East German duo convicted for Wall deaths

Two former members politburo that ruled communist East Germany were placed on probation today for failing to prevent shooting deaths at the Berlin Wall in the 1980s.

In what was likely to be the last trial of its kind, the Berlin state court convicted Hans-Joachim Boehme, aged 74, and Siegfried Lorenz, aged 73, of being accessories to murder in three deaths at the wall in 1986-89.

Both were deemed essential decision-makers in the communist-era politburo, which was responsible for the shoot-to-kill policy for East German guards who spotted anyone trying to cross from East Berlin to the West.

Boehme was the local head of the Socialist Unity Party, East Germany’s communist party, in the city of Halle.

Lorenz was the party chief in Karl-Marx-Stadt, now renamed Chemnitz.

About 1,000 people were killed trying to cross the Berlin Wall and other heavily fortified stretches of Germany’s east-west border between 1961 and 1989, when the Wall fell.