Three East Germans stopped by machine-pistol fire opposite the Märkisches Viertel
Just after détente had been celebrated in Helsinki, border guards stopped three East Germans at the Wall facing the Märkisches Viertel with several machine-pistol bursts and arrested them; angry West Berlin residents tore out a fence patching a hole in the Wall and set tyres on fire.
According to Die Zeit, three East Germans tried in the night to Sunday to climb the Wall in the north of the city into Reinickendorf. They were discovered before they reached it, stopped from getting over the barriers by several bursts of machine-pistol fire, and arrested.
Residents of the Märkisches Viertel in West Berlin reacted by tearing out parts of a wire-mesh fence with which a hole in the Wall had been patched at that spot, and by setting tyres on fire. Shouts of 'murderers' and 'criminals' were heard, and police on both sides moved up.
The US Mission in West Berlin reported that the GDR foreign ministry sent the Senat a protest on 10 July about the 'Wall incident' of 7–8 July, which it called a serious provocation by 'a small group of irresponsible elements'. Governing Mayor Schütz rejected it as hypocritical and condemned the shooting of 7–8 July as out of keeping with the hopes raised by the Helsinki conference. The mission noted that the Berlin press gave the incident more coverage than any Wall incident in years and showed complete understanding for the indignation of the Märkisches Viertel residents.
Sources
- Berlin: Loch in der Mauer (DIE ZEIT 29/1973; opening paragraph, the rest is behind registration)Die Zeit
- Protest and commentary on July 7-8 Berlin Wall incident (telegram BERLIN 1182, 11 July 1973)US National Archives, Access to Archival Databases (Central Foreign Policy Files, RG 59)
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