Christel and Eckhard Wehage

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An Interflug An-24 on a GDR postage stamp
Former Mitropa Airport Schönefeld Hotel, where the Wehages spent their last night before their death (Photo 2017)
Memorial stele for the couple Wehage and Lutz Schmidt on the Berlin Wall Trail in Altglienicke
Main entrance to the Westfriedhof in Magdeburg, where the Wehage couple is buried.

The couple Eckhard and Christel Wehage (Eckhard Wehage: * July 8, 1948 in Berßel , Harz , Saxony-Anhalt ; Christel Wehage: * December 15, 1946 in Wolmirstedt , Börde , Saxony-Anhalt; both: †  March 10, 1970 in the airport Berlin Schönefeld ) died after a failed attempt by the hijacking of a commercial aircraft of Interflug from escaping East Germany , by suicide.

Life

The young couple lived in different places in the GDR. As a member of the People's Navy , Eckhard Wehage was stationed in Peenemünde . His wife worked as a psychotherapist near Magdeburg. After they no longer expected to be allocated a common apartment in the near future in 1970, they decided to flee the GDR. Eckhard Wehage had tried to flee seven years earlier. The plan failed and he was sentenced to eight months in prison.

Attempted escape

As a soldier in the Volksmarine it was possible for Eckhard Wehage to steal two Makarow pistols from an armory unnoticed , which were easy to hide due to their compact size. The Wehage couple went to Berlin-Schönefeld Airport on March 10, 1970 . Since the passengers and luggage were less strictly controlled on domestic flights, they chose an Antonov An-24 for the hijacking , which was supposed to leave at 8 a.m. for Leipzig / Halle Airport . They managed to smuggle the two firearms in their hand luggage through the controls into the aircraft. In addition to the crew, there were 15 other passengers on board. Shortly after take-off, the couple threatened a stewardess and tried to land at Hanover Airport at gunpoint. The pilots locked themselves in the cockpit and alerted the security authorities. Under the pretext of lack of fuel, the pilots stated that they would evade to Berlin-Tempelhof Airport , turned off, but changed course without the knowledge of the hijackers to return to Schönefeld. When they noticed the deception, they shot several times at the cockpit door, which withstood the fire and could not be opened. They injured the pilot with a graze on the ear. After landing, Eckhard and Christel Wehage took their own lives due to the hopeless situation.

funeral

Their bodies were cremated in East Berlin. Her ashes were later buried in the Neustädter Friedhof in Magdeburg in the presence of their closest families. Seventeen years later, on August 26, 1987, her ashes were reburied in the urn community facility at Westfriedhof, also in Magdeburg; It is not known who arranged and carried out the reburial.

Aftermath

The Ministry of State Security invented a traffic accident as the cause of death. On March 11, the GDR press reported a terrorist attack at Schönefeld Airport.

In addition to the plane hijacking by the Wehage couple, there were three other attempts to leave the GDR by means of a hijacked plane.

Web links

Commons : Christel and Eckhard Wehage  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Hans-Hermann Hertle, Maria Nooke : The victims of the Berlin Wall 1961–1989. A biographical manual . Ch.links, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-517-1 , p. 285 ff .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Christel and Eckhard Wehage at chronik-der-mauer.de
  2. ↑ a b c d e Norbert Robers: The divided sky. In: Focus Online of August 21, 1995
  3. ^ The register of the Westfriedhof, Magdeburg.