Conny Wessmann

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Cornelia "Conny" Wessmann was a 24 year old student in Germany. On November 17, 1989, she was killed during a police raid in Göttingen, Germany. Since then, she has been considered a martyr of the autonomy movement in Germany, dying in the fight against the prevailing political system, although she was not an active participant.

On that day a fight was planned between the followers of the leftist scene and the right extremists in the street Burgstrasse in the German town Göttingen. The rightists were rather strong in Göttingen (and still are). The leftists tried to stop the right scene and organized telephone chains for when there were right extremists in town. Conny Wessmann was part of this scene. When the police tried to arrest the group with tear gas and dogs, the group ran away, crossing the busy Weender Landstrasse. Conny Wessmann collided with a car and died.

The leftists then blamed the police for her death since they cornered her. Some even called it a political murder by the state. The police radio was intercepted and a policeman reportedly said "Do we wanna beat them up?". The official investigation didn't find any evidence that the police or the car driver could be held responsible for what happened that day.