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🗓️ 2 June 2025
⏱️ 20 minutes
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June 2, 1967. Benno Ohnesorg, a West German student, is killed by a police officer while attending a protest in West Berlin.
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0:00.0 | It's dusk on June 2nd, 1967, outside the German Opera House in West Berlin. |
0:16.3 | Behind a police barrier, a young female student stands among a crowd of angry protesters. They're demonstrating |
0:22.6 | against the leader of Iran, Muhammad Rajas Shah, who's been invited to attend tonight's performance |
0:27.9 | of Mozart's The Magic Flute, despite his government's notorious record on human rights. |
0:33.8 | The young student spots a black Mercedes pull up in front of the entrance. |
0:43.6 | Shoulder to shoulder with other protesters, she joins the rising chant of murderer as security agents surround the car and usher the Shaw and his wife toward the opera house. |
0:48.0 | Roaring in anger, the protesters fling tomatoes and eggs at them, but the couple soon disappear inside, |
0:54.0 | and that seems to be a |
0:55.0 | cue for the police outside to advance. The officer's aggression is sudden and shocking. |
1:01.4 | Swinging their batons, they forced the demonstrators back from the opera house. |
1:05.4 | Frightened, the young woman looks around, but suddenly the friends she came with are nowhere |
1:09.5 | to be seen. She tried to find a way out, but she realizes she's trapped like everyone else. |
1:14.6 | Her only escape is to an underground parking lot beneath a nearby building. |
1:18.6 | All around her is chaos. |
1:21.6 | The student has jostled by fleeing protesters. |
1:24.6 | She stumbles, hitting the side of a car and falls to the ground. People |
1:28.4 | trip and vault over her, and she struggles to get back to her feet. She manages to rise |
1:33.7 | into a crouch and is frantically searching for somewhere else to hide when the crack of a gunshot |
1:39.5 | reverberates through the parking lot. Terrifying, the student looks around her and then sees a young man lying on the ground. |
1:47.6 | Blood pools around his head, and standing over him, a police officer grips his pistol, |
1:52.5 | a trail of smoke still rising from the barrel. |
1:55.5 | Young student looks back to the man lying on the concrete. |
... |
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