Willi Block – trapped in the wire and shot at Staaken

Willi Block, born in Berlin on 5 June 1934, served in the GDR border police from 1954 to 1959. He fled to West Berlin twice in 1962, returning each time for family reasons; after the second return he was sentenced to five years for alleged espionage. Released early, in November 1965, he was assigned to a concrete works in Staaken near the border.

On 7 February 1966, after being sent off work for drinking, he crossed the rear fence and a dog run near the Staaken crossing in broad daylight and reached the vehicle ditch. At about 3.45 p.m. two guards opened fire. He tried to crawl under the three rolls of barbed wire separating him from West Berlin, but his clothing snagged in the second roll and he was stuck.

West Berlin customs officers and police arrived and spoke with him; he told them he was unhurt and asked for covering fire, which they could not give while he was still on GDR territory. More guards and the regimental commander gathered on the eastern side. When Block again tried to pull himself forward towards the West, several guards opened fire, the commander first with his pistol and then with a borrowed Kalashnikov from 15 metres.

Seventy-two shots were fired; four hit him, three of them fatally. That evening two border soldiers who had seen his body fled to West Berlin themselves and reported what had happened.

In the 1990s the regimental commander was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three years; the court described his conduct as having 'the character of an (attempted) execution'. A memorial cross stands at the Finkenkruger Weg in Spandau.