Johann Burianek
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Johann Burianek (16 November 1913 – 2 August 1952) was a former Wehrmacht soldier and CIA-backed insurgent who planned and committed several attacks against the
German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
and a member of the anti-communist KGU. In a 1952 trial he was condemned to death in the country's
Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
for preparing attacks on railway bridges. He was the first person to receive a death sentence from the new country's justice system.


Life


Early years

Burianek was born in the Rheinland at
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
, the son of a master shoe maker. He underwent an apprenticeship as a machinist and in 1932 relocated to
Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...
, taking Czechoslovak nationality in 1932/33. He served in the
Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
during the 1930s and in 1939 took back his German nationality.


World War II

During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Burianek served in the
Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
. In the final days of the war, Burianek arrested Herbert Kloster, a
deserter Desertion is the abandonment of a military duty or Military base, post without permission (a Pass (military), pass, Shore leave, liberty or Leave (U.S. military), leave) and is done with the intention of not returning. This contrasts with u ...
whom he then delivered to his military headquarters. Kloster was nearly executed as a result of Burianek's actions. In November 1949, an East German court found Burianek guilty of crimes against humanity for reporting the deserter and sentenced him to one year in prison.


Insurgent activities

Burianek was released on probation in April 1950, having served nearly half his sentence. He found work as a truck driver with the Volkseigener Betrieb (publicly owned business) ''Secura-Mechanik''. Between July 1950 and March 1951 he smuggled several thousand copies of the western newsheets ''Kleiner Telegraf'' and '' Tarantel'' into the
Soviet sector The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...
of
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
. In March 1951 he joined a militant insurgent group called "Struggle against Inhumanity" group (KgU / ''Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit'') which was then being established by
Rainer Hildebrandt Rainer Hildebrandt (December 14, 1914, in Stuttgart – January 9, 2004, in Berlin) was a German anti-communist resistance fighter, historian and founder of the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. He was involved in the resistance to the communist regime o ...
with backing from
the Americans ''The Americans'' is an American historical drama, period spy fiction, spy drama television series created by Joe Weisberg for FX (TV channel), FX. It aired for six seasons from 2013 to 2018. Weisberg and Joel Fields also served as showrunners ...
. His attacks on the part of the KgU included numerous acts of sabotage and unsuccessful arson attacks on the 1951
World Festival of Youth and Students The World Festival of Youth and Students is an international event organized by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and the International Union of Students after 1947. History The festival has been held occasionally since 1947, mainl ...
. His most ambitious project, planned for 21 February 1952, would have involved blowing up a civilian railway bridge at
Erkner Erkner () is a town in the Oder-Spree District of Brandenburg, Germany, located on the south-eastern edge of the German capital city Berlin. Geography The town is located between the lakes Dämeritzsee, a part of the river Spree (river), Spree, a ...
, on the south-eastern edge of Berlin, which would have de-railed the "Blue Express", the long-distance train running between Berlin and
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
via
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
. Despite knowing this almost certainly would cause mass civilian casualties, Burianek proceeded with the plot. The necessary explosives would be provided by the KgU. However, the project failed to progress beyond the planning stage, as it proved impossible to get hold of a suitable truck to carry the explosives. On 5 March 1952, Burianek was arrested on charges of terrorism.


Trial and execution

Some ten weeks later, on 15 May 1952, Burianek was tried before the
Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
. - The presiding judge was
Hilde Benjamin Hilde Benjamin ( Lange; 5 February 1902 – 18 April 1989) was an East German judge who served as the Minister of Justice of the German Democratic Republic from 1953 to 1967. Benjamin was a professional lawyer and member of the Communist Pa ...
, the court's vice-president. Burianek was accused and found to be an agent of the KgU. The court delivered its verdict on 25 May 1952, and Johann Burianek became the first defendant in the German Democratic Republic to receive a
death sentence Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...
. Two months after receiving his sentence, Burianek was executed by
guillotine A guillotine ( ) is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out executions by Decapitation, beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secur ...
.


Rehabilitation by the Berlin regional court

In 2005 Johann Burianek's conviction was found to have been unconstitutional, because of "serious disregard for basic rules
f justice F, or f, is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet and many modern alphabets influenced by it, including the modern English alphabet and the alphabets of all other modern western European languages. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounc ...
in the original trial. The 1952 verdict was reversed. This reversal arose from an initiative by the ''"Arbeitsgemeinschaft 13. August"'' organisation which had been established, like the KgU before it, by
Rainer Hildebrandt Rainer Hildebrandt (December 14, 1914, in Stuttgart – January 9, 2004, in Berlin) was a German anti-communist resistance fighter, historian and founder of the Checkpoint Charlie Museum. He was involved in the resistance to the communist regime o ...
, and which now successfully applied to the Berlin District Court to have the 1992 Criminal Rehabilitation Act invoked for the Burianek case. In a judgement delivered on 2 September 2005, the court also held that between his arrest on 5 March 1952 and his execution on 2 August 1952 Johann Burianek had been unlawfully deprived of his freedom.


Controversial Legacy

In Germany, under §189 of the
criminal code A criminal code or penal code is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...
, defamation of the memory of a deceased person is a criminal offence which upon conviction may attract a fine or a prison term of up to two years. The Burianek case hit the headlines again in 2012 and 2013 on account of a former
Stasi The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...
officer, Colonel Wolfgang Schmidt, who used his internet site to describe Burianek as a "bandit" and as the "leader of a terrorist organisation". On 27 September 2012 Schmidt was convicted under §189 in respect of the matter by a court which evidently accepted that Schmidt's characterizations of Burianek had been false and defamatory. The court ordered Schmidt to pay a fine of €1,200. The action against Schmidt had been triggered by
Hubertus Knabe Hubertus Knabe (born 1959) is a German historian and was the scientific director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, a museum and memorial in a notorious former Stasi torture prison in Berlin. Knabe is noted for several works on oppressio ...
, the director of the Hohenschönhausen Memorial Museum on the northern edge of Berlin. It was not the first time Knabe and Schmidt had come across one another, Schmidt already having been fined €2,100 in 2009 for calling Knabe himself a "publicly unrestrained rabble rouser" (''"öffentlich und ungestraft als Volksverhetzer"'') in connection with Knabe's earlier work on the
Stasi The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...
. Schmidt appealed against the €1,200 fine, imposed under §189 for defaming the memory of Johann Burianek, but on 18 March 2013 the District Court rejected his appeal. Knabe welcomed the court's verdict: "I am pleased that the Justice System stands up against historical revisionism from former Stasi operatives. Even today, we must not allow the perpetrators to denigrate their victims in public.""Ich freue mich, dass die Justiz dem Geschichtsrevisionismus ehemaliger Stasi-Mitarbeiter entgegentritt. Es kann nicht sein, dass die Täter ihre Opfer auch heute noch öffentlich herabwürdigen." He also stressed the significance of a court decision which, for the first time, extended §189 of the
Criminal code A criminal code or penal code is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of, a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...
to include negative portrayals of those convicted by the German Democratic Republic.


Further reading

* Kai-Uwe Merz: ''Kalter Krieg als antikommunistischer Widerstand. Die Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit 1948–1959'', München: Oldenbourg, 1987. * Rudi Beckert: ''Die erste und letzte Instanz. Schau- und Geheimprozesse vor dem Obersten Gericht der DDR'', Keip Verlag, Goldbach 1995, , S.237–248 *
Karl Wilhelm Fricke Karl Wilhelm Fricke (born 3 September 1929) is a German political journalist and author. He has produced several of the standard works on resistance and state repression in the German Democratic Republic (1949–1990). In 1955, he became one of ...
, Roger Engelmann
''Konzentrierte Schläge''
Staatssicherheitsaktionen u. polit. Prozesse in der DDR 1953 – 1956, Berlin 1998 * Gerhard Finn: ''Nichtstun ist Mord. Die Kampfgruppe gegen Unmenschlichkeit''. Westkreuz-Verlag, Bad Münstereifel 2000, , S. 119–124


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burianek, Johann 1913 births 1952 deaths Executed East German people KGU members East German dissidents German Army personnel of World War II German people convicted of crimes against humanity Military personnel from the Rhine Province Nazis convicted of war crimes Nazis executed by East Germany by guillotine