasse station. 50 years later there is a trial against an ex-Stasi employee.
He is said to have fired the fatal shot from concealment – 50 years later the ex-Stasi employees in the Moabit criminal court in the spotlight. The Berlin public prosecutor’s office accuses the now 80-year-old Leipzig man of treacherous murder. The then first lieutenant is said to have shot 38-year-old Pole Czesław Kukuczka in the back from two meters away at the GDR border crossing at Friedrichstrasse station on March 29, 1974, according to the prosecution.
Almost exactly 50 years to the day after the crime, the trial against the alleged shooter began on Thursday in front of the Berlin district court, almost three kilometers from the crime scene, amid great public interest.
The defendant denies the allegations
The slim man with a turtleneck under his jacket looks interestedly into the audience. As prosecutor Henrike Hillmann reads out the charges, he takes notes. The 80-year-old German is said to have belonged to an operational group of the GDR Ministry for State Security at the time of the crime and was tasked with “rendering the Pole harmless.” On March 29, 1974, the ex-Stasi officer is said to have fired – hidden behind a screen – “in order to kill the injured person immediately after passing through the last checkpoint.”
The defendant will not comment on the allegations in court. “I can announce that my client denies the accusation,” explains his defense attorney Andrea Liebscher at the start of the trial. The three children – a daughter and two sons – and a sister of the killed Pole appear as co-plaintiffs in the proceedings. For the daughter’s lawyer, Hans-Jürgen Förster, the case shows one thing above all: “It is not abstract that murder does not expire.” Because of its historical significance, the process is recorded.
Investigations only made progress after decades
The investigation did not make any progress for many years. The fatal shot was fired at the busiest border crossing between East and West, known as the “Palace of Tears” because of the often painful farewells. The case was recorded in 1974 by the central registration office of the state justice administration in Salzgitter, which documented injustices in the GDR and collected evidence. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he continued to be followed – but there were no crucial clues to the possible shooter. According to the public prosecutor’s office, these only came from the Stasi records archive in 2016.
However, the authorities initially assumed it was a case of homicide. In this case the crime would have been statute-barred. In the meantime, however, the public prosecutor sees the murder characteristic of insidiousness fulfilled. According to the co-plaintiffs, the decisive factor for this new assessment was a European arrest warrant against the defendant after persistent research on the Polish side. The arrest warrant led to the case being reviewed, explained lawyer Thomas Walther, who represents one of the sons.
Court must evaluate documents
At the start of the trial, presiding judge Bernd Miczajka made it clear where the difficulty lies 50 years after the crime: “A lot will be based on the evaluation of documents.” The court must get an idea of how reliable these are.
A Berlin criminal inspector, who was given the old files for the new investigation, explains in court how the reclassification as murder came about. Initially, it was assumed that it was a case of homicide because the victim was said to have tried to force his departure to West Berlin with the help of a dummy bomb in the Polish embassy on the day of the crime. However, witnesses said that on March 29, 1974, the 38-year-old had already passed two of the three checkpoints at the “Palace of Tears” unhindered when the shot was fired. The Pole was sure that he had achieved his goal. It was precisely at this moment of innocence that the shot was fired.
Eyewitness: “Then a shot was fired”
“He stepped behind him, then a shot was fired,” says an eyewitness in the trial at the time. “At the time I thought it was a bad film.” The now 65-year-old from Hesse was in Berlin with her school class. On the day of the crime, the tenth graders had visited East Berlin and wanted to return to the western part of the then divided city. “There was a man standing behind me with a travel bag,” the woman remembers. There were many uniformed people on site. The man was brought forward. After he got his passport back, he walked purposefully towards the underpass and didn’t turn around. Suddenly, however, a man in a long coat stepped forward from behind – and the shot was fired.
The man with the travel bag collapsed. “I can still see it visually,” said the 65-year-old. The doors were then immediately closed and a woman screamed. “We were incredibly scared,” said the social worker. Back in the West, the teacher informed the police.
Award after killing
At that time there was an unsuccessful request to the judiciary in the East, said the Berlin commissioner. Later, a tip came from a rather unusual direction: an order signed by then-minister Erich Mielke named Stasi employees who should be honored in connection with the killing. “It was a chain of command that went from top to bottom with different names,” said the commissioner. The defendant’s name was “pretty far down.” The now 80-year-old received a bronze medal.
Spectators travel from Poland to the trial
The start of the proceedings was also attended by two public prosecutors from Poland and a historian who was involved in the investigation of the case. The regional court initially planned a total of seven days of hearings. A verdict could therefore be pronounced on May 23rd. The trial is scheduled to continue on April 4th with the questioning of another eyewitness.