Central Registry of State Judicial Administrations

The central evidence and documentation of State Judicial Administrations in Salzgitter began its work on 24 November 1961 in Salzgitter-Bad. She had to follow the task instructions on or attempted acts of homicide (for example, on the inner German border), wrong judgments for political reasons, ill-treatment in prisons and deportation or political persecution in the GDR and to collect evidence about it. This should serve to deter potential offenders and thus lead to a facilitation of the conditions of life in the GDR. In the long term, the information should be used in the case of German reunification bringing of criminal proceedings.

The establishment of the Central Registration Office (hereinafter abbreviated to "zest " ) was established on a claim of the mayor in Berlin, Willy Brandt. Brandt wanted to create an " organizational foundations for a nationwide and comprehensive prosecution of the crimes of the rulers of the SED ."

As a model Brandt called the " Central Office of the State Justice Administration for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes " in Ludwigsburg, founded in 1958 and at that time much attention.

Method

The Zest collected and documented mainly testimonies of GDR citizens who had fled to the Federal Republic. Especially when it comes to the persecution of refugees on the inner German border (eg unsuccessful escape attempts) Zest also took up statements of West German eyewitnesses and took photos of crime scenes.

The zest had no archive function. Prosecutors used there all belonged to the prosecutor's office at the Higher Regional Court of Braunschweig. Their task was to initiate preliminary investigation when a " suspected criminal acts" was present. For this purpose a catalog of Justice Ministerial Conference has been defined; Extensions of this catalog rejected the Minister of Justice from later. So we discussed, for example, since 1975 about recording also forced adoptions in this catalog. As this proposal could not prevail, Salzgitter today has no knowledge in this area of family law.

Position of the GDR

In official statements of the GDR 's Zest was repeatedly referred to as an institution of revanchism and their activity as a gross interference in the internal affairs of the GDR.

The resolution of the Central Registration Office was one of the four Gera demands of Erich Honecker and the GDR leadership.

Financing

For decades, there was a joint financing by all states.

In 1984, the SPD parliamentary group in a unanimous decision: "The Central Registry Office Salzgitter is ineffective and unnecessary. "

Oskar Lafontaine ( SPD at that time ), which was in the spring of 1985 became Prime Minister of the Saarland, ended 1985, the payments of the Saarland ( first state ) to the until then by all provinces shared worn zest. 1986 expressed the deputy FDP Federal Chairman Wolfgang Gerhardt, it would indeed happen in the GDR crimes against humanity, but their punishment is not currently possible. In 1987, the state of North Rhine -Westphalia under the then Prime Minister John Rau deletion of the benefits ( 56,000 DM) from the year 1988. This led to considerable debate about the German question.

Were justified the cancellation plans with doubts as to the point at the contemporary image of the zest. Representatives of the CDU / CSU evaluated this approach as " missing human solidarity with the residents of the GDR" and as buckling before the Gera demands (1980 ) by Erich Honecker and the GDR leadership.

Der Spiegel wrote in December 1989 ( ie, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall ):

" Above all, the SPD saw change through rapprochement, less and less sense of it, constantly hold up a eastern rulers atrocities. All SPD -governed Länder introduced gradually their payments for the authorities budget of 250,000 marks a year at the time a. Republicans, state associations of the Junge Union and the North Rhine-Westphalian FDP then began to raise money for the preservation of the department. Precaution, the Federal Government had already provided 100,000 marks to prevent the collapse of the mini authority. "

After the reunification of some politicians acknowledged (eg, Hans -Jochen Vogel), it was a mistake to have called for the abolition of the zest.

Use of information collected

For applicants from East Germany for the Civil Service zest gave information about the personal data to establish a possible criminal offense in the territory of the former GDR, the nature of the offense and the duration of a conviction.

For some, the Zest also meant to make his inner peace. For example, said Hans -Jürgen Grasemann, 1988 to 1994, deputy head in Salzgitter, in November 1989, in a radio interview, you will certainly soon be able to rehabilitate former prisoners who were sent to prison because of illegal, political judgments.

Grasemann reported a 85 -year-olds:

"He wanted no money, but only those rehabilitation certificate. [ ... ] His children should know that while he was sitting five years in Bautzen, but was not a criminal. "

In the months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, many voices were raised in the GDR, which called for a reappraisal of the past or of what happened injustice. (see also Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives, this authority has been obtained from the similar reasons ).

The Zest documents were, for example, important documents in the wall protecting processes.

After the reunification

With the German reunification in 1990, the task of ZEST was met, the prosecution of criminal offenses took now the local law enforcement agencies in the new federal states. 1990 Vorermittlungsakten were handed out at a total of about 40,000 cases to local prosecutors' offices, where they supplemented the (usually more detailed ) files of the East German authorities on these cases. The Zest was therefore closed in 1992. From 1961 to 1992 registered the zest over 42,000 acts of violence in the GDR.

The CDU / CSU held the SPD sometimes you adjust the Zest- financing as an indication that it did not aim the reunion at this time or wanted. The SPD launched in 1993/94 a position paper (title: " People who live in glass houses ...") with a list of confidential meetings of Union political leaders with DDR officials (eg, Franz Josef Strauss ( 1915-1988 ), which extends over 20 times with Alexander Schalk - Golodkowski met ).

The acts of authority subordinate to 2007 at the Higher Regional Court of Braunschweig and since 2007 in the Federal Archives in Koblenz.

Thus, the zest and their work is not forgotten, the management committee of the city, the city administration Salzgitter commissioned in November 2007 unanimously to draft a proposal for a " visible sign " in the form of a monument, a memorial stone or plaque. As a memorial was on 9 November 2009 ( 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall ), a section of the former Berlin Wall, marked with a bronze plaque, unveiled as a memorial. She stands in front of the former building of the Zest in Salzgitter-Bad.