Burkhard Niering's hostage escape attempt at Checkpoint Charlie

Burkhard Niering, born in Halle in 1950, trained as a plumber and fitter. In May 1973 he was called up to the Bereitschaftspolizei (Volkspolizei alert units) and served in Basdorf, north of Berlin. According to a Stasi informer he saw military service as a waste of his youth, and he reportedly told a room-mate he would leave the GDR at the first opportunity. After Christmas leave in 1973 his comrades found him withdrawn.

On 5 January 1974 he was on duty as a lone sentry at his barracks from 6.40 to 8.30 p.m. He left his post unnoticed, taking his weapon, and at around 7.35 p.m. appeared at the Friedrichstraße crossing in winter combat uniform. How he covered the distance from Basdorf so quickly was never established.

He seized a sergeant of the Stasi-run passport control unit, fired a burst into the air and pushed him through the crossing towards West Berlin. Alarm was raised, the pedestrian passage was closed, and one controller fired at him from cover and missed. When the hostage asked what he wanted, Niering reportedly answered: 'Rüber will ich' ('I want to get across'). At the lowered exit barrier he ordered the guards to lie down and told the hostage to crawl through; the hostage dropped and rolled aside, and two men fired from cover. Hit in the lower body, Niering was carried out of sight and died shortly after 9 p.m. in the Volkspolizei hospital.

A Stasi surveillance camera filmed the attempt. A West Berlin customs officer and two US soldiers witnessed it, and the Federal Government, the Senate and the Allied commandants protested. In 1997 the Berlin public prosecutor discontinued proceedings against the marksmen, arguing that the violence had come from Niering himself through hostage-taking and desertion.