Klaus Schröter – homemade diving suit at the Reichstag
Engineer Klaus Schröter sold his television to build a weighted diving suit and tried to dive through the Spree to the Reichstag bank; guards shot him and he drowned.
Klaus Schröter was born on 21 February 1940 in Friedersdorf near Bitterfeld. He had studied electrical engineering, worked at VEB Starkstromanlagenbau in Berlin-Mitte and taught at an adult-education centre in Pankow.
He planned to cross underwater. To pay for the equipment he sold his television set, and he sewed himself a diving suit weighted with lead, with breathing apparatus and compressed-air bottles.
Around 4 a.m. on 4 November 1963 he cycled to the Marschallbrücke, less than 100 metres from the sector border, cut through the fence under the bridge and entered the river. A guard on a watchtower between him and West Berlin spotted him and fired, and two more soldiers joined in.
A grazing shot to the back of the head knocked him unconscious and he drowned. His body was recovered around 7.45 a.m. after a long search, with the fire brigade using a water screen to block Western observers' view. In 1994 one of the guards was convicted of manslaughter. A cross at the White Crosses memorial by the Reichstag commemorates him.
Sources
- Schröter, KlausChronik der Mauer
- Klaus Schröter (Maueropfer)Wikipedia (de)
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