9 September 1971 · Over the wall
A circus hand runs for the Wall near the Sonnenallee crossing
After an evening in the pubs of Baumschulenweg, a young circus worker climbed the hinterland fence off the Heidekampweg; guards fired 43 rounds and wounded him in the hip and knees.
A young man from Aschersleben, born in 1949, worked as a labourer for the state circus company and was helping with publicity for the Soviet State Circus in the Kulturpark in Treptow. On the night of 8/9 September 1971 he drank twelve to fourteen glasses of beer in several pubs in Baumschulenweg.
At about 0.30 a.m. on 9 September he went down the Heidekampweg into the border area, about 80 metres from the Sonnenallee crossing, climbed the hinterland fence and set off the signal fence as he crawled through it. The posts 100 and 150 metres to either side saw him moving, bent over, across the roughly 70 metres towards the Wall. When he ignored a challenge and a warning shot, they opened aimed fire – 43 rounds in all – and he was hit in the hip and both knees. His life was not in danger.
Two stray bullets broke windows in houses on the Heidekampweg and the Sonnenallee. West Berlin police officers watching from a platform about 250 metres away called out 'All's well that ends well' as he was carried away. The Stasi concluded that he had decided to flee on the spur of the moment under the influence of alcohol.
Sources
- Jahrgang 1971: Fluchtversuch in Berlin-Baumschulenweg – Information Nr. 899/71, 10 September 1971Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
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