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Schießbefehl (German pronunciation:[ˈʃiːsbəˌfeːl]ⓘ;German for "order to fire",lit. 'shoot order') was the term in theGerman Democratic Republic (East Germany) forstanding orders authorizing the use oflethal force by theBorder Troops to preventRepublikflucht (defection) at theInner German border from 1960 to 1989.
Schießbefehl recommended guards usefirearms to stop unauthorised border crossings in the direction ofWest Germany and procedure to conceal incidents from the public. VariousSchießbefehl orders were issued, and their instructions to prevent East Germans leaving were not officially legal until 1982 and in violation of Article 13 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights. An estimated 300 to 400 people died at the Inner German border during its existence. AfterGerman reunification in 1990, East German leaderErich Honecker was indicted by theBerlin District Court on charges ofmass murder stemming from theSchießbefehl orders. However, his failing health and legal disputes overjurisdiction led his trial to be abandoned.
TheBorder Troops of the German Democratic Republic (Grenztruppen der DDR) were theborder guards of theGerman Democratic Republic (East Germany) and until October 1949 of theSoviet Zone of Occupation, tasked with preventing the mass outward migration of East Germans to theWest known asRepublikflucht. The issue was a major political concern for the East German government, as the idea that any citizen ofcommunist East Germany would voluntarily defect to thecapitalist West was a source of ideological embarrassment, and preventing such defections was a longstanding objective. Originally the Border Troops were not formally integrated into the regular armed forces, theNational People's Army (NVA), but typically carried military-levelsmall arms such asKalashnikovassault rifles orSKSsemiautomatic carbines. From 1945,Soviet and East German border guards were givenstanding orders commonly referred to asSchießbefehl ("order to fire") that instructed them to follow certainrules of engagement when encountering persons moving illegally within the border strip:
The Border Troops were told to avoid shooting in the direction of the territory ofWest Berlin andWest Germany.
All occurrences at border outposts were kept secret from the general public, with each attempted or successful escape followed by a formal investigation by the military prosecution authority and theMinistry for State Security (Stasi). After stopping a potential escape attempt, the shooter would be granted a special leave and rewarded with commendations andcash bonuses. Often the shooter would be transferred to another military unit and ordered to keep silent. By contrast, when a fugitive was successful and crossed the border into West Germany, disciplinary measures were taken against those border guards who had failed to prevent this "Grenzverletzung und Republikflucht" (border violation and desertion from the Republic), which often included prison terms in the infamousmilitary prison at Schwedt. Many border guards tried to let fugitives escape while deflecting such accusations by deliberately shooting off-target. When would-be escapees were killed, strict regulations were imposed on the family regarding the funeral; for instance, noobituaries were to be printed in the local newspapers. To avoid negative press, theSchießbefehl was suspended forpublic holidays orstate visits.
In 1968, theEinsatzkompanie was founded as a special unit of the Stasi dedicated to preventing the defection of guards from the Border Troops.
East Germany began to tighten its emigration laws during the 1950s, creating increasingly strict criteria for legal migration to non-Warsaw Pact countries, including requirements for de-registration with East German authorities and permission to leave the country under threat of prison sentences up to three years. The construction of theBerlin Wall on 13 August 1961 saw the effective illegalization ofRepublikflucht, with the law only allowing legal border crossings at so-calledGrenzübergangsstellen ("checkpoints"), and requests for migration received very limited approval from authorities.Checkpoint Charlie was special, since this was one of the few border crossing points in Berlin where foreigners could enterEast Berlin. Elsewhere, warning signs were posted telling people not to enter the border zone, known as "death strips", and any violation was considered acriminal act.
After construction of the Berlin Wall, with authorized travel by East Germans into West Germany and West Berlin incredibly difficult, the number of migrants dropped sharply from hundreds of thousands to only several hundred per year. The new migration system particularly discriminated against young East Germans, leading many to become motivated to attempt a desperate flight over the Inner German border despite the dangers.
On 6 February 1989,Schießbefehl was formally abolished. Overall, an official total of about 260 people were killed attempting to cross at the Berlin Wall, at the main East-West border, or via theBaltic Sea. The exact number of fatalities is difficult to estimate (seeInner German border deaths) and an unknown number were seriously wounded and later arrested. Victims of this system also include border guards who were shot by fugitives and their supporters. In Berlin alone, 190 people were killed in the course of 28 years. The last-known person to have been shot at the Wall wasChris Gueffroy, while the very last victim of the Wall wasWinfried Freudenberg, dead by falling from an improvised hot air balloon.
Schießbefehl occurrences at the border were also recorded by theBundesgrenzschutz (BGS orFederal Border Guard, the West German border guards), the West Berlin police, and by themilitary police of theAllied Forces. Files were collected in the central registration office atSalzgitter.
AfterGerman reunification in October 1990, theTodesschützen ("death shooters": soldiers who allegedly killed those attempting to escape East Germany) were brought to trial in the federal courts in what were known as theMauerschützen-Prozesse ("Wall shooters trials"). Also, high-ranking officers of the Border Troops and the East GermanNational Defense Council were charged in court. The verdicts generally agreed that even the common soldier should have and must have recognised that the East German border laws were so fundamentally in conflict with theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which East Germany had signed and ratified, that they were not law at all but formalized injustice, and thus the soldiers ought to have disobeyed their commanding officers.[1]
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