Johann Burianek was a former Wehrmacht soldier and CIA-backed insurgent who planned and committed several attacks against the German Democratic Republic and a member of the anti-communist KGU.
12 Facts About Johann Burianek
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Johann Burianek was the first person to receive a death sentence from the new country's justice system.
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Johann Burianek served in the Luftwaffe during the 1930s and in 1939 took back his German nationality.
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Johann Burianek was released on probation in April 1950, having served nearly half his sentence.
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Johann Burianek found work as a truck driver with the Volkseigener Betrieb Secura-Mechanik.
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On 5 March 1952, Johann Burianek was arrested on charges of terrorism.
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Some ten weeks later, on 15 May 1952, Johann Burianek was tried before the Supreme Court.
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Johann Burianek was accused and found to be an agent of the KgU.
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The court delivered its verdict on 25 May 1952, and Johann Burianek became the first defendant in the German Democratic Republic to receive a death sentence.
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Two months after receiving his sentence, Johann Burianek was executed by guillotine.
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In 2005 Johann Burianek's conviction was found to have been unconstitutional, because of "serious disregard for basic rules [of justice]" in the original trial.
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The Johann Burianek case hit the headlines again in 2012 and 2013 on account of a former Stasi officer, Colonel Wolfgang Schmidt, who used his internet site to describe Johann Burianek as a "bandit" and as the "leader of a terrorist organisation".