23 August 1963 – 8 September 1963 · Over the wall
Border guard Siegfried Widera fatally injured at the Massante Bridge
Three construction workers overpowered two East German border guards at the Massante Bridge and ran across to West Berlin; guard Siegfried Widera died of a fractured skull two weeks later.
Siegfried Widera, born on 12 February 1941, was a 22-year-old corporal in the East German border troops, stationed at the blocked Massante Bridge on the sector border between Treptow and Neukölln. He had married only weeks earlier.
On 23 August 1963 at about 7 p.m., three construction workers from an East German state company, who had authorised access to the border area for excavation work, attacked Widera and the guard assisting him with fists and an iron bar.
The three men ran past the barriers on the bridge. The second guard fired at them, but they reached the West Berlin bank uninjured.
Widera suffered a fracture at the base of the skull and died on 8 September 1963, probably without ever regaining consciousness. He was posthumously promoted to sergeant, and the East German state staged a public mourning ceremony in Hettstedt.
West German proceedings against the escapees were dropped in April 1969 because premeditation could not be proven. Widera is one of eight border soldiers counted among the victims of the Berlin Wall.
Sources
- Widera, SiegfriedChronik der Mauer
- Gedenktafel für Siegfried Widera, Georg Feldhahn, Opfer der Berliner MauerMuseum Treptow-Köpenick / Berlin.de
- Die Todesopfer an der Berliner Mauer 1961-1989 (Hertle/Nooke, 2017)Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam / Stiftung Berliner Mauer
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