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At the start of the trial, the ex-Stasi employee holds a folder in front of his face.
© Sebastian Christoph Gollnow/dpa
A man is shot in the back at the GDR border crossing at Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse in East Berlin.
It will take decades before charges can be brought.
Now an ex-Stasi employee is on trial.
Berlin - The murder trial against an ex-Stasi employee for the killing of a Pole at the GDR border crossing at Friedrichstrasse station has begun in Berlin amid great public interest.
The prosecution accuses the now 80-year-old Leipzig man of having shot the 38-year-old victim in the back from two meters away on March 29, 1974.
The German is said to have belonged to an operational group of the GDR Ministry for State Security at the time of the crime and was tasked with “rendering the Pole harmless”.
The defendant remains silent in the trial before the Berlin regional court.
At the start of the trial on Thursday, his defense attorney explained that her client denied the allegations.
According to a court spokeswoman, the trial of the fatal shot at the busiest border crossing between East and West will be recorded because of its “outstanding contemporary historical significance” for the Federal Republic of Germany.
The audio recordings will be made available to the state archives.
Two public prosecutors from Poland and a historian who was involved in the investigation of the case also watched the start of the proceedings.
The investigation into the case did not make any progress for many years.
According to the Berlin public prosecutor's office, it was not until 2016 that a decisive clue to the identity of the shooter came from the Stasi records archive.
According to a spokesman, the authorities initially assumed it was a case of homicide.
In this case the crime would have been statute-barred.
In the meantime, however, the public prosecutor sees the murder characteristic of insidiousness fulfilled.
Children of the killed Pole - a son and a daughter - appear as co-plaintiffs in the proceedings.
On the first day of the trial, among other things, a chief detective was to be invited.
The regional court initially planned a total of seven trial days.
A verdict could therefore be pronounced on May 23rd.
dpa