Heinz Kessler

Heinz Kessler (or Keßler; born 26 January, 1920) was a general in the National People's Army, Minister of Defense in the Ministerrat, and a representative of the Volkskammer of the German Democratic republic.

Biography

Kessler was born into a communist family in Lauban (Lubań), Lower Silesia. He joined the Red Young Pioneers, the youth organization of the KPD (German CommunistParty) at age 6. He was later apprenticed as a motor mechanic.

Drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1940, he deserted to the Soviet Red Army shortly after the German invasion of the USSR. Upon returning to Germany in 1945, Kessler joined the KPD inside of the Soviet occupation zone. Kessler was a Central Committee member from the moment it was created. This occurred when the KPD and SPD merged in 1946.

He was appointed Chief of the NVA Air Force Nationale Volksarmee in 1956, and appointed deputy Minister of Defense in 1957. He was appointed as head of the NVA Main Staff in 1967.

Kessler was promoted from chief Political Officer of the East German People's Army NVA to Defense Minister on 3 December, 1985 after the previous Defense Minister Heinz Hoffman died of a heart attack. [Flow, V.B.. "A New Defense Minister for the GDR." December 23, 1985.http://files.osa.ceu.hu/holdings/300/8/3/text/27-2-197.shtml (accessed September 8, 2007).]

Shortly after the German reunification on 3 October 1990, Kessler was tried in a German court for incitement to commit intentional homicide. This charge was in reference to Kessler and several other high ranking East German Officials who were tried under East German law under the theory that their participation in decisions of the National Defense Council or the Politbüro, which implemented the regime's policies for policing of the former GDR’s border, made them criminally responsible for the deaths of a number of people who had tried to flee the GDR across the border between 1971 and 1989. Kessler was tried and found guilty by a unified German Court and sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison.

Kessler filed an appeal, claiming that his actions were in accordance with East German Law and meant to preserve the existence of the East German State. However, his appeal was denied by the European Court of Human Rights largely on the basis that the GDR's border policies violated international human rights. [Registry of the European Court of Human Rights. JUDGMENTS IN THE CASES OF STRELETZ, KESSLER AND KRENZ v. GERMANY AND K.-H. W. v. GERMANY. Strasbourg: Registry of the European Court of Human Rights, 22 March 2001.]

Notes