Heinz Cyrus

Heinz Cyrus (born June 5, 1936 in Greifswald , † November 11, 1965 in Berlin ) was a victim of the Berlin Wall . While fleeing from members of the GDR border troops , he fell from the fourth floor of a house in Berlin-Mitte.

Life

After he was born, his mother, an unmarried nurse, put the boy in a children's home. Foster parents took him to Dreschvitz on the island of Rügen in 1943 . There he attended elementary school and then completed an apprenticeship as a milker. He married his wife in 1954, with whom he had four children. In October 1956, he was sentenced to imprisonment for beating a People's Police Officer. After his release, he took over a farm in Teschvitz in 1957 . The family joined an agricultural production cooperative in 1959 . Heinz Cyrus became deputy chairman of the LPG. A spy betrayed him to the Ministry of State Security because of statements in a drunken state . This resulted in a conviction in 1960 for “pest activity” to a prison sentence of seven years by the Rostock District Court. Among other things, he was accused of hounding SED members and deliberately causing damage to the LPG. Following an amnesty decree by the GDR State Council, he was released in September 1964. His marriage was divorced while in detention. Heinz Cyrus settled down on Rügen again and took up a job with a field brigade. Another assault conviction followed.

On November 9, 1965, he said goodbye to his foster mother under the condition that he was going on vacation. On November 10, 1965, at around 9 p.m., Heinz Cyrus crawled towards the border near the Nordbahnhof in Berlin-Mitte . A guard dog noticed his presence and struck. The alerted border guards called people's police for reinforcement and cordoned off the area. Heinz Cyrus continued on his way until he was taken under fire. He fled to the house at 85 Gartenstrasse. The house was surrounded and searched. On his escape, he climbed out of a fourth-floor window and shuffled along the gutter. He fell and broke several bones, including his skull . The border guards took him to the People's Police Hospital , where he underwent emergency surgery. Heinz Cyrus died the following morning.

MfS employees visited the foster parents and the divorced woman five days later. The legend of the Stasi is that he jumped out of the window after a passport control. After the German reunification, the Berlin public prosecutor started investigations into the death. The proceedings ended on October 6, 1993 because the public prosecutor did not see any requirements for criminal prosecution.

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

• Portrait of Heinz Cyrus at chronik-der-mauer.de