9 December 1961 · Over the wall
Dieter Wohlfahrt, escape helper shot at Staaken
A 20-year-old West Berlin resident with Austrian citizenship was shot while cutting through the border fence at Staaken to help a woman escape; the plan had been betrayed and he bled to death in the border strip.
Dieter Wohlfahrt, born on 27 May 1941, held Austrian citizenship through his father and lived in West Berlin. Because of his nationality he could move between the two halves of the city, and in the months after the Wall went up he used this freedom to help people escape from the East.
On the evening of 9 December 1961, at around 7 p.m., he and fellow escape helper Karl-Heinz Albert went to the border between Staaken and Spandau. They crossed the border marking and began cutting through a three-row barbed-wire fence with bolt cutters and pliers so that the mother of an acquaintance could come across.
The escape had been betrayed to the East German authorities, and the group walked into an ambush. After a shout of 'Halt! Border police!', guards opened fire and Wohlfahrt was hit in the chest.
He lay between the rows of barbed wire for more than an hour without medical help. According to the Chronik der Mauer, West Berlin police and British military police tried to reach him but were kept back by East German border guards who threatened to use their weapons. He died of his wounds at the border.
A criminal investigation after reunification was closed in 1996; the prosecutors concluded that the border police had acted in self-defence. A memorial to him stands at Bergstraße in Staaken.
Sources
- Wohlfahrt, DieterChronik der Mauer
- Die Todesopfer an der Berliner Mauer 1961-1989 (Hertle/Nooke, 2017)Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam / Stiftung Berliner Mauer
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