Stasi had shoot-to-kill policy to deter Berlin Wall escapes

Germany's Stasi archive has revealed one of the last dark secrets of the former Communist east: the politburo order to shoot to kill anyone attempting to breach the Iron Curtain to freedom.

The former regime claimed throughout its history that no such order existed and that it was up to police and border guard units to decide what action to take when confronted with would-be escapers.

That big lie has been exposed in the yellowing files of the Stasi secret police. The Stasi directive went: "Do not hesitate with the use of a firearm, including when the border breakouts involve women and children, which the traitors have already frequently taken advantage of." Dated 1 October 1973, the document is described as "explosive" by Andreas Schulze, a spokesman for the Magdeburg-based archive where it was found.

East German rulers always insisted the use of firearms at the border was a "last resort". The document proves otherwise.

Marianne Birthler, in charge of the Stasi files which are still being scrutinised 15 years after the German Democratic Republic (DDR) collapsed, said: "This instruction is so clear and precise, setting out the position of the authorities in a way we did not know before. Politicians repeatedly said at that time no such instruction existed. That is why the document is so important." She said it indicated a mindset of "brutality" among the leadership of the DDR.

The order was discovered in the file of a Stasi sergeant identified only as Manfred L, who served in a border guard unit. Although issued by the Stasi, the order would have come from the rulers of Moscow's most hardline satellite state.

"This instruction is nothing less than a licence to kill," said Hubertus Knabe, director of the Memorial for State Security Victims in Berlin. He wants a wide- ranging investigation of former Stasi agents. Only one of the 91,000 former agents of the secret police had been jailed, he said.

At least 133 people were shot trying to escape across the Berlin Wall. Many others died trying to cross the electrified fences and mined "death strips" bordering the west in other parts of the country. Some estimates put the numbers of people shot as high as 1,000. The Stasi often lied to the victims' families about the cause of death of their loved ones.

Many more people were gravely injured and suffered for years from their injuries. Among the dead were two boys aged 10 and 13, killed in 1966 while attempting to cross into West Berlin. Many teenagers were also victims, the most famous being the first one to die: Peter Fechter, 18, a bricklayer who bled to death in the death strip on 17 August 1962 because border guards refused to allow anyone to go to his aid.

The Stasi attempted to destroy its tonnes of files when the country imploded in 1989 but its shredders and furnaces collapsed under the strain. The files left behind "have many secrets still to yield up - we have not written the last chapter of the history of East Germany yet," Ms Schulze added.

Ronald Pofalla, the general secretary of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, said the order to shoot escapers demonstrated "in a horrific way how inhuman this system was". He added: "On the eve of the anniversary of the construction of the wall, it is a lesson to all of those who want to let the barbarity of the Communist regime be consigned to the annals of history."