Klaus-Jürgen Kluge shot on the crest of the Wall

Klaus-Jürgen Kluge was born on 25 July 1948 in Schönow near Bernau and had just qualified as a pattern maker in spring 1969. A Stasi informer reported his critical remarks about supply shortages in the GDR, and he was due to begin military service in the NVA in November 1969.

On the afternoon of 13 September 1969 he told his parents he was going to a dance, but travelled to East Berlin instead. At about 8.40 p.m. he entered the border area in the former S-Bahn triangle south of the Bornholmer Straße crossing, got past the first barriers near the Helmut-Just-Brücke unnoticed, and set off the alarm while climbing the signal fence.

One guard, reluctant to shoot, climbed down his tower slowly. His post commander saw Kluge at the Wall, ran towards it and, from about 60 metres and without warning, fired two bursts from the hip at the young man, whose upper body was already on top of the Wall.

Hit in the chest and foot, Kluge fell back and died within minutes. The guards were decorated the next day. In 1997 the Berlin regional court gave the marksman a suspended youth sentence, and in 1999 his former regimental commander and chief of staff were convicted of aiding manslaughter.

His parents were told of his death only after his cremation and were pressed to say he had died in an accident. He was buried in Schönow on 8 October 1969.