Werner Teske

Werner Teske (24 April 1942 – 26 June 1981) was an East German Hauptmann (Captain) of the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) who was executed for "planned treason" in June 1981.

Werner Teske
Teske's grave at the Südfriedhof, Leipzig
Born(1942-04-24)24 April 1942
Berlin, Nazi Germany
Died26 June 1981(1981-06-26) (aged 39)
Leipzig, East Germany
Burial placeSüdfriedhof, Leipzig
NationalityEast German
OccupationIntelligence officer
Known forLast person executed by East Germany in June 1981
Signature

Teske was a senior intelligence officer in the Stasi's economic espionage division when he was accused of plotting to defect to West Germany with sensitive information and embezzled money. Teske was found guilty of treasonous acts and sentenced to death, despite not meeting the requirements for East German law, and subsequently executed. Teske's sentence was posthumously overturned after German Reunification when it was deemed unlawful and two jurists from his trial were prosecuted.

Teske was the last person to be officially executed in both East Germany and reunified Germany.[1]

Biography
East German notification of Teske's arrest on 12 September 1980

Werner Teske was born on 24 April 1942 in Berlin[2] and went to school from 1948 to 1960, graduating with the Abitur.[3] In this time, he also played handball for an East German junior team.[4] He studied economics at Humboldt University of Berlin from 1960 to 1964 and graduated with a degree in financial economics.[3] A staunch communist,[1], he entered the SED party in 1966[3] and became an Unofficial collaborator (IM) of the Stasi in 1967[5] In 1969, he obtained his doctorate in economics[3] and started working full-time for the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, the foreign intelligence arm of the Stasi.[2]

Teske was part of the East German delegation that accompanied the East Germany national football team to the 1974 FIFA World Cup, played in West Germany.[5][4] He was promoted to Hauptmann[6] in 1975[7] and sent abroad again to the 1976 Olympics.[5]

In the mid-1970s, Teske began to considerably doubt the political system in East Germany, and planned for a defection to West Germany using highly sensitive Stasi information and materials as an "entrance fee".[1] However, in 1979 the Stasi tightened its internal security measures after the defection of Werner Stiller, a Stasi Oberleutnant (first lieutenant), to West Germany with sensitive information. In September 1980, Teske was arrested when irregularities in his work came to attention of the Stasi, and a cache of stolen documents was found in his work safe. Later, Teske was found to be embezzling operating money from his Stasi division, and another cache of documents was found stashed inside his apartment.

Teske was tried at the 1st Military Criminal Division of the Supreme Court of East Germany,[8] accused of "planned treason", and was found guilty of charges of espionage, desertion, and an illegal border crossing. Despite the defence counsel's argument that the defection had never occurred and no information had reached the West, Teske received the maximum sentence and was sentenced to death after a one-day trial[6] on 11 June 1981.[3][2] The severity of Teske's sentence might have been because of Werner Stiller's defection to the West two years earlier.[1]

Death

On 26 June 1981, shortly after his trial, Teske was executed in the basement of Leipzig Prison on Alfred-Kästner-Straße, Leipzig,[9] by executioner Hermann Lorenz. Teske was shot in the back of the head using a semi-automatic pistol, after which his body was cremated and buried at the Südfriedhof. Teske's trial, execution, and funeral all were kept secret by the East German authorities, and this information was withheld even from Teske's closest relatives, including his wife who did not know she was a widow until after German Reunification in 1990. Until then, she had assumed her husband was being held somewhere in custody.[1]

Posthumous rehabilitation

After German reunification, the sentence against Teske was overturned in 1993.[10] In 1998, one of the judges and one of the prosecutors who had taken part in Teske's trial were sentenced for perverting the course of justice in 1998.[3] These new rulings were justified by the fact that the original decision had been disproportionate even according to East German law, since Teske had planned but never actually committed the offenses he was sentenced for.[8]

Teske was the last person to be executed in East Germany before the death penalty was abolished in 1987,[11] effectively becoming the last person to be executed in Germany.[6]

Family

Teske was married to Sabine Teske. They had one daughter, who was 16 in 1981.[5]

gollark: And then arbitrary hyperoperations.
gollark: Do multiplication next.
gollark: Oh dear.
gollark: What is this actually code *for*?
gollark: Hmm, yes, I thought it was higher. Oh well.

References

Footnotes
  1. Melzer 2006.
  2. Adams 2009, p. 459.
  3. Florath 2016.
  4. Staadt 2006.
  5. Schnibben 1992.
  6. Lahusen 2011, p. 63.
  7. Stasi Records Agency.
  8. Mielke 1997.
  9. mdr.de 2009.
  10. Müller 2014.
  11. Gieseke 2014, p. 143.

Bibliography
  • Adams, Jefferson (1 September 2009). Historical Dictionary of German Intelligence. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6320-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Florath, Werner (2016). "Teske, Werner". In Engelmann, Roger (ed.). Das MfS-Lexikon Begriffe, Personen und Strukturen der Staatssicherheit der DDR (3 ed.). Berlin: Links. ISBN 3-86153-681-1. OCLC 932706320.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Melzer, Chris (22 June 2006). "Nahschuss ins Hinterhaupt" (in German). Retrieved 28 February 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Schnibben, Cordt (10 February 1992). "„Der Feind ist mir nie begegnet" - DER SPIEGEL 7/1992" (in German). Retrieved 28 February 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Gieseke, Jens (1 January 2014). The History of the Stasi: East Germany's Secret Police, 1945-1990. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-78238-255-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Mielke, Michael (6 August 1997). "Gericht rollt letztes DDR-Todesurteil auf". DIE WELT. Retrieved 29 February 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Staadt, Jochen (21 May 2006). "WM 1974: Die Stasi und der Fußball". FAZ.NET (in German). ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 29 February 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Müller, Reinhard (7 November 2014). "Unrechtsstaat: Die Exzesse der DDR". FAZ.NET (in German). ISSN 0174-4909. Retrieved 29 February 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • mdr.de (5 February 2009). "Todesstrafe in der DDR | MDR.DE". www.mdr.de (in German). Retrieved 29 February 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Lahusen, Benjamin (2011). "Drei Jahrzehnte ohne Todesstrafe" (PDF). myops (12): 62–64. Retrieved 29 February 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Stasi Records Agency. "Verräter aus den eigenen Reihen | Mediathek des Stasi-Unterlagen-Archivs". www.stasi-mediathek.de (in German). Retrieved 29 February 2020.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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