Benno Ohnesorg / Student Movement

from the audio walk Berlin Like You’ve Never Heard It Before – True Stories & Secrets

80 Stations
254:05 min Audio
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It is the evening of June 2, 1967. You are standing here, at 66 Krumme Straße. Around 8:30 PM, a shot rings out—and in that moment, a dark chapter of German history is written. The student Benno Ohnesorg collapses. The bullet came from the pistol of police officer Karl-Heinz Kurras.
What had happened? Just minutes earlier, around 2,000 people had gathered in front of the Deutsche Oper to protest against the visit of the Persian Shah. Facing them were twice as many police officers—supported by supporters of the Shah. The protests escalate; batons rain down. Demonstrators flee into the side streets.
Here, at this very spot, several individuals who had been encircled are cornered—among them, Benno Ohnesorg. Then, the shot is fired. Kurras later claims he acted in self-defense. Witnesses contradict him.
A doctor from East Berlin attempts to help—the police refuse to let him. An ambulance arrives only 45 minutes later. Ohnesorg dies en route. Later, the time of death is falsely recorded, and the projectile is secretly removed from his skull. Everything points to a cover-up. Yet, in the end, Kurras is acquitted.
The outrage is immense. In the weeks that follow, tens of thousands take to the streets in protest; politicians resign. The name Benno Ohnesorg becomes a symbol of police brutality—and his death, the spark that further ignites the extra-parliamentary opposition.
In 2009, it is revealed that Kurras had been an unofficial informant for the Stasi. New investigations are launched—but ultimately come to nothing. The shot fired here continues to reverberate to this day. It marked the beginning of a radicalization that, years later, would culminate in the founding of the RAF. Image 1: Own work

Image 2: By Stiftung Haus der Geschichte – 2001_03_0275.0148, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44807343

Image 3: By Stiftung Haus der Geschichte – 2001_03_0275.0143, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44807354

Image 4: By Stiftung Haus der Geschichte – 2001_03_0275.0155, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44807336

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Benno Ohnesorg / Student Movement

from the audio walk Berlin Like You’ve Never Heard It Before – True Stories & Secrets

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