Helmut Kliem
Helmut Kliem (born June 2, 1939 in Ebereschenhof , † November 13, 1970 in West Staaken ( Nauen district ), today Berlin-Staaken ) was a victim of the Berlin Wall . A member of the GDR border troops shot him dead when he got lost near the border.
Life
Helmut Kliem lived in Berlin with his wife and two children. He was sergeant major in the People's Police and the operation Protection of the locomotive and Electrotechnical factory in Hennigsdorf used.
On November 13, 1970, Helmut Klien met his brother after his night shift. Together they visited a restaurant in West Staaken and consumed alcohol there. They left at around 3 p.m. to pick up Helmut Kliem's wife and children from their place of work and the after-school care center. On his AWO motorcycle team, they missed the junction to the woman's job and accidentally drove to the border area. They stopped ten meters from a gate to the border area and turned. Neither of them responded to calls from the border guards as they moved away from the border. While the crew of a nearby watchtower did not intervene, a border guard guarding the gate decided to open fire on the motorcyclists. Of the seven shots that he reportedly fired at the tires, one hit Helmut Kliem's upper arm artery through the shoulder blade and one hit his brother's hand. The motorcycle stopped and Helmut Kliem got off. After a few steps towards the border guards, he collapsed. A local resident was prevented from providing first aid by the border guards. After an hour they were transported to the Staaken hospital. Helmut Kliem died there around 4.30 p.m. from his injuries.
Helmut Kliem's wife waited in vain for her husband and picked up the children herself from the after-school care center. In the evening she was visited by two strangers who asked questions about her husband. The next day, at the Potsdam district authority of the People's Police, she was informed that her husband was dead and that his body had already been cremated. Helmut Kliem's brother was held for three weeks by the Ministry for State Security . He and his sister-in-law were subsequently sworn to secrecy while the incident was publicly portrayed as an accident.
The incident would also have been punishable under the GDR Criminal Code, as there was no threat of a border breach. Nevertheless, the border guards involved were promoted. The shooter received the medal for exemplary border service . After German reunification , he had to answer in 1997 in a wall rifle trial before the Potsdam district court . For manslaughter in the offense with attempted manslaughter, he received a youth sentence of 20 months in prison, which was suspended.
Commemoration
There is a wall memorial at the site of the former Staaken border crossing . There four steles remember the eight dead Dieter Wohlfahrt , Peter Kreitlow , Adolf Philipp , Willi Block , Helmut Kliem, Klaus Schulze , Dietmar Schwietzer and Ulrich Steinhauer , who were killed on the border with the Spandau district .
literature
- Hans-Hermann Hertle , Maria Nooke , a. a .: The fatalities at the Berlin Wall 1961–1989. Edited by the Center for Contemporary History Potsdam and the Berlin Wall Foundation, Links, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-517-1 .
- Dietmar Schultke, “Nobody gets through”: the history of the inner-German border and the Berlin Wall; 1945–1990 , construction, Berlin 1999, ISBN 978-3-7466-8041-5 .
Web links
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kliem, Helmut |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German casualty from the Berlin Wall |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 2, 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ebereschenhof |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 13, 1970 |
| Place of death | Berlin |