Werner Teske

Werner Teske (24 April 1942 – 26 June 1981) was an East German Hauptmann (Captain) of the Ministry for State Security (Stasi). Teske was a senior intelligence officer in the Stasi's economic espionage division when he was accused of plotting to defect to West Germany with sensitive information and embezzled money. In the one-day trial, Teske was found guilty of espionage and desertion. He was sentenced to death and subsequently executed in June 1981.

Teske's sentence was posthumously overturned after German reunification when it was deemed unlawful by standards of East German law, and two jurists from his trial were prosecuted. The execution was the last time a death sentence was carried out in East Germany, before its abolition in 1987, making Teske the last person executed in Germany.

Early life and career

Werner Teske was born on 24 April 1942 in Berlin, and went to school from 1948 to 1960 in Berlin-Lichtenberg, graduating with the Abitur. During this time, he also played handball for an East German junior team. He studied economics at Humboldt University of Berlin from 1960 to 1964 and graduated with a degree in financial economics. A staunch communist, he entered the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in 1966 and became an unofficial collaborator (IM) of the Stasi in 1967. In 1969, he obtained his doctorate in economics, and started working full-time for the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, the foreign intelligence arm of the Stasi.