1974
On 3 May 1974 Erich Honecker told the National Defence Council that firearms must still be used "ruthlessly" against attempted breakthroughs and that soldiers who used them successfully were to be commended (translated).12 The border troops' regulation DV 018/0/008 of the same year set out the sequence: the challenge "Halt! Grenzposten! Hände hoch!", a warning shot, then aimed fire, with exceptions for people who looked like children (up to 14), members of the Western occupying forces and diplomats, and a ban on firing onto West Berlin territory.3 By 16 July a border signal fence had been put up along 120 kilometres of the Berlin border area, though the troops' own analysis called it prone to faults because the material corroded.4
The 1974 records here cluster at the checkpoints: Burkhard Niering's hostage attempt at Checkpoint Charlie in January, the Polish fireman Czesław Kukuczka, shot in the back at Friedrichstraße station in March, and a US soldier stopped at Checkpoint Charlie in September, accused by the Soviets of trying to take out two East Germans.
Sources for this text
- Chronik 1974: MaiChronik der Mauer
- "Grenzverletzer sind festzunehmen oder zu vernichten" (Hans-Hermann Hertle)Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung
- Festlegungen zum Gebrauch der Schusswaffe der DDR-Grenztruppen in der Dienstvorschrift 018/0/008, 1974 (Auszug)Chronik der Mauer
- Chronik 1974: JuliChronik der Mauer
Checked October 2026. Facts taken from an escape record on this site link to that record, which lists its own sources.
7 events: 5 failed attempts and 2 fatal attempts.
5 January 1974
Burkhard Niering's hostage escape attempt at Checkpoint Charlie
Burkhard Niering, a conscript in the Volkspolizei alert units, left his guard post with his submachine gun, took a Stasi passport controller hostage at Checkpoint Charlie and tried to push through to the West. He was shot at the last barrier.
18 January 1974
Karl-Heinz M. is caught past the inner wall
Karl-Heinz M. had climbed the inner wall and probably the signal fence before border soldiers arrested him in the strip.
16 February 1974
A stranger in US uniform is held back at Checkpoint Charlie
At midday on 16 February 1974 two men in US Army uniform walked towards Checkpoint Charlie from the East. One was a US military policeman; the other, who had fallen in beside him, could show no ID and speak no English, and East German guards took him away.
29 March 1974
Czesław Kukuczka: an exit visa, then a shot in the back at Friedrichstraße
A Polish fireman threatened to blow up the Polish embassy in East Berlin unless he was let through to West Berlin. He was given an exit visa and taken to the Friedrichstraße crossing by a Stasi officer, then shot in the back during the clearance procedure and bled to death in the Stasi prison hospital.
30 June 1974
A jump from a moving S-Bahn at Bornholmer Straße
An East Berlin lorry driver tried to jump from a moving S-Bahn where the tracks ran through the border strip at Bornholmer Straße; he fractured the base of his skull and was arrested by border troops.
10 September 1974 – 17 September 1974
A US soldier is stopped at Checkpoint Charlie with two East Germans
On the night of 10 September 1974 East Berlin guards stopped a US Army specialist's private car at Checkpoint Charlie and led a woman away from it. The Soviets held the soldier for a week and said he had tried to smuggle two GDR citizens into West Berlin.
13 October 1974
Felled by a single aimed shot opposite Neukölln
On a Sunday afternoon in October 1974 West Berlin police watched a young man approach the Wall opposite Neukölln. An East German guard knelt and brought him down with one aimed shot; he was carried away, apparently wounded.
