Fritz Maque

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Fritz Maque (born August 7, 1898 in Berlin ; † October 31, 1948 there ) was a sergeant in the Berlin People's Police . He was the first people's police officer to be killed on the Berlin sector border after the split in Berlin.

Life

Maque had already joined the Berlin police, newly established by the Soviet occupying forces under Police President Paul Markgraf ( KPD ) in May 1945 . He lived with his wife on Straßmannstrasse in the Friedrichshain district in the Soviet sector . When the Berlin police split up, Maque Markgraf remained loyal to the East Berlin police.

The Oberbaum Bridge in 1950, the Groebenufer in front . This and the pillar supporting the subway tracks on the right were already in the American sector

The fatal incident

Maque was on duty at Police Station 86 in Berlin-Friedrichshain . Because of the blockade of the western sectors of Berlin , a strong smuggling operation from East to West Berlin had developed since the late summer of 1948 , where the smuggled goods could be sold for Westmark .

On October 30, 1948, Maque controlled vehicle traffic to Kreuzberg in the American sector as part of a sudden action with two other people's police officers on the Oberbaum Bridge in Friedrichshain . In the evening hours, an apparently surprised driver drove his 1.5-ton delivery van past the first post that was busy with a control and then headed for the second, which gave stop signals with a lamp. While this guard was able to save himself by jumping to the side, the maque, which was also giving stop signals a few meters behind him, was approached at around 40 km / h and dragged along. After driving about ten meters from the radiator, Maque slipped under the vehicle and was run over by it. With the lights now off, it drove into the western sector. The driver was able to shake off an East Berlin car coming from there that had turned on the bridge and started chasing.

Maque, who had broken bones and a head injury, was admitted to the Friedrichshain hospital. On October 31, he died from his serious injuries.

The by several witnesses consistently read off East Berlin license plate of the van turned out to be fake and not Maque nor the other policeman had a personal description can give the driver. Despite numerous references from the population and the temporary arrest of a suspect, the East Berlin homicide squad was unable to clarify the identity of the perpetrator, nor whether he wanted to evade police control with murderous intent or in panic. The investigation had to be finally stopped in April 1949.

The consequences

Maque was buried on November 8, 1948 after laying out and a funeral service on Comeniusplatz in the Baumschulenweg cemetery . The organization and process of the solemn funeral were obviously intended to trump that of the 15-year-old student Wolfgang Scheunemann , who was shot by a police officer on September 9, 1948 not far from the Brandenburg Gate. The East Berlin celebrations probably became models for the celebrations that were to take place in West Berlin in January 1953 in honor of the police officer Herbert Bauer , who was shot by Soviet soldiers .

Without being able to provide evidence, the SED propaganda and the Marxist-Leninist historiography of the GDR described Maque's death as an “act of terrorist violence”, for which they blamed “provocateurs recruited by secret services” or “anti-socialist organizations and groups”. The attribution can also be found in a publication of former senior officials of the Ministry for State Security from 2002.

literature

  • Ulrich Pfeil , Corine Defrance , Bettina Greiner (eds.): The Berlin Airlift. Cold War memorial site . Ch. Links, 2018 ISBN 978-3-86153-991-9 , pp. 163-166.
  • Fritz Maque . In: Gerhard Sälters, Johanna Dietrich, Fabian Kuhn: The forgotten dead. Fatalities of the GDR border regime in Berlin from division to the building of the Wall (1948–1961) . Ch. Links, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86153-933-9 , pp. 239–241.
  • Michael Stricker: Last deployment. Police officers killed on duty in Berlin from 1918 to 2010 , Verlag für Polizeiwissenschaft, Frankfurt 2010, ISBN 3866761414 , (= series of publications by the German Society for Police History, Volume 11), pp. 200–202.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Message from the central organ of the SED, Neues Deutschland from November 9, 1948
  2. ↑ Gerhard Sälter: The Soviet blockade and the border regime in Berlin. From contemporary media discourses to collective memory of the Cold War . In: Corine Defrance , Bettina Greiner , Ulrich Pfeil (eds.): The Berlin Airlift. Cold War memorial site . Links, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86153-991-9 , pp. 163-165.
  3. ↑ In this sense on Maque Gerhard Keiderling, Percy Stulz: Berlin 1945–1968. On the history of the capital of the GDR and the independent political unit West Berlin . Dietz, Berlin 1970, p. 172
  4. ↑ Reinhard Grimmer, Werner Irmler Willi Opitz , Wolfgang Schwanitz (ed.): The security. For the defense work of the MfS . Edition Ost, Berlin 2003 (3rd corr. And supplementary edition), ISBN 3-360-01044-2 , vol. 2, here p. 279
personal data
SURNAME Maque, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German policeman in Berlin (East), killed on duty
DATE OF BIRTH August 7, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH October 31, 1948
Place of death Berlin