Читать книгу Where in the World is the Berlin Wall? - Группа авторов - Страница 15

On 15^th August 1961, 19-year-old East German soldier, Conrad Schumann, jumped over the barbed wire into the West. Schumann, from Zschochau, Saxony, had been sent with his police unit to Berlin and was supposed to guard the border. Doubts about the sense of what he was doing at the border made him leap into freedom. Schumann was the first of over 2,500 border soldiers who evaded service on the border (thus potentially having to shoot at their compatriots) by fleeing to the West.³³

Twelve days after the construction of the Wall began, the first fatal shots were fired at the border. In the afternoon of 24 August 1961, 24-year-old Günter Litfin attempted to flee to West Berlin via the S-Bahn line near the Charité hospital to West Berlin.³⁴ Litfin lived and worked in West Berlin and had been visiting his family in the East. He was shocked to find his way back to the West suddenly blocked. He began to look for a way to get back home. Through a barrage of fire, the border guards tried to dissuade the defenceless swimmer from his intention, then they aimed at his head. He was hit and disappeared under the water. A little while later, he was pulled from the water – dead. Günter Litfin was the first victim to be shot at the border. He was, however, not the last. Until the fall of the Wall, refugees tried again and again to overcome the barriers, despite the deadly threat.³⁵

Citizens from West Berlin were still permitted to enter East Berlin in the days immediately after the Wall was built. Many took this opportunity to smuggle friends and relatives back over the border using West Berlin papers and passports. Passes for West Berliners visiting the East were made obligatory on 23^rd August.

This rule was made obsolete on 25^th August after the Allies and West Berlin Senate refused to set up GDR permit offices. There was no further direct contact between citizens in the East and the West until the first border-pass agreement was made in December 1963. Only those in possession of a West German passport and foreigners could cross the border – or refugees who used forged papers. Others escaped to West Berlin via sewage systems – until the sewers were also blocked up with metal bars. But imagination in finding escape routes knew no bounds.³⁶ Holes and weak points were constantly searched for. Refugees disguised as foreigners took the interzonal train to ferries bound to Scandinavia. Cars were converted, people concealed in cases, diplomats won over to help with escape attempts, paths made over East Europe and hot air balloons built.

The digging of escape tunnels under the border fortifications was spectacular.³⁷ However, of around 70 tunnel projects, only a quarter were successfully used. There were also arrests and fatalities among the escape helpers. For each escape route discovered, measures were taken to increase security and perfect the border installations.

Memorial for Günter Litfin in Berlin-Mitte

© Archiv Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung