So how long before the first fatal shooting?
Schießbefehl (German pronunciation:
;
for "order to fire") was the term in the
(East Germany) for
authorizing the use of
by the
to prevent
(
) at the
from 1960 to 1989.
Schießbefehl recommended guards use
to stop unauthorised border crossings in the direction of
and procedure to conceal incidents from the public. Various
Schießbefehl orders were issued, and their instructions to prevent East Germans leaving were not officially legal until 1982 and in violation of Article 13 of the
, with an estimated 300 to 400 people having died at the Inner German border during its existence. After
in 1990, East German leader
was indicted by the
District Court on charges of
stemming from the
Schießbefehl orders, but his failing health and legal disputes over
caused his trial to be abandoned.