Bildjournalismus

It is the evening of June 8, 1967 at the inner-German border crossing near Helmstedt. A black hearse is parked under an open barrier, the front part already on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany. Border troops from both German states and journalists from the (inter)national press are bustling around the hearse. Joachim Giesel is also present. Benno Ohnesorg lies in the Cadillac Sedan DeVille, which has been converted into a hearse and in which Marlene Dietrich’s body is to be transported 25 years later. The student was shot dead by a policeman on June 2 during a counter-protest on the occasion of the Persian Shah’s visit to West Berlin. His death is regarded as the initial event of the 1968 movement in West Germany. The transfer of his body to his hometown of Hanover on June 8 by the GDR marks a special chapter in German-German history. For the first time, the GDR dispenses with any border controls and the press is also allowed to move freely between the two territories – a unique event. 15,000 mourners accompany the procession to the border. Thousands of FDJ⁎men⁎women form a guard of honor and pay their last respects to what they call the “victim of police terror”. 200 cars with mourners from Berlin accompany the body to Hanover. On a GDR border tower rising in the background, the silhouettes of around ten guards can be seen observing the historical moment through their lenses.

Jonathan Fulda