Heinz-Josef Große

The two border guards who shot Große were put on trial in 1996 in the district court of Mühlhausen. Aged 20 and 23 at the time of the shooting, the two former guards were convicted of joint homicide and given suspended sentences of one year and three months.

Following the fall of the GDR in 1989, a second wooden memorial cross was set up on the spot where Große died, just inside what was East German territory. The nearby Grenzmuseum Schifflersgrund preserves the border fortifications for several hundred metres along the stretch where Große died, as well as the original backhoe loader that he used in his attempt to cross the border. The preserved border fence still retains the bullet holes caused by the burst of gunfire that killed Große.

Heinz-Josef Große was a 34-year-old East German (GDR) construction worker who was shot and killed on 29 March 1982 by GDR border guards on the Inner German border at Schifflersgrund, near Bad Sooden-Allendorf.

The incident provoked controversy in West Germany and condemnation of the GDR's "order to shoot" policy. A memorial cross was erected on the West German side of the border by local members of the (West German) Christian Democratic Union on 17 June 1982. It was inscribed with the slogan Einigkeit - Recht - Freiheit ("Unity - Justice - Freedom"). Thereafter, on each anniversary of the shooting, up to 2,000 people at a time demonstrated against the division of Germany at the point overlooking where Große was shot. The event was closely monitored by the GDR's security forces, who photographed the participants. It was not without controversy of its own; some in the West criticised the protest as mere rhetoric.

Große is today commemorated by the original cross erected in 1982 as well as a memorial and explanatory display set up next to it. The memorial bears the inscription: