Killing of Benno Ohnesorg

Relief Der Tod des Demonstranten (The Death of the Demonstrator) by Alfred Hrdlicka; Location: Deutsche Oper Berlin, forecourt

Benno Ohnesorg (/ˈbɛnoː ˈoːʰnəzɔɐk/, October 15, 1940 – June 2, 1967) was a German university student killed during a demonstration in West Berlin. He was shot by the plain clothes police officer Karl-Heinz Kurras. More than forty years later it was revealed that Kurras also served as an informant to the East German Stasi, and was a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.

Ohnesorg was a student of Romance and German literature, and culture studies. He was married and his wife was pregnant with their first child. The protests were held near the Deutsche Oper and were aimed against the state visit of the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. That night, Shah Pahlavi attended a performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute at the Deutsche Oper. It was the first political demonstration Ohnesorg had ever attended.

His death served as a rallying point for the left wing, and the Movement 2 June group was named after the day of his death. The left-wing student movement of the late 1960s that swelled after Ohnesorg's death influenced a large number of German politicians who were in their teens and twenties at the time.

A monument next to the Deutsche Oper Berlin and designed by Austrian sculptor Alfred Hrdlicka serves as a memorial for the killing. In Ohnesorg's hometown of Hanover, a bridge over the Ihme river is named after him.

See also

• German student movement
• Daniel Cohn-Bendit

External links

• Photograph of Benno Ohnesorg's death (German Historical Museum)

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