16 December 1966 · Over the wall
Karl-Heinz Kube shot near the Teltow harbour
Seventeen-year-old Karl-Heinz Kube and his friend Detlev S. were one fence from West Berlin when they were fired on; Kube was killed in the ditch where they sought cover.
Karl-Heinz Kube, born on 10 April 1949, grew up in Ruhlsdorf near Teltow and worked as an electric-cart driver in Ludwigsfelde. He clashed with the local party leadership and liked Western rock music; according to Stasi files he was threatened with a youth detention home for political reasons. In autumn 1966 he and his 18-year-old friend Detlev S. began planning an escape.
On the evening of 16 December 1966 the two rode a scooter to the border at the Erlenweg in Kleinmachnow, near the Teltow harbour, believing many guards would be on Christmas leave. With side cutters Kube had bought, they got over a first wall, trip wires and a barbed-wire barrier into the death strip.
At about 9.45 p.m., with only a 2–2.5-metre wire-mesh fence left between them and West Berlin, they were spotted and fired on. They gave up and took cover in a ditch, but ran into the field of fire of a second pair of guards. Kube was hit in the head and chest and killed; Detlev S. was arrested unhurt and later sentenced to one year and eight months.
Four guards fired 40 shots and were decorated. Kube's parents were told only that he had died in a border breach, had to agree to cremation and received the urn by post. In 1993 the four former guards were acquitted because the fatal shooter could not be identified.
A wooden cross at the Berlepschstraße in Berlin-Zehlendorf commemorates him.
Sources
- Kube, Karl-HeinzChronik der Mauer
- Potsdam-Mittelmark: Gedenken an Mauertoten Karl-Heinz KubePotsdamer Neueste Nachrichten / Der Tagesspiegel
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