German police union deputy faces claims over East German border past
Germany's deputy federal police union chairman faces sworn testimony alleging he abused an East German escapee and enforced shoot-to-kill policies as a political officer in the 1980s.
Sven Hüber, who holds the number two position at the Gewerkschaft der Polizei (GdP) and chairs the Federal Police’s main staff council, has emerged as a vocal opponent of Alternative for Germany (AfD) while his own past as a political officer in the East German border troops comes under renewed scrutiny.
According to Brussels Signal, exclusive reporting by Apollo News published on August 25, 2026, includes a sworn statement from contemporary witness Axel Krause accusing Hüber of personally mistreating a captured Mauerflüchtling—a wall refugee attempting to flee the German Democratic Republic.
The witness account, supported by files from the Ministry for State Security (Stasi), describes Hüber forcing a pistol into the mouth of a captured escapee who was lying restrained on the ground, causing the man to urinate himself in terror. The same witness states that Hüber then kicked the prisoner three times in the face as a Stasi transporter arrived to take him away.
Political Officer Role in Border Regime
Hüber, born in 1964 in Görlitz in eastern Germany, trained at the border troops’ “Rosa Luxemburg” officer school in Suhl and served from 1987 until the fall of the Wall in Border Regiment 33 in Berlin-Treptow. His assignments included political officer and deputy company commander, later youth instructor—roles centered on the political indoctrination of conscripts.
In political instruction sessions, Hüber is further accused of telling soldiers that the word Vernichtung (annihilation) remained valid after the standing border order was reworded in 1988 to remove it, and of publicly humiliating border soldiers who missed their shots.
The same regiment held the sector in which Chris Gueffroy, the last person killed at the Berlin Wall, was shot dead in February 1989. Apollo News has reported that the regional court in Berlin found in two sets of proceedings that Hüber was neither directly nor indirectly connected to that killing, while holding that he could not disclaim a share of responsibility for sustaining the GDR border regime.
Exklusive Recherchen von Apollo News zeigen, wie der politisch einflussreiche Polizeigewerkschafter Sven Hüber als DDR-Grenzoffizier dazu beitrug, den Schießbefehl durchzusetzen. Ein Zeitzeuge belastet ihn namentlich und eidesstattlich schwer. Es geht um einen Vorfall, in dem… pic.twitter.com/UOvI1EqkEU
— Benedikt Brechtken (@ben_brechtken) August 25, 2026
Career Flourished After Reunification
Hüber continued his career after reunification in the Federal Border Police, now known as the Federal Police, and rose to become one of the most influential figures in German police unionism. He has chaired the Federal Police main staff council since 2000 and has been a GdP deputy federal chairman since 2022. Aged 62, he is close to retirement.
Through his lawyer, Hüber has rejected the new allegations in a six-page written response to Apollo News. The lawyer, however, prohibits quoting from the letter or using it in any other way journalistically. Hüber has long denied any personal involvement in shootings and has repeatedly gone to court to restrict public references to his GDR service.
Calls for Police Resistance Against AfD
Other outlets have also covered his East German past since the start of August 2026, particularly after he published an article urging police officers to prepare for possible resistance against an AfD-led government in Saxony-Anhalt.
In an article published in the GdP members’ magazine, Deutsche Polizei, in August 2026 titled “Richtig Nein sagen” (Saying no properly), he argued that police officers’ oath to the Basic Law (Grundgesetz), Germany’s constitution, makes support for the AfD incompatible with their duty.
He wrote that officers cannot vote for, support or join a constitutionally hostile party and coined the phrase “No-Go mit der AfD”. He also described a possible AfD win as a “Machtergreifung”—the term used for the Nazi seizure of power in 1933.
He went further, warning of a possible internal state of emergency under Article 91 of the Basic Law if an AfD-led government in a state such as Saxony-Anhalt were to undermine the constitutional order. In that scenario, he said, readiness police from other states and the Federal Police must be prepared, on the instruction of the federal interior minister, to restore the constitutional order by police means. Saxony-Anhalt goes to the polls on September 6, 2026.
Several regional branches of the GdP, among them North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt, publicly distanced themselves from his position.
With information from Brussels Signal
