Schießbefehl

Schießbefehl recommended guards use firearms to stop unauthorised border crossings in the direction of West Germany and procedure to conceal incidents from the public.

Various Schießbefehl orders were issued, and their instructions to prevent East Germans leaving were not officially legal until 1982 and in violation of Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

All occurrences at border outposts were kept secret from the general public, with each attempted or successful escape followed by a formal investigation by the military prosecution authority and the Ministry for State Security (Stasi).

When would-be escapees were killed, strict regulations were imposed on the family regarding the funeral; for instance, no obituaries were to be printed in the local newspapers.

The construction of the Berlin Wall on 13 August 1961 saw the effective illegalization of Republikflucht, with the law only allowing legal border crossings at so-called Grenzübergangsstellen ("checkpoints"), and requests for migration received very limited approval from authorities.

Elsewhere, warning signs were posted telling people not to enter the border zone, known as "death strips", and any violation was considered a criminal act.

Overall, an official total of about 260 people were killed attempting to cross at the Berlin Wall, at the main East-West border, or via the Baltic Sea.