Ernst Mundt
Ernst Mundt (born December 2, 1921 in Bad Polzin , † September 4, 1962 in Berlin ) was a victim of the Berlin Wall . He was shot by a transport police officer while trying to flee to West Berlin via the Sophien cemetery in Berlin-Mitte .
Life
Ernst Mundt was born in Bad Polzin and completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter after school. In 1950 he moved to East Berlin looking for work. There he was involved in the construction of the Karl-Friedrich-Friesen-Stadium in the Volkspark Friedrichshain before he was unable to work for health reasons . After the wall was built, he lived separated from his relatives in Prenzlauer Berg on a disability pension. He only had contact with his mother in West Berlin by letter.
On September 4, 1962, Ernst Mundt rode his bicycle to the Sophien cemetery. He climbed the cemetery wall and balanced on it towards West Berlin, which began on Bernauer Strasse at the back of the cemetery. Shortly before he reached the end of the wall, two transport police spotted him. From their location on the grounds of the north train station, one of the two fired a warning shot and then a targeted shot at the fugitive about 100 meters away. The bullet pierced the head of Ernst Mundt, who died immediately and fell from the wall. After the death of Peter Fechter , a new order was issued after killed refugees had to be rescued immediately from the border area in order to hide them from the Western authorities and the press. Therefore, the transport and border police recovered the dead person and took him away. The shooter was awarded the medal for exemplary border service , with special praise for his handling of the weapon.
In West Berlin, the third dead man at the wall led to demonstrations and aggression against the border and its guards within 14 days, in which the police intervened. A memorial cross for the then unknown deceased was erected in Bernauer Strasse. A plate embedded in the sidewalk reminds of his death to this day.
literature
- Christine Brecht : Ernst Mundt , in: The victims of the Berlin Wall 1961–1989. A biographical manual. Links, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-517-1 , pp. 109-111.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mundt, Ernst |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German casualty from the Berlin Wall |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 2, 1921 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bad Polzin |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th September 1962 |
| Place of death | Berlin |