10 November 1965 – 11 November 1965 · Over the wall
Heinz Cyrus – hunted into Gartenstraße 85
Chased from the border strip by gunfire, Heinz Cyrus fled into a building on Gartenstraße, climbed out of a fourth-floor window and fell into the courtyard; he died the next morning.
Heinz Cyrus, born on 5 June 1936 in Greifswald, grew up with foster parents on Rügen and became deputy chairman of an agricultural cooperative. In 1960, in a show trial during forced collectivisation, he was sentenced to seven years for alleged 'sabotage'. Released under an amnesty in 1964, he again faced police investigation in November 1965 and apparently decided to flee to avoid another arrest.
Shortly before 9 p.m. on 10 November 1965 he was crawling towards the barriers near the Nordbahnhof when a guard dog gave him away. Guards and police sealed off the area and opened fire from three sides.
He escaped unhurt into the building at Gartenstraße 85. His pursuers surrounded and searched it, and he fled from floor to floor. Finally he climbed out of a hallway window on the fourth floor, clung to the gutter and fell into the courtyard.
With a fractured skull base and many broken bones he was taken at about 9.30 p.m. to the People's Police hospital, operated on that night, and died the following morning. The Stasi told his family he had fled an identity check while drunk and jumped from a window.
An investigation after 1990 was closed in 1993 on the grounds that the guards had acted according to their regulations.
Sources
- Cyrus, HeinzChronik der Mauer
- Commemorative Marker for Heinz CyrusStiftung Berliner Mauer (Digitaler Tourguide)
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9 June 1965 – 11 January 1966
Dieter Brandes – shot at the Nordbahnhof, died months later
Eighteen-year-old Dieter Brandes was shot a few metres from the last barrier at the Nordbahnhof; paralysed, he died in hospital seven months later.
4 January 1965
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25 November 1965
Heinz Sokolowski – shot at the Wall near the Brandenburg Gate
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17 March 1964
An unknown escapee slips past the guards at Gartenstraße
In the early morning of 17 March 1964 an unidentified person got over the border installations at Gartenstraße, about a metre from where the sentries were standing.