The road was wet that evening when the Alfa Romeo GTV 6 suddenly began to lurch.
There is no stopping in a right-hand bend, the sports car crashes into a tree. Two days later, on March 7, 1983, professional soccer player Lutz Eigendorf died of the consequences of his injuries. Accident or murder plot by the Stasi? To this day, the cause of death remains unclear.
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The former GDR selection player, born on July 16, 1956, was on his way back from his favorite pub in Braunschweig, Cockpit. He had had a few beers there.
Doubts about Eigendorf’s alcohol level
When 2.2 per mille of alcohol was still found in the blood of the victim, the case quickly became clear to the authorities – too quickly, as later became apparent.
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“That wasn’t his way of drinking so much,” said Eigendorf’s second wife Josephine. Several witnesses testified that Eigendorf drank far less before driving. Rumors made the rounds that the East German Ministry for State Security had initiated the death because Stasi chief Erich Mielke could never forgive the “Beckenbauer des Ostens” for his escape.
Eigendorf’s escape in the spring of 1979 hit the superiors of the GDR very badly. The midfielder previously kicked for the East Berlin Stasi club BFC Dynamo. That is why Mielke also viewed the escape as a personal defeat.
Only after the fall of the Wall were files discovered that documented the enormous efforts in guarding Eigendorf. “Lutz was always afraid of being kidnapped back to the East,” said his wife Josephine. The Stasi chief is said to have sent more than 50 informers to the West to observe the refugee in the four years up to his death.
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