Former Stasi official sentenced to 10 years for 1974 Berlin border murder

A Polish man was shot dead by a former East German secret police officer 50 years ago as he attempted to enter West Germany via the Berlin Wall. He was given a 10-year prison sentence.

Former Stasi officer Martin Naumann, 80, was found guilty of murder on Monday in Berlin for the death of Czeslaw Kukuczka on March 29, 1974, as he attempted to flee through Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse border point.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Bernd Miczajka stated that the Stasi planned and brutally executed the act for personal reasons.

The defendant “shot at the end of a chain of command,” Miczajka continued.

Ahead of the verdict, Daniela Munkel, the head of the Stasi archives in Berlin, said the conviction would have “great symbolic significance” in the country’s efforts to atone for the Nazi regime.

However, the court did not accept the Berlin public prosecutor’s request to sentence Naumann to 12 years in prison.

Andrea Liebscher, Naumann’s attorney, claimed that it was not established that her client fired the fatal shot, and that she had filed a lawsuit against the German news outlet DPA.

German secret police

According to recent historical research, Kukuczka threatened to detonate a fake bomb unless he was granted entry to West Berlin the day the fatal shooting occurred.

His request was approved while East German authorities were notified of the threat while the Embassy officials complied.

Once Stasi officials handed Kukuczka his exit visa, he was led to the “Palace of Tears” crossing, where he was shot in the back from close range.

Kukuczka was transported to a Stasi prison further away and bled to death instead of being taken to a nearby hospital after being shot.

According to archival documents, the secret police were under orders to “render harmless” Kukuczka, a common term in the Stasi document for the liquidation of political opponents.

Although initial investigations into Naumann’s death in the 1990s failed to lead to a conclusion, the case was later brought to light after Poland issued a 2021 European arrest warrant.

In October of last year, he was charged with murder.

In the 1990s, 251 people were charged with crimes committed for the Stasi, according to official government records.