Hans Schulze was born in Falkensee (Brandenburg) in 1952. He worked for a West German chemical company in West Berlin and was responsible for the entire GDR business of his company from there.
In March 1986, he met a woman in a GDR motorway service station on his way to the Leipzig Trade Fair. A relationship developed, during the course of which he learnt of the woman's plans to flee. What he didn't know was that the woman was an unofficial employee of the Ministry for State Security, IM "Eva", who had been assigned to target West German individual travellers and entrepreneurs. In a conversation with the MfS, IM "Eva" had asked for an assignment in the West. When this was rejected by the responsible authorities, she undertook further activities to prepare an escape on her own.
Hans Schulze was arrested at the Drewitz border crossing point when leaving the GDR in 1986. The reason for his arrest was §97 "espionage". In the further course of his pre-trial detention, he was informed of additional charges such as "betrayal of state secrets", "trafficking in human beings inimical to the state", "assistance in preparation for an unlawful border crossing" and "foreign currency offence". Of all the additional charges, only the accusation of "assisting in the preparation of an unlawful border crossing" and "currency offences" remained. Hans Schulze was sentenced to two and a half years in prison by the Berlin Military Criminal Court. He was released early from prison at the end of 1987 as part of an amnesty. After the Peaceful Revolution, Schulze learnt that both he and IM "Eva" had been shown as supposed enemies of the state in a Stasi educational film called "Who's who?".
Hans Schulze has been guiding groups of visitors through the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen memorial site since 2013 and works as a contemporary witness at schools and educational institutions for the Coordinating Office of Contemporary Witnesses.