Remembering Berlin Wall victims

By Tristana Moore
BBC News, Berlin

Some 1,245 people are said to have been killed at the border

A special service was held on Monday at Bernauer Strasse, one of the few remaining sections of the Berlin Wall, to remember those people who lost their lives trying to cross the heavily fortified border.

Forty six years ago, on 13 August 1961, the construction of the Berlin Wall started.

The Berlin Wall divided the city and over the years it became one of the most notorious symbols of the Cold War.

The ceremony comes as the row over the discovery of a document showing that some East German border guards were given orders to shoot and kill attempted defectors continues to rumble on.

Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit said the document exposed the "implacability, arbitrariness and disrespect for human dignity" of the former communist East German regime.

The document was discovered on Saturday at the regional archive office in the city of Magdeburg.

'Tactic of traitors'

The document, which is unsigned and dated 1 October 1973, is reported to contain an order for a special unit of Stasi operatives, who had infiltrated border guards, to stop soldiers trying to cross the frontier with West Germany.

There was no so-called shoot-to-kill order. I know that from my own experience Egon Krenz, last Communist leader of East Germany

The order said: "Don't shy away from using your weapon, even if the breach of the border involves women and children, which is a tactic often used by the traitors."

At first, the government department which manages the millions of Stasi files, known as the Birthler Authority, said it was a new document and the discovery unleashed a heated debate.

But it later emerged on Sunday that the document's contents were not new. Apparently, back in 1997, a similar text was partially published in a research paper, but the information was overlooked at the time.

However, on Monday, the issue came under intense media scrutiny.

Marianne Birthler, the head of the government office that manages the Stasi files, has insisted that the discovery is significant.

"This document shows a disposition towards brutality which we have rarely seen before," she said.

Calls for prosecutions

But opposition politicians have criticised the Birthler Authority for failing to make the document public in the past.

Peter Fechter was one of the early victims, killed in August 1962

Ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall, former East German Communist Party leaders and officials have denied that the secret police force, the Stasi, had given any shoot-to-kill orders.

The former East German leader, Egon Krenz, told Monday's edition of the newspaper Bild: "There was no so-called shoot-to-kill order. I know that from my own experience. This kind of order would have contradicted East German laws."

For government officials, the document is important.

"It provides concrete evidence that written shoot-to-kill orders existed for one special Stasi unit," said Ilona Schaekel, a spokeswoman for the Birthler Authority.

There are growing calls for former Stasi officers and Communist Party officials to face prosecutions in the future.

Underestimated toll

A spokesman for the state prosecutors' office in Berlin said the authorities are examining the document to decide whether further steps should be taken.

This document shows a disposition towards brutality which we have rarely seen before Marianne Birthler

The authorities will seek to determine the veracity of the written order and the author of the document, among other issues.

"Whoever denies the shoot to kill order now is like any other criminal," said Guenter Nooke, a government human rights adviser.

Alexandra Hildebrandt, the director of the Checkpoint Charlie Museum said: "The document is not really new - it confirms what we already knew in the past.

"But still it is important to tell the world how terrible the border between East and West Germany was."

She added: "It was not a normal frontier - people died there. According to our research, around 1,245 people were killed trying to cross the border just because they wanted their freedom."

As this debate continues, it has also exposed another troubling issue: Public knowledge of the former East German communist regime is still very patchy.