Rolf-Dieter Kabelitz – shot in the snow at Bergfelde

Rolf-Dieter Kabelitz, born on 23 June 1951, grew up in Potsdam with his mother and his stepfather, a captain in the Volkspolizei. Both parents were SED members and relations at home were strained. After breaking off an apprenticeship as a lathe operator he was placed at the Warnow shipyard in Rostock in 1969, but he gave notice there for 10 January 1971. After rows with his stepfather over the holidays he left home early on 4 January 1971, saying he was going back to Rostock for the late shift. Where he spent the next three days is not known.

On 7 January 1971 he took the S-Bahn to Oranienburg and walked back in deep snow along the line through Birkenwerder towards Hohen Neuendorf, where the track curves close to the border. In the dark of the early evening he left the railway near Bergfelde and headed for the border. At about 7.55 p.m., as he tried to get past the first obstacles, he set off an alarm device and alerted the guards.

According to the Chronik der Mauer he first kept moving towards West Berlin, then turned and ran back towards the S-Bahn when he realised he was being followed by guards with tracking dogs, dropping his bag of clothes and toiletries. His tracks in the snow were easy to follow. At about 9.45 p.m. a guard found him standing behind a tree. Although he was surrounded and moving away from the border, a first lieutenant fired a burst at him; two bullets hit him in the pelvis and thigh.

He was taken to the district hospital in Hennigsdorf, where the Stasi questioned him from 2 a.m. that night despite his condition. On 9 January a district court director read him an arrest warrant at his bedside and he was held in custody there, guarded around the clock and allowed no visitors. He repeatedly told his interrogators that he had not wanted to flee but had lost his way. After two operations an infection spread through his body; he died of pneumonia late on 30 January 1971 without having seen any of his family again.

The West learned of the incident only in September 1971 from a fleeing NVA lieutenant, who believed the unnamed fugitive had been arrested unhurt. Investigations begun in 1991 could not establish whether Kabelitz had strayed into the border area or intended to escape. The officer who fired the burst had died in 1986, and the case was closed without charges on 15 August 1994.