Guards order a 24-year-old to halt but hold their fire as he scales the Wall
On Wednesday 5 July 1989 East German border guards ordered a 24-year-old man to halt as he scaled the Berlin Wall, but did not fire when he defied them; he reached the West.
On Wednesday 5 July 1989 a 24-year-old East German man scaled the Berlin Wall. Border guards ordered him to halt, but did not fire on him when he defied them, and he went on to reach the West, West Berlin police said.
The escape came one day after Rudolf Seiters, Chancellor Helmut Kohl's chief of staff, said East German officials had told him border guards had been ordered not to use deadly force. Seiters said Erich Honecker had informed him of the policy during his visit to East Berlin on Tuesday, and had assured him that deadly force would only be used in cases of 'self-defense or desertion'. The report adds that the last shooting had been in April, when guards opened fire on two men trying to scale the Wall; eyewitnesses said the men were led away, apparently uninjured.
Sources
- Guards hold fire as E. German scales wall (6 July 1989)Deseret News
- Chronik 1989 – Juli (Seiters visits Honecker, 4 July 1989)Chronik der Mauer
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