Karl-Heinz Kurras

Karl-Heinz Kurras (1 December 1927 – 16 December 2014)

Kurras was born in Barten, East Prussia.^[1] He was born as the son of a police officer in East Prussia. His father died while serving in the Wehrmacht during World War II. Kurras attended high school and in 1944, like most of his class after graduating from secondary school, volunteered for military service. He was wounded and fought in Battle of Berlin at the end of the war. There he began an administrative apprenticeship.^[2]

In December 1946, the Soviet secret police MVD arrested Kurras for illegally possessing weapons. In January 1947, a Soviet military tribunal convicted him of "counter-revolutionary sabotage" and sentenced him to 10 years in prison. Kurras was released from prison in February 1950.^[3]

After he had been acquitted of any wrongdoing in shooting Ohnesorg in 1967, the

In an interview in 2007, he defended his decision to use lethal force against Ohnesorg, whom he accused of attacking him. He boasted, "Anyone who attacks me will be destroyed. Off. Lights out. That is how you must see that." (German: "Wer mich angreift, wird vernichtet. Aus. Feierabend. So ist das zu sehen.")^[5]

He died on 16 December 2014 in Berlin.^[1]

Stasi informant revelations

In May 2009, it was revealed that Kurras was an informant for the

In January 2012 an investigation carried out by federal prosecutors and Der Spiegel magazine ruled that the shooting of Ohnesorg was not in self-defence. Newly examined film and photographic evidence also implicated fellow officers and superiors, proving that the West Berlin police covered up the truth in order to protect one of their own. Additionally, medical staff who carried out the post-mortem on Ohnesorg were pressured to falsify their report. However, for reasons of double jeopardy, charges were deemed unlikely to be refiled.^[11]

Literature

• Uwe Soukup: Wie starb Benno Ohnesorg? Der 2. Juni 1967. Verlag 1900, Berlin 2007,
  ISBN 978-3-930278-67-1
  .
• Heinrich Hannover: Die Republik vor Gericht 1954–1995. Erinnerungen eines unbequemen Rechtsanwaltes. Aufbau-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 2005,
  ISBN 3-7466-7053-5
  (Aufbau-Taschenbücher 7053).
• ISSN 0012-1428
  , S. 395–400.
• Armin Fuhrer: Wer erschoss Benno Ohnesorg? Der Fall Kurras und die Stasi. be.bra verlag, Berlin 2009,
  ISBN 978-3-89809-087-2
  .
• Uwe Soukup, Karl Heinz Roth, Karl-Heinz Dellwo: 2. Juni 1967. Laika-Verlag, Hamburg 2010,
  ISBN 978-3-942281-70-6
  . (Bibliothek des Widerstands) (1 Medienkombination: Buch und DVD-Video).
• ISBN 978-3-455-50145-2
  .
• Marc Tschernitschek: Der Todesschütze Benno Ohnesorgs: Karl-Heinz Kurras, die Westberliner Polizei und die Stasi. Tectum, Marburg 2013,
  ISBN 978-382-88312-1-6