Benno Ohnesorg
| Benno Ohnesorg | |
|---|---|
Relief Der Tod des Demonstranten (The Death of the Demonstrator) by Alfred Hrdlicka; Location: Deutsche Oper Berlin, forecourt
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| Born | October 15, 1940 Hanover |
| Died | June 2, 1967 (aged 26) West Berlin |
| Alma mater | Freie Universität Berlin |
| Occupation | Student |
Benno Ohnesorg (German pronunciation: [ˈbɛno ˈʔoːnəzɔɐ̯k], October 15, 1940 – June 2, 1967) was a German university student killed by a policeman during a demonstration in West Berlin.
On June 2, 1967, Ohnesorg participated in a protest held near the Deutsche Oper, aimed against the state visit of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was attending a performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Deutsche Oper that night. It was the first political demonstration in which Ohnesorg had ever taken part.
The protest turned violent after provocations by the Shah's agents and police overreactions. Demonstrators were then dispersed into the side streets. In the courtyard of Krumme Strasse 66, Ohnesorg was then shot by plain-clothes police officer Karl-Heinz Kurras. Ohnesorg died before he could be treated at a hospital. At that time, Kurras was cleared of all charges in two separate trials.
Ohnesorg was a student of Romance and German studies. He was married and his wife was pregnant with their first child.
More than forty years later, it was revealed that Kurras was an undercover agent of the East German secret police Stasi, and a long-time member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, the ruling East German Communist party; however, the motive behind Kurras' act remains unclear.
The surviving Stasi archives contain no evidence that Kurras was acting under their orders when he shot Ohnesorg.
In January 2012, research carried out by federal prosecutors and Der Spiegel magazine has found that the shooting was not in self-defense as always claimed by Kurras and that it was certainly premeditated. Newly examined film and photographic evidence also implicate fellow officers and superiors, demonstrating that the police covered up the truth in subsequent investigations and trials. Additionally, medical staff who carried out the autopsy on Ohnesorg were ordered to falsify their report. However, the new information is unlikely to be sufficient for the case to be reopened.
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