Göring’s legend was spread in East Germany, the tale of a self-sacrificing man driven to protect his country at all costs from enemies abroad. It was claimed that he was murdered in connection with a French terrorist group. Göring was posthumously given a promotion, streets were named after him, and his gravesite became a holy site (or at least the communist equivalent of one). The GDR’s attempt to valorize the border guard who tried to shoot a fleeing teenager was not entirely successful. The East German authorities were far better at creating martyrs the old-fashioned way: by killing
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