19 March 1966 · Guards who fled
Two NCOs run for the border at Kohlhasenbrück – one gets through
NVA sergeants Willi Marzahn and Eberhard M. took weapons from their barracks and ran through the death strip near Steinstücken; in a firefight Eberhard M. reached West Berlin, while Marzahn died of a head wound.
Willi Marzahn, born in Jüterbog on 3 June 1944, lived with his wife and child in Schwedt. He had signed up for three years in the NVA, but instead of being posted near home he was stationed as an armourer with a motorised rifle unit in Stahnsdorf. His requests for transfer and release were refused, and by spring 1966 he evidently had thoughts of escape.
On the night of 18–19 March 1966 he and fellow NCO Eberhard M. were on leave. Returning to the Stahnsdorf barracks at about 3 a.m., Marzahn obtained the armoury key and passed two Kalashnikovs and three Makarov pistols with ammunition out of the window. The two then walked for hours to the border near Kohlhasenbrück and Griebnitzsee.
At about 6 a.m. they crawled under a signal fence near Steinstücken, and Eberhard M. killed two guard dogs in the control strip. Another signal wire set off a flare, and as they ran through the death strip they were spotted and a firefight broke out.
Eberhard M. climbed an anti-tank barrier and got through the last barbed wire into West Berlin. Willi Marzahn was found in front of an anti-tank wall with a head wound and died at the Drewitz military hospital at about 8 a.m. without regaining consciousness.
Whether he was shot by the guards or took his own life with the Makarov found beside him was never established; the crime scene was not properly secured. Investigations were closed in 1992.
Sources
- Marzahn, WilliChronik der Mauer
- Dokumentation: Sie starben an der Berliner MauerDer Tagesspiegel
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