18 April 1962 · Driving through
Fatal truck breakthrough at Heinrich-Heine-Straße
Three young East Berliners crashed a truck through the Heinrich-Heine-Straße crossing; they reached the West, but the driver, 23-year-old Klaus Brueske, died of his injuries.
In the night of 17 to 18 April 1962, shortly after midnight, three young East Berliners drove a truck at the Heinrich-Heine-Straße crossing on the sector border between Mitte and Kreuzberg.
Klaus Brueske, born on 14 September 1938, was at the wheel. Lothar M. sat beside him and Peter G. rode on the loaded truck bed.
A border guard fired two aimed bursts, 14 rounds in total. Brueske was hit twice in the neck. The wounds were not immediately fatal, but he lost control of the truck; in the crash he was buried under sand and suffocated.
The truck made it onto West Berlin territory. The three were taken to the nearby Urban hospital with gunshot wounds and bruises. His two companions survived.
Sources
- Brueske, KlausChronik der Mauer
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