Ingolf Diederichs dies jumping from an S-Bahn at Bösebrücke
The 24-year-old climbed out of a moving S-Bahn train with a home-made folding ladder near the Bornholmer Straße crossing, got caught on the train and was killed.
Ingolf Diederichs was born on 13 April 1964. Early on the evening of 13 January 1989 he boarded an S-Bahn train at Pankow heading towards Schönhauser Allee, carrying a wooden folding ladder he had built from the slats of a child's cot.
At about 6:30 p.m., at a point very close to the Bornholmer Straße crossing and the Bösebrücke bridge, he climbed out and jumped from the moving train. He got caught on the train, was dragged along, and suffered severe head injuries that killed him instantly.
It is not known exactly what led him to take such a risk. The Stasi constructed a cover story presenting the escape attempt as a mere accident, and his relatives were told only that he had fallen from a moving train.
A preliminary investigation by Berlin prosecutors in 1994 was closed after a month, as there was no evidence that anyone else had caused his death. He died less than a month before Chris Gueffroy.
Sources
- Diederichs, IngolfChronik der Mauer
- 13. Januar 1989 (Wendekalender)Tagesspiegel / Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten
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