It began its work on November 24, 1961. The proposal for its establishment was made by Berlin's mayor at the time, Willi Brandt. It was modeled on the Central Office of the State Justice Administration for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg.
The aim was to name those responsible at a time when criminal prosecution was not possible, to give the perpetrators names and the victims the hope of redress for the injustice they had suffered.
Tasks
The small authority in Salzgitter collected and documented
- evidence of completed and attempted killings (e.g. shoot-to-kill orders at the inner-German border)
- unjust sentences handed down by the GDR judiciary for political reasons
- mistreatment in the penal system
- deportation
- Political persecution
- Evidence about these incidents
In this way, the basis for a later legal investigation of the crimes was to be created and, in the event of German reunification, serve to open criminal proceedings.
The public prosecutors of the ZESt were part of the public prosecutor's office of the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court. They initiated preliminary investigations if there was suspicion of criminal acts.
The information was obtained from witness statements by political prisoners who had been ransomed by the Federal Republic, GDR refugees and statements by West German eyewitnesses who had observed unsuccessful escape attempts at the inner-German border.
From 1961 to 1992, the ZESt registered over 42,000 acts of violence. After the end of the GDR, the files provided valuable evidence for criminal prosecution. For example, the files were important documents in the Mauerschützen trials.
After reunification, the registration office was closed in 1992 and the prosecution of the crimes was taken over by the law enforcement authorities in the new federal states.
The authority's files were kept by the Braunschweig Higher Regional Court until 2007. Today they are housed in the Federal Archives in Koblenz.
The registration office today
Since November 9, 2009, a stele and a section of the former Berlin Wall in front of the former building in Salzgitter-Bad - now the police headquarters - have commemorated the Central Registration Office in Salzgitter. A memorial plaque dedicated to the victims of the division and dictatorship bears the inscription "The Central Registration Office of the State Justice Administrations operated in this building from 1961 to 1992 after the Wall was built. It was a hope for many."