22 November 1980 · Over the wall
Marienetta Jirkowsky shot from a ladder at Hohen Neuendorf
18-year-old Marienetta Jirkowsky and two friends climbed the border barriers with a ladder; the two young men reached West Berlin, but she was shot as her hands reached the top of the Wall.
Marienetta Jirkowsky was born on 25 August 1962. On 21 November 1980 the 18-year-old travelled to the Berlin area with her fiancé and a friend, identified in the sources as Peter W. and Falko V. The three had decided to flee together.
At about 3:30 a.m. on 22 November they took apart a stepladder and used it to climb the inner wall at Florastraße in Hohen Neuendorf, on the outer ring bordering the Frohnau area of Reinickendorf. The two men got over the signal fence without setting off the alarm, but it sounded when she followed.
Border soldiers fired from two watchtowers, about 160 and 230 metres away. Her hands were already on the top of the Wall when a bullet hit her and she fell from the ladder. Both men reached West Berlin.
She died at 11:30 that morning in the Hennigsdorf district hospital after emergency surgery for a gunshot wound through the abdomen.
Fifteen years later a Neuruppin court sentenced one of the gunmen, under juvenile law, to one year and three months on probation for a less serious case of manslaughter.
Sources
- Jirkowsky, MarienettaChronik der Mauer
- Die Todesopfer an der Berliner Mauer 1961-1989 (Hertle/Nooke, 2017)Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam / Stiftung Berliner Mauer
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