Schießbefehl
East German term for the use of lethal force at the East-West border to prevent defection / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Schießbefehl (German pronunciation: [ˈʃiːsbəˌfeːl] ⓘ; German for "order to fire") was the term in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) for standing orders authorizing the use of lethal force by the Border Troops to prevent Republikflucht (defection) at the Inner German border from 1960 to 1989.
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Schießbefehl recommended guards use firearms to stop unauthorised border crossings in the direction of West Germany and procedure to conceal incidents from the public. Various Schießbefehl orders were issued, and their instructions to prevent East Germans leaving were not officially legal until 1982 and in violation of Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. An estimated 300 to 400 people died at the Inner German border during its existence. After German Reunification in 1990, East German leader Erich Honecker was indicted by the Berlin District Court on charges of mass murder stemming from the Schießbefehl orders. However, his failing health and legal disputes over jurisdiction led his trial to be abandoned.