Soviet military justice in the GDR
Places of trial of the Supreme Soviet Military Tribunal in the Soviet Occupation Zone/GDR SMT No. 48240 with the death sentences imposed in 1950-1953 and later executed in Moscow: Berlin-Lichtenberg (87), Chemnitz (Special Court SAG Wismut, 26), Dresden (52), Halle/Saale (43), Potsdam (117), Schwerin (73) Weimar (46). The place of conviction has not yet been determined for 452 cases.
Soviet military justice in the GDR
At the turn of the year 1949/1950, the Soviet military administration transferred not only the administration of justice but also the execution of sentences to the GDR administration. Nevertheless, the occupying power maintained a parallel legal system which, contrary to Article 10 of the GDR constitution, also sentenced German civilians. The Soviet military tribunals (SMT), which had been active in the Soviet Occupation Zone since 1945 and were actually responsible for Soviet soldiers, continued to impose arbitrary and disproportionately harsh sentences on Germans until 1955.
The SMT judges passed their sentences in the central MGB detention centers. The charges were prepared by the MGB investigators, confirmed by the military prosecutor’s office and finally pronounced as a verdict by the military judges without due process of law.
Between 1945 and 1955, the SMT passed sentences against around 40,000 German civilians. Almost 3,000 of them were sentenced to death, over 1,000 of them in the years 1950 to 1953 alone. Most of the death sentences were carried out in the Soviet Occupation Zone until 1947. The death penalty was suspended from 1947 to 1949; after its reintroduction, the convicts were executed in Moscow.
Berlin-Lichtenberg
Location of SMT No. 48240 and the MGB prison in Berlin-Lichtenberg (blue) and the first MfS headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg (dark red). By the time it was dissolved in 1990, the East German secret service had taken over and expanded the entire area marked in red.
Berlin-Lichtenberg court prison. From 1945-1952 it was used by the NKVD/MGB and from 1952/53 to 1989 by the MfS as a remand prison. A women’s prison has been housed there since 1994, 2005.
In the first years after the end of the war, SMT mainly charged people with involvement in National Socialist crimes or war crimes in accordance with Control Council Directive No. 10, “Ukas 43” and Article 58 of the RSFSR Criminal Code.
In the 1950s, SMT proceedings were based almost exclusively on Article 58, which allowed anyone to be prosecuted as an “enemy of the socialist order” or as a “spy”. The secret court hearings were conducted in Russian and only partially translated. Neither witnesses for the defense nor defense attorneys or the public were allowed in the proceedings, and appeals by the defendants were generally rejected.
The MGB initially transferred all those sentenced to death in the GDR to the Berlin-Lichtenberg prison. They were taken to Brest on the Soviet border in wagons disguised as mail transporters. From there, the prisoners were transported on to Moscow. Some of those later murdered in Moscow were seen for the last time by fellow prisoners in the prison in Brest. As those returning home later reported, the prisoners were only able to communicate by knocking. Some carved their names and sentences into dishes or cell walls to leave final messages about their fate.
Soviet transport train for prisoners, in which German prisoners were also deported to Moscow, 1950s / Memorial International, Moscow
Verdict against Paul Sieg and other members of the Erdler group, 1951
Death sentence against Paul Sieg and other members of the resistance group around Hans Erdler by SMT No. 48240 of April 18, 1951. / Private
Transfer of Karl Hartwert Haedicke from Dresden to Berlin-Lichtenberg
Confirmation of the transfer of Karl Hartwert Haedicke on July 28, 1951 from the MGB prison in Dresden to Berlin-Lichtenberg, Dresden, August 1, 1951. He was sentenced to death in Dresden on July 7, 1951.
After the sentence, the convicts were usually transferred to Berlin-Lichtenberg and from there transported by train to Moscow in wagons disguised as mail transporters.
Article 58 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR)
Art. 58, 1. Any action aimed at overthrowing, undermining or weakening the rule of the workers’ and peasants’ councils and the governments of the workers and peasants of the Union of the SSR, the Union republics and autonomous republics elected by them on the basis of the Constitution of the Union of the SSR and the constitutions of the Union republics, or at undermining or weakening the external security of the Union of the SSR and the fundamental economic, political and national achievements of the proletarian revolution, shall be considered counter-revolutionary.
By virtue of the international solidarity of the interests of all working people, actions of the same kind are considered counter-revolutionary even if they are directed against another state of working people that is not a member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. …
Art. 58, 6. Espionage, i.e. disclosure, theft or collection for the purpose of disclosure of information, the content of which constitutes a particularly sensitive state secret, for the benefit of foreign states, counter-revolutionary organizations or private individuals, shall entail – deprivation of liberty for not less than three years, together with full or partial confiscation of property; however, in cases where espionage has caused or could have caused particularly serious harm to the interests of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: Increase to the most severe measure of social protection – shooting or declaration as an enemy of the working people, combined with deprivation of citizenship of the Union Republic and thus citizenship of the Union of SSR, permanent expulsion from the territory of the Union of SSR and confiscation of property. …
Art. 58, 10. Propaganda or agitation calling for the overthrow, undermining or weakening of Soviet rule or the commission of individual counter-revolutionary crimes (Articles 58.2 to 58.9 of this Code), as well as the distribution, production or storage of writings of the same content shall entail deprivation of liberty for not less than six months. If the same acts are committed during mass riots, by exploiting religious or national prejudices of the masses, during war or in places over which a state of war has been declared, they shall entail – the measures of social protection referred to in Article 58.2 of this Code.
Art. 58, 11. Organizational activity of any kind directed to the preparation or commission of the crimes provided for in this Chapter, as well as participation in an organization formed for the preparation or commission of a crime provided for in this Chapter, shall entail the social protection measures referred to in the corresponding articles of this Chapter. …