Hans-Jürgen Starrost
Hans-Jürgen Starrost (born June 24, 1955 in Berlin ; † May 16, 1981 in Potsdam ) was a victim of the Berlin Wall . While trying to escape from the GDR , he was shot by a people's police officer near the border.
Life
After an apprenticeship at VEB Tiefbaukombinat Berlin as a construction worker, Starrost started his service in the National People's Army , which he finished at the age of 22. His subsequent professional life was restless. In addition to various job changes, he was assigned to work collectives in which he was to be re-educated. This was followed in 1979 by an eleven-month prison sentence for "impairing public order and security", which he served until October 1980 in the Rüdersdorf penal institution and the attached cement works. After his release, he was obliged to take on a regular basis at the precinct of the People's Police to report.
On one of his calls on April 7, 1981, he learned from the clerk's wife that he was being searched for and that he was threatened with another sentence. Starrost decided to avoid imprisonment by going into hiding. To do this, he went to the nearby community of Teltow on April 13, 1981 , to visit a former army comrade, whom he did not meet. In a bar he decided the following night to try to escape from the GDR .
During the night he went to the border and tried to get over the hinterland fence with a stolen metal ladder. Several border guards became aware of him. Starrost was hiding on a nearby property, but was discovered there. When he tried to run away, one of the soldiers managed to grab him and restrain him. A people's policeman who was present shot at rigid rust, hit him in the abdomen and seriously injured him. During the interrogation by the Ministry for State Security (MfS), the people's policeman stated that rigid rust was released from the soldier's grip and attacked him. The shot was unintentionally released.
The border guards did not take the injured Hans-Jürgen Starrost to a hospital, but to the district administration of the MfS in Potsdam for questioning. The interrogation had to be interrupted several times because of medical measures. After the interrogation Starrost was taken to the city's army hospital, which did not have an intensive care unit . There his condition deteriorated significantly. When Starrost was finally transferred to the intensive care unit of the district hospital, he succumbed to his injuries there on May 16, 1981.
literature
- Hans-Hermann Hertle , Maria Nooke: The victims of the Berlin Wall 1961 - 1989. A biographical handbook. Edited by the Center for Contemporary History Potsdam and the Berlin Wall Foundation. Links, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-517-1 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Starrost, Hans-Jürgen |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German casualty from the Berlin Wall |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 24, 1955 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 16, 1981 |
| Place of death | Potsdam |