Berlin Wall’s most memorable incidents
10-Nov-09
The Berlin Wall fell on the 9th of November 1989, having been built starting August 1961. In its 28-year existence, it stopped the emigration of East Germans to West Berlin and on to other places. During its existence, about 5,000 people (some reports say 39,000) attempted to go over it, with a death toll of between 100 and 1,000, aged 10 to 80.
Some notable incidents:
Rudolf Urban, then 47 was the first victim of the Wall on 19th August 1961 when he injured himself jumping out of a window at the border, and later died. Other reports say the first victim was Ida Siekmann who died of her injuries after jumping out of the window of her apartment, even though she managed to land on the West side.
Conrad Schumann (1942 – 1998), one of the most famous defectors from East Germany. The Berlin Wall was on its third day of construction on 15th August 1961. At that stage it was only a low barbed wire fence. Aged 19, Schumann was guarding it. Then, some people on the Western side shouted Komm rüber! (“come over”). Schumann jumped the barbed wire then entered a waiting West Berlin police car which quickly sped away. The moment when he jumped was immortalised by photographer Peter Leibing and became a well-known Cold War image. In 1998, suffering from depression, he hanged himself.
Günter Litfin (1937 – 1961), then 24, was the second victim of the Wall, and the first would-be escapee to be shot dead by border guards. Around 4pm on 24th August 1961, he swam across the border but was spotted by guards and ordered to swim back. As he he lifted his hands, he was shot dead.
Peter Fechter (1944 – 1962) was an East German bricklayer. On 17th August 1962, about a year after the construction of the wall, the then 18-year old tried to cross over to West Berlin and was shot dead. He became one of the first victims of the Berlin Wall’s border guards.
Together with Helmut Kulbeik (a friend), upon reaching the wall on the western side after running across no-man’s land they were shot at by guards. Kulbeik managed to cross over, but Fechter was shot in the pelvis while still on the wall in full view of hundreds of witnesses. He fell back into the death-strip, fully visible to Western journalists. He was screaming in pain, yet received no medical assistance either from either side of the Wall, resulting in him bleeding to death after about one hour. That prompted hundreds of people congregating on the West side and shouting “Murderers!!” to the guards. After he died, guards from the East side removed his body.
In 1966, two as-yet-unnamed boys aged 10 and 13 years, were killed on no-man’s land as they tried to escape, the youngest victims of the Wall.
Burkhard Niering was an East German border guard who held 2 colleagues hostage while trying to escape to the West. He was killed by a sniper at Checkpoint Charlie in January 1974.
Chris Gueffroy (1968 – 1989), then aged 20, the last person to be shot dead while trying to escape to West Berlin across the Berlin Wall. Together with a friend, Christian Gaudian, on the night of 5th February 1989, they were shot at by border troops while on no-man’s land. Gueffroy was shot 10 times in the chest while Gaudian was badly injured.
Winfried Freudenberg (1956 – 1989) was the last person to die in an attempt to escape from East Germany to West Berlin across the Berlin Wall on 8th March 1989.
With his wife, he made a homemade balloon filled with natural gas. At midnight of 7th March 1989 they went to the place where Freudenberg worked and filled the balloon with gas. Someone noticed and called the police. Seeing a patrol car coming, Frudenberg went up alone because the balloon wasn’t full of air yet to also support his wife. After a few hours, he crashed into the backyard of a villa in West Berlin, killing him instantly. The balloon was found a few blocks away. Exact cause of crash is still unknown.
Full list of victims, including the 8 East German border guards.
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