The end of the death machines in the GDR

On November 30, 1984, the GDR dismantles the last automatic firing system. Since 1971, the "SM 70" type fragmentation mines had secured the inner-German border. At least nine refugees died from the "death machines".

by Marc-Oliver Rehrmann

It's an end in installments:it took more than a year to dismantle the "death machines," as they're called in the West. On November 30, 1984, the GDR dismantled the last automatic firing facility on the inner-German border, north of the Hamburg-Berlin autobahn near Gudow on what is now the state border of Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. On October 5, 1983, SED General Secretary Erich Honecker publicly announced that around 60,000 automatic firing devices would be completely dismantled. They should be removed by the end of 1984.

For more than a decade, the GDR leadership relied on self-firing devices. In technical jargon, the device is called SM 70. The abbreviation SM stands for fragmentation mines, the number 70 for the year of introduction, 1970. The aim is to prevent "border breaches" into the Federal Republic. The "inviolability of the border" represents a priority political task for the GDR leadership. They are convinced that every successful attempt to escape will bring political damage to the GDR.

"SM 70" tested on deer

In October 1970, the chief of the border troops gave the order to test the fragmentation mines. This "experimental introduction" takes place over a length of about 15 kilometers. Animals are used as test objects. From the GDR's point of view, the test is going well:75 percent of the wild animals fired on by fragmentation mines suffer fatal injuries. The Ministry of National Defense concludes:The barrier fence expanded with "SM 70" "proved to be an effective border security system".

No frag mines placed in towns

In 1971, specially trained pioneer units began to erect the new barrier 501 along the border - a three meter high expanded metal mesh fence on which self-firing devices were attached at three different heights. "The fragmentation mines were installed where the border was confusing for the troops or where the strength of the team was not sufficient to secure a certain section of the border," explains Frank Stucke from the Marienborn German Division Memorial in an interview with NDR.de. There was the following principle:"The fragmentation mines were never set up in or near towns."

Honecker makes the decision

The GDR leadership accepts the death of refugees from automatic firing systems. "The kinetic energy of the fragmentation mines is sufficient to ensure that people who try to break through the restricted area of ​​​​the "SM 70" are harmless," says a document of the Ministry of National Defense of August 17, 1971. But there is also concerns about the fragmentation mines. In December 1971, the executive committee of the GDR Ministry of Defense asked whether the mines could not provoke a politically unfavorable reaction from the West - and whether, from this point of view, it would not be more advantageous to develop and use mines with a reduced effect. Defense Minister Heinz Hoffmann proposes that Erich Honecker, First Secretary of the SED Central Committee, decide on this issue. At the beginning of January 1972, Hoffmann informed the management of Honecker's answer:The splitter mine should be set up as usual.

100,000 GDR marks for one kilometer

By 1977, the fragmentation mine had been installed over a length of around 270 kilometres, and in 1983 the barrier systems with the self-defense devices reached a total length of more than 400 kilometres. The inner-German border has a total length of almost 1,400 kilometers. According to East German information, the installation of the fragmentation mines costs around 100,000 East German marks per kilometer of state border. There are no automatic firing systems on the border around West Berlin.

How does a self-firing system work?

The fragmentation mines are always attached to the border fence on GDR territory. The mine body consists of a thin-walled sheet aluminum cone filled with the explosive TNT and at least 100 steel projectiles with a diameter of a good four millimeters. Three horizontal wires are attached to each "SM 70". The top and bottom are designed to prevent birds from triggering the mechanism. If the wire in the middle is touched or severed when attempting to approach or climb over the fence, a circuit is closed:an explosion occurs and the steel splinters are shot out with great force. At the same time, a signal alerted the border troops. The projectiles can fly up to 120 meters. Injuries to arms or legs can also be fatal, as the victims bleed to death.

GDR denies the existence of self-firing devices

The fragmentation mine is subject to great secrecy in the GDR. In the West, however, people take notice of the self-firing devices. In October 1972, ZDF reported extensively on the "death machines at the zone border". However, the GDR continues to deny the existence of the "SM 70". In the same month, SED leader Erich Honecker mocked 4,500 members of the Free German Youth that the West was outraged by "so-called death machines that don't even exist".

Garden Thug:The "Death Machine Acquirer"

It is then a former GDR citizen in the West who presents the proof of the existence of the self-firing devices:Michael Gartenschläger. In November 1975 he read a report in the news magazine "Spiegel" about the structure and functioning of the GDR border installations. One sentence in particular sticks with him:"To this day, the Federal Border Police don't know exactly how the self-shooting machines work in detail." Gartenschläger, who was living in Hamburg at the time, made a decision:"If they need something like that and don't have it, you'll just get them one."

The first coup succeeds at night

On the night of April 1, 1976, the 32-year-old unscrewed a self-firing device on the inner-German border - in a confusing terrain near Büchen, between Bröthen in West Germany and Wendisch Lieps in East Germany. He hands over the stolen "SM 70" to the "mirror", who has the device analyzed in the laboratory. The news magazine reported extensively on April 12, 1976 about the "SM-70-Procurer". On the night of April 23rd, Gartenschläger dismantled a second fragmentation mine - just 200 meters from the first crime scene. He sells this copy to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum in West Berlin. However, there was no great outcry at the highest political level in the Federal Republic. It is the time of the détente policy.

Looking at the media reports about the SM-70 mines, the GDR countered that they were only dummies. But for the GDR leadership, which is vying for international recognition, Gartenschläger's act is one of the greatest foreign policy embarrassments. Stasi boss Erich Mielke is said to have personally ordered that the troublemaker be "arrested without fail" if he tried again.

The Stasi men are already here

In fact:Gartenschläger is planning another coup. He wants to place the third dismantled fragmentation mine in front of the permanent representation of the GDR in Bonn. But on the night of May 1, 1976, a Stasi commando ambushed him at the border. The four men fired 120 shots. Garden bat dies. An eyewitness reports that the Stasi men opened fire without warning. After reunification, the comrades stated in court that they had acted in self-defense. Michael Gartenschläger is buried in a Schwerin cemetery without the relatives being informed. On Gartenschläger's death certificate it says:drowned corpse from the Elbe.

Why is the GDR dismantling the "death mines"?

The automatic firing systems were dismantled in the early 1980s at a time when the GDR was facing financial ruin and was dependent on loans from the West. At the end of June 1983, the Federal Republic of Germany granted the GDR a federal guarantee for a loan of one billion Deutschmarks. A few months later, in October 1983, Honecker announced the dismantling of the automatic firing systems.

However, there was no link between the billions in credit and the end of the fragmentation mines, according to Hans-Hermann Hertle from the Center for Contemporary History Research in Potsdam. Franz Josef Strauss, who arranged the granting of the loan, never said that the federal government made the dismantling of the fragmentation mines a condition. "If it had been like that, Strauss would have adorned himself with the success," said Hertle in an interview with NDR.de.

Considering the international reputation

Instead, Hertle refers to a different context. At the time, the GDR was very concerned about its international reputation, precisely because of the acute financial crisis. That is why the GDR made concessions in terms of fragmentation mines. Especially since at the beginning of December 1983 a UN convention came into force for the East German state, which prohibits the use of mines against the civilian population under any circumstances. According to the contemporary historian, the GDR was in danger of losing further credibility on the international stage.

The number of victims is uncertain

The GDR covered up the traces of escape attempts as best it could. There is no exact number of GDR citizens who died in automatic firing systems by the end of 1984. According to the German Division Memorial in Marienborn, nine cases have been proven. Experts suspect that the actual number is much higher. There are also only estimates of the total number of fatalities at the border between the GDR and the Federal Republic. Usually there is talk of more than 900 dead.

The Berlin public prosecutor's office, as the central authority for the prosecution of GDR government crime, determined a total of 270 verifiable deaths on the inner-German border. Of these, 237 are attributable to the use of firearms or other acts of violence by members of the GDR border troops and 33 to detonations of earth and fragmentation mines.