Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

25 November 1965 · Over the wall

Heinz Sokolowski – shot at the Wall near the Brandenburg Gate

Former journalist and political prisoner Heinz Sokolowski, 47, had reached the Wall between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate when a guard shot him in the abdomen.

Heinz Sokolowski, born on 17 December 1917 in Frankfurt an der Oder, worked as a journalist in East Berlin after the war. In 1953 a Soviet military tribunal sentenced him to 20 years (later reduced to ten) for alleged espionage; he served time in a Soviet labour camp and in Bautzen, Brandenburg and Waldheim prisons until February 1963.

Released to East Berlin rather than the West, in poor health and working as a lift operator, he was refused permission to leave. After being dismissed in 1965 he prepared his escape: he scouted the border, got ropes and blankets to cross the wall and wire, sold his belongings and told friends in West Berlin, writing in October that he would try near the Brandenburg Gate.

At about 5 a.m. on 25 November 1965 he approached the barriers from Clara-Zetkin-Straße. A guard on a tower at Clara-Zetkin-Straße/Ebertstraße saw him and fired warning shots, but he kept going and set off an alarm. He had reached the wall topped with barbed wire when one of two other guards fired directly at him.

Hit in the abdomen, he died on the way to the Städtisches Krankenhaus Berlin-Mitte. West Berlin police heard the shots and saw the wounded man carried away.

In spring 1966 the Arbeitsgemeinschaft 13. August put up a three-metre wooden cross at Scheidemannstraße/Ebertstraße with the words 'after 7 years of GDR imprisonment, shot while fleeing'.

Sources

  1. Sokolowski, HeinzChronik der Mauer
  2. Dokumentation: Sie starben an der Berliner MauerDer Tagesspiegel

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