Conrad Schumann

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Conrad Schumann's escape
Sculpture on Bernauer Strasse

Hans Conrad Schumann (born March 28, 1942 in Zschochau , Meißen district , Saxony ; † June 20, 1998 in Oberemmendorf , Eichstätt district ) was one of the first border refugees after the construction of the Berlin Wall . As a media icon , the photo with the title Jump into freedom over a roll of barbed wire is one of the best-known images of the Cold War .

Life

Conrad Schumann was born in Zschochau near Döbeln and learned the profession of shepherd in Leutewitz near Meißen . In 1960/61 he served with the People's Police . After three months of basic training in Dresden , he was sent to the NCO school in Potsdam . Then he volunteered for the service in Berlin .

On August 15, 1961, he guarded the construction of the Berlin Wall at the intersection between Ruppiner and Bernauer Strasse , which had started two days earlier. That is why at that time the barrier at this point still consisted of 80 cm high rolls of barbed wire. Schumann pressed down a spot with his foot under the guideline to examine the rolls, which were drawn out into spirals on the sidewalk, often walked back and forth between his actual guard station and the wire, using a sense of proportion, and took the opportunity in an unobserved moment to jump over the barbed wire. While he was still jumping, he stripped off the shoulder strap of his submachine gun ( PPSch-41 ) in order to drop it, and ran on to a West Berlin police vehicle that was ten meters away , the crew of which had left the door open as protection because of their evidently recognizable intention to flee. which had encouraged him to take the risk.

The photographer Peter Leibing took the famous photo at the moment of the jump. He suspected that something unusual could happen, focused his Exakta camera with its 200 mm lens on the barbed wire fence and pressed the shutter release at the right moment when Schumann was over the fence. This image became one of the most iconic images of the Cold War. The entire scene, with Schumann's preparations for escape, was shot from the same perspective on 16 mm film by the cameraman Dieter Hoffmann.

Some time after the escape, Schumann moved to Edenhausen near Krumbach in the Günzburg district in Bavaria , where he met his future wife Kunigunde. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Conrad Schumann said: “It was only since November 9, 1989 that I felt really free.” Nevertheless, he felt more at home in Bavaria than in Saxony , where he feared tensions because of his act at the time. He even hesitated to visit his family there. All his life he feared the revenge of former employees of the former Ministry of State Security .

Schumann last lived in Oberemmendorf in Upper Bavaria and worked as a machine setter at Audi AG in Ingolstadt . On June 20, 1998 Conrad Schumann committed suicide .

literature

Web links

Commons : Conrad Schumann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Küpper: The leap of his life: the escape. (PDF) In: Wochenend-Journal, issue no. 257. Axel Springer Academy , November 7, 2009, archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; Retrieved December 8, 2013 .
  2. ^ Programm.ARD.de - ARD Play-Out Center Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany: Jump into freedom. Accessed January 30, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Conrad Schumann died . In: Der Spiegel . No. 27 , 1998, pp. 194 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Schumann, Conrad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schumann, Hans Conrad (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German border refugee from the National People's Army
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Zschochau , Saxony
DATE OF DEATH June 20, 1998
Place of death Oberemmendorf , Bavaria