Former East Germans Found Guilty

Unified Germany’s long-running attempts to bring the leaders of the defunct East German dictatorship to justice yielded three convictions Monday, all on manslaughter charges stemming from fatal shootings of would-be escapees at the Berlin Wall.

Egon Krenz, East Germany’s last hard-line Communist leader, was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison after 115 days of testimony and evidence in what has come to be known here as “the Politburo trial.”

“The defense of the border was placed above human life” in Krenz’s system, presiding Judge Josef Hoch said in a verdict that took two hours to read.

Two other former Politburo members, Guenther Kleiber and Guenther Schabowski, received sentences of three years each, as Germany continues the slow and difficult process of sorting out blame and punishment for the woes and crimes of the former East Germany.

Although the Politburo, once the most powerful body in the East German system, consisted of 22 members, few of those have stood or probably will stand trial. Some have been deemed too old or too sick; for others, there has been a lack of admissible evidence. The Politburo trial started out with six defendants, but three were allowed to drop out because of frailty and ill health.

To further frustrate justice-seekers in Germany’s post-Cold War era, other top Eastern officials have been tried but acquitted because their activities, however inhumane, were legal under East German law.

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Many Germans expressed relief at Monday’s verdicts and the prospect that at least three of East Germany’s former leaders will be forced to take responsibility for some of the misery of their failed utopia.

“An essential chapter of East German history can now be closed,” said Wolfgang Thierse, vice president of the opposition Social Democratic Party and a former East German citizen.

But others wondered whether the Berlin court’s verdict will survive the appellate process. Krenz himself remained defiant, yelling “I won’t bow down!” as he was led away to prison after sentencing. Supporters in the packed visitors’ gallery responded with cries of “We won’t forget you! Hang on!”

No date was set for Kleiber and Schabowski to report to prison.

Krenz has expressed regret over the deaths at the Berlin Wall but never accepted suggestions that he might be responsible. Independent groups estimate that more than 800 people were killed trying to flee East Germany between the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 and the breaching of the border in 1989.

In his verdict, Hoch said Krenz and the other two defendants were at the top of a long chain of command, stretching all the way from the powerful Politburo down to the border guards who pulled the triggers.

At a news conference, Krenz’s lawyers said they will appeal Monday’s verdict.