Paul Schultz – shot on the Wall on Christmas Day

Paul Schultz and his best friend Hartmut D. had grown up together in Neubrandenburg in Mecklenburg. On the evening of their joint 18th birthday party in October 1963 they decided to flee to West Berlin and go on to West Germany, knowing that they might be shot at.

Early on 25 December 1963 they took the train to East Berlin and spent hours walking along the border looking for a suitable place. As it was getting dark they chose the corner of Melchiorstraße and Bethaniendamm, where the border strip seemed narrower. They climbed the rear fence and ran through the barriers.

A two-man control patrol was nearby and opened fire without hesitation. The two youths had already climbed onto the barbed-wire top of the Wall. Hartmut D. reached the West unhurt; Paul Schultz was hit in the back and fell onto West Berlin territory. A West Berlin police officer from the nearby Mariannenplatz went to help him. He had been shot through the lung and died that evening in the Bethanien hospital in Kreuzberg.

His death came during the first pass agreement, which for the first time since the Wall was built allowed West Berliners to visit relatives in the East, and led to protests at the Mariannenplatz. The two guards were rewarded by the East Berlin city commandant. In 1995 the Berlin regional court convicted the surviving guard of joint manslaughter and gave him an 18-month suspended sentence.