Chris Gueffroy, the last escaper shot dead at the Wall

Chris Gueffroy, born on 21 June 1968, was a trained waiter and gymnast. He and his friend Christian Gaudian had heard from acquaintances that the order to shoot people fleeing at the border had been lifted, and decided to try to get over the Wall to West Berlin.

Late on the evening of 5 February 1989, at around 11:30 p.m., they entered the border area at the Britzer Zweigkanal, near the 'Harmonie' and 'Sorgenfrei' garden settlements on the border between Treptow and Neukölln. Using two home-made grappling hooks, they got over the three-metre inner wall and ran on towards the signal fence and the last metal fence.

Border guards opened fire. A soldier about 40 metres away first fired single shots at Gueffroy's feet; when he did not react, the soldier aimed higher. Gueffroy was standing with his back to the fence when a bullet struck him in the heart. He was the last person shot dead while trying to escape across the Berlin Wall.

Christian Gaudian was wounded and arrested. He was sentenced to three years in prison for attempting to cross the border illegally, and in October 1989 he was bought free by West Germany.

The killing caused outrage and, according to the Bundesregierung, the order to shoot was informally suspended in April 1989. In January 1992 the soldier who fired the fatal shot was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three and a half years; after the Federal Court of Justice overturned the verdict, a retrial gave him two years on probation. A memorial column has stood by the Britzer Zweigkanal since 2003.