Burkhart Veigel

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Burkhart Veigel (born March 24, 1938 in Eisfeld ) was one of the most successful escape helpers in the 1960s after the construction of the Berlin Wall . In 2012, he received the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon for his commitment to freedom.

biography

Veigel was born in Eisfeld / Thuringia in 1938. In 1940 his family moved to Schwäbisch Hall and in 1945 to Fellbach near Stuttgart

education

Burkhart Veigel graduated from high school in 1959 at the humanistic Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium in Stuttgart. He pursued his medical, law and philosophy studies mainly in West Berlin, where he passed the state examination in 1967 . In 1962 he was accepted into the German National Academic Foundation . In 1968 he received his doctorate in Munich. After the time as a medical assistant, he continued his specialist training as a trauma surgeon in Hanover and Tübingen, and then as an orthopedic surgeon in Tübingen.

job

In 1976 he settled in Stuttgart-Sillenbuch as an orthopedist, sports medicine specialist and manual therapist; In 2006 he handed the practice over to his son. From 1980 he was involved in the professional association of orthopedists, from 1985 as state chairman. From 1986 he developed software for medical professionals.

Escape assistance

From October 1961 he worked as an escape helper, first in the Girrmann group , later with his own group: he dug tunnels together with Harry Seidel . The "Doppelganger Tour" he developed at the Heinrich-Heine-Straße border crossing was never seen through by the GDR border police. The repertoire also included converting various cars into escape vehicles. Most famous was a Cadillac DeVille , in which the hiding place for the refugee was housed in the dashboard; he carried out the renovation together with Hasso Herschel . Burkhart Veigel helped about 650 people to flee to the West. He also maintained contacts with the CIA . He survived two kidnapping attempts by the Stasi unscathed. In 1969 he moved to Hanover with his wife. From 1970 he no longer worked as an escape helper.

Coming to terms with the SED dictatorship

Since 2007 he has been living in Berlin again to research his time as a refugee, the Cold War and the GDR. Since 2017, the federal foundation for coming to terms with the SED dictatorship has been awarding the Karl Wilhelm Fricke Prize annually , made possible by a donation from Burkhart Veigel.

Private

Burkhart Veigel was married from 1966 to 2003. He has three children and six grandchildren. From 1976 he played the violin and viola in the Stuttgart Orchestra Association, which he also organized from 1990 to 2008. His partner has been the writer Roswitha Quadflieg since 2012 .

Publications

  • Contribution in: BlackBox DDR - Untold lives under the SED regime. Eds. Ines Geipel and Andreas Petersen . Matrix Verlag, 2009.
  • as editor: Uwe Johnson : I didn't want to leave out any question. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2010.
  • Paths through the wall - escape aid and Stasi between East and West. Edition Berliner Unterwelten by Ch. Links Verlag, 2011/2019.
  • Free. Novel. With Roswitha Quadflieg . Europa Verlag, Munich 2018.
  • Contribution in: And where was it? 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall , published by Freya Klier , Herder Verlag, 2019.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karlen Vesper: Yes, times are tough. In: New Germany . June 17, 2017, accessed November 12, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Resisted the polemics. tagesschau.de, accessed on June 15, 2017.
  3. ^ Veigel CV
personal data
SURNAME Veigel, Burkhart
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German escape agent
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Ice field