Heinz Schöneberger – escape helper shot at Heinrich-Heine-Straße

Heinz Schöneberger, born on 7 June 1938 in East Prussia, grew up in Seesen in the Harz. After earlier imprisonment in the GDR, he worked with his brother Horst on building sites in West Berlin. On visits to East Berlin they met Monika P. and Christel R., who were determined to leave the GDR, and the brothers agreed to help.

On Christmas Day 1965 the brothers drove into East Berlin in a Ford Taunus 17 M with bench seats front and back. Monika P. was to hide in the rear backrest and Christel R. under the front bench; if discovered, they agreed to break through at full speed.

At about 0.30 a.m. on 26 December they reached the Heinrich-Heine-Straße crossing. A guard found Monika P.'s hiding place. Heinz Schöneberger jumped into the driver's seat, locked the doors and accelerated through the concrete slalom, but the last barrier had been lowered and the car stopped. Shots from a tower hit him in the calf.

He jumped out and ran, bent low, for the last ten metres to the border line. A second guard knelt and fired his pistol after him; five metres from the line a bullet struck his back and severed his carotid artery. He reached West Berlin territory but soon died from blood loss.

Horst Schöneberger was sentenced to twelve years' penal servitude and released to the West after six and a half years; the two women were also imprisoned. The former guards were acquitted in 1997.