The trial, which lasted for over six months, largely relied on historical documents from the Stasi records archive and testimonies from three pensioners.
An 80-year-old former officer of East Germany’s secret police, Stasi, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for the murder of a Polish firefighter in Berlin 50 years ago.
The court determined that Martin Naumann was guilty of shooting Czesław Kukuczka on Friedrichstrasse, a busy former border crossing in central Berlin.
Kukuczka was shot in 1974 as he walked through a series of control posts, having been told he could escape to West Berlin.
The public prosecutor said that the defendant, who was a first lieutenant in an operational group of the former East German Ministry for State Security, was tasked with “neutralising” Kukuczka after the Pole had threatened to detonate a bomb.
Kukuczka’s family were not told the true story behind his death, with his wife receiving his remains in an urn two weeks later.
‘A certain level of malice’
The case was unearthed by historian Stefan Appelius, who found documents related to the shooting and evidence of the Stasi trying to cover it up in former Stasi archives.
Appelius tracked down Kukuczka’s family in Poland, who alerted the authorities. An arrest warrant was issued for Naumann in 2021, and he was charged with murder in October last year.
The case took over six months and relied largely on historical documents from the Stasi archives that had been pieced together by a digital puzzler machine after they were purposefully shredded by Stasi officers trying to cover up crimes.
Naumann pleaded not guilty but was ultimately charged with murder instead of manslaughter in a first for former Stasi officers.
Prosecutors argued that Naumann shot Kukuczka with a certain level of “malice,” as Kukuczka believed he was free when he was killed — thus fulfilling the criterion for murder.
The court was told how Kukuczka had entered the Polish embassy in former East Berlin, threatening to detonate a fake explosive if he was turned down. Research from historians revealed the embassy staff had contacted the Stasi, who gave Kukuczka an exit visa and led him to believe he was free before shooting him.
Apart from historical documents, the case relied on the testimony of three pensioners who witnessed the murder as teenagers on a school trip to East Berlin from West Germany.
Prosecutor Henrike Hillman said the trial was important in bringing former East German officials to justice.
At least 140 people were killed as they tried to escape over the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989. However, those responsible have rarely seen justice.
Those who have been convicted have largely faced the lesser sentence of manslaughter, assuming that they were acting on orders of the Stasi.
