Dorit Schmiel – five friends crawl towards Reinickendorf

Dorit Schmiel, known as Dorle, was born in 1941 and grew up in Pankow. She worked as a seamstress and had recently moved in with her fiancé Detlef T. Like their friends, the brothers Eberhard and Dietrich B. and Dietrich's girlfriend Brigitte K., they could not accept conditions in the GDR, and early in 1962 they decided to leave. A cousin of Dorit's had crossed the border in the north of the city in January; they wanted to try at the same spot.

Shortly after midnight on 19 February 1962, in misty weather, the five approached the border in Rosenthal. After watching the guards, they ran along a cemetery to the barriers, cut a hole in the first fence and slipped through one by one. They then crawled across the snow and slush of the border strip.

They had almost reached the last two rows of fencing when three guards spotted them and opened fire, without first calling out or firing a warning shot, according to the Chronik. Dorit Schmiel was hit in the abdomen; 16-year-old Eberhard B. was wounded in the shoulder. She was carried to the Wilhelmsruher Damm and left on the ground; at least 30 minutes passed before an ambulance took her to the People's Police hospital, where she died of internal bleeding.

The four survivors were sentenced a month later to between ten months and two years in prison. Some 30 years later, as witnesses and co-plaintiffs, they saw the three former guards convicted of joint manslaughter and attempted manslaughter and given 18-month suspended sentences.