6 October 1972 · Over the wall
Over the waterworks wall and onto the Schillingbrücke – 46 shots
A young circus stoker climbed the wall of the waterworks on Holzmarktstraße and the fence at the Schillingbrücke, and tried to run across the bridge. Guards fired 46 rounds; he collapsed about 30 metres beyond the bridgehead with life-threatening internal injuries.
At about 9.25 p.m. on 6 October 1972 a young man, born in 1952, from Löcknitz near Pasewalk, a stoker working for the Circus Hein, got into the grounds of the VEB Wasserwerke pumping station on Holzmarktstraße, climbed its wall towards the Schillingbrücke and then, unseen, the security fence at the bridge.
When he tried to cross the bridge, the guards called on him to stop. He did not, and they opened fire – 46 rounds in all. He collapsed about 30 metres past the Schillingbrücke and was taken to the Volkspolizei hospital at about 10 p.m. with severe internal injuries; the doctors said his life was in danger.
About 25 residents of the border area near Fritz-Heckert-Straße 1 watched the shooting and the recovery. West Berlin police cars searched the area with hand-held lamps, and at about 11.30 p.m. someone shouted from the West, 'Take the dead man away!'. The Stasi report says he had failed to appear before a district court, where he was due to be tried for 'defaming the state', and assumed he was trying to escape prosecution.
Sources
- Jahrgang 1972: Verhinderter Grenzübertritt unter Schusswaffengebrauch – Information Nr. 922/72, 10 October 1972Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
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