Chris Gueffroy
Chris Gueffroy (born June 21, 1968 in Pasewalk ; † February 5/6, 1989 in Berlin ) was the penultimate fatality on the Berlin Wall and the last victim to be killed by the use of firearms.
Life
Chris Gueffroy went to school in Berlin from 1975 to 1985. During this time he also attended the sports school of SC Dynamo Berlin , where he practiced gymnastics as a competitive sport . From the 6th to the 10th grade he attended the 20th Polytechnic High School " Otto Buchwitz " in Berlin-Johannisthal . From 1985 to 1987 he was trained as a waiter in the hotel at Berlin-Schönefeld Airport . Here there were confrontations with superiors due to the political situation in the GDR . His desire to leave the GDR was reinforced by several trips to his circle of friends. In addition, there was the draft for basic military service , which was initially supposed to take place in autumn 1988, but was then postponed to May 1989.
Chris Gueffroy had heard from a border guard friend that the order to shoot at the wall had been lifted. He saw this as an opportunity to flee to avoid serving in the National People's Army .
On the night of February 5th to 6th, 1989, he tried to escape through the Britzer connecting canal from Treptow or Berlin-Baumschulenweg ( East Berlin ) to Neukölln ( West Berlin ) together with his friend Christian Gaudian , approx. 2 km away from his residence at Südostallee 218 in the Treptow district of Johannisthal . Before they had overcome the last metal mesh fence, the two refugees were discovered by border guards from the GDR and they were under fire. Gueffroy was hit by two bullets, one of which hit his heart. He died in the border strip. Gaudian was arrested seriously injured.
One day after the death of her son, Chris Gueffroy's mother was driven to the East Berlin police headquarters in Keibelstrasse to “clarify a matter”. Only after the interrogation was she informed: “Your son committed an attack on a military unit. Your son died a few hours ago. ”The funeral service followed by urn burial took place at the Baumschulenweg cemetery in field U 13/531.
Legal aftermath
During the GDR era
The four border guards involved were awarded the border troops' badge and 150 marks each by the head of the central border command, Erich Wöllner .
Gueffroy's friend, Christian Gaudian, was sentenced three months after the shooting, on May 24, 1989, to three years' imprisonment by the Pankow District Court for "attempted illegal border crossing in a serious case". Gaudian was ransomed by the Federal Republic and released to West Berlin on October 17, 1989.
After the German reunification
After the unification of the two German states , the Berlin public prosecutor brought charges against the four border guards directly involved on May 27, 1991 in one of the first wall rifle trials at the Berlin district court . The court acquitted two of the defendants' in January 1992, free and imposed an additional one for parole suspended penalty. Ingo H., who fired the fatal shot in the heart, received a three-and-a-half year prison sentence for manslaughter . After a successful appeal at the Federal Court of Justice , the 1994 judgment was reduced to two years with probation. The other three defendants were acquitted. The SED functionary Siegfried Lorenz was convicted of aiding and abetting murder.
Commemoration
After the fall of the Wall, Gueffroy's grave was repeatedly desecrated. On June 21, 2003, Gueffroy's 35th birthday, a memorial stele for Chris Gueffroy was erected on the banks of the Britzer connecting canal. The memorial comes from the Berlin artist Karl Biedermann . This stele for Gueffroy is a representative reminder of the other victims of GDR injustice.
A cross from the White Crosses Memorial on the bank of the Reichstag commemorates Chris Gueffroy. Britzer Allee between Treptow and Neukölln was renamed Chris-Gueffroy-Allee on August 13, 2010.
In 2011 the documentary The Short Life of Chris Gueffroy by the film director Klaus Salge was released .
literature
- Roman Grafe : German Justice . Trials against GDR border guards and their commanders . Munich: Siedler, 2004. ISBN 3-88680-819-X
- Christoph Left: Gueffroy, Chris . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
Web links
- Der Spiegel 27/1991: Tactically Smart and Correct (Protocols on Shooting Orders and Flight from the Republic, Part II)
Individual evidence
- ^ Roman Grafe, "German Justice: Trials against GDR border guards and their commanders" (pg 12), September 21, 2004, Siedler, ISBN 978-3-88680-819-9
- ^ Roman Grafe: German Justice , p. 13.
- ↑ Site plan of the cemetery with details of the sacrificial grave in the 9th section
- ↑ Sebastian Scholz: Street commemorates Chris Gueffroy , a victim of the Berlin Wall , Tagesspiegel, July 12, 2010.
- ↑ The short life of Chris Gueffroy , website of the Federal Foundation for Coming to terms with the SED dictatorship
- ↑ The short life of Chris Gueffroy , February 3, 2019, rbb-online.de
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gueffroy, Chris |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | last fatality due to the use of weapons on the Berlin Wall |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 21, 1968 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pasewalk |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 5, 1989 or February 6, 1989 |
| Place of death | Berlin |