Herbert Halli
Herbert Halli (born November 24, 1953 in Brandenburg an der Havel , † April 3, 1975 in Berlin ) was a victim of the Berlin Wall . When he entered the border area while drunk and fled back towards East Berlin, he was shot by a member of the GDR border troops . He died from his injuries an hour later in a Berlin hospital.
Life
Herbert Halli learned to be an electrical engineer after finishing school. He then did his service in the National People's Army in Torgelow . During this time he got married. His son was born shortly afterwards. After the marriage was divorced in 1974, he moved to East Berlin and after various positions took up a job at VEB Bau- und Montagekombinat / Ingenieurhochbau Berlin. In Berlin he founded an FDJ youth club and applied for membership in the SED .
On April 3, 1975 Herbert Halli worked for the first time on the construction site of the Palace of the Republic . At around 3 p.m., he and his colleagues began to celebrate his debut. He consumed large amounts of alcohol. He left the construction site at around 9 p.m. and took a bus to the border in Berlin-Mitte at the House of Ministries . He refused to get off the bus at the terminus. After an argument with the bus driver in which he lost his wallet, he ran towards the border fortifications. He climbed to about 21:45 on the hinterland wall , solving alarm. A border guard first fired a warning shot , which caused Herbert Halli to lie down on the ground and then run back to the hinterland wall. When he tried to climb over the hinterland wall again - this time in the direction of East Berlin - he was hit in the back by a shot from the AK-47 of another border guard. The injured man was taken to the People's Police Hospital, where he died around 10.45 p.m.
The incident was not noticed in West Berlin. Therefore, the Ministry for State Security (MfS) decided to cover up the incident and created the legend that Herbert Halli fell into an excavation on April 4, 1975 and was found there without papers. To do this, the MfS arranged for the People's Police to destroy all notes on the incident and to issue a false death certificate. A corpse find report was also forged. First of all, the MfS waited to see whether reports of the incident would become known in the West. After two weeks, employees of the ministry informed Herbert Halli's family.
The real circumstances of his death were only known after German reunification. The Berlin public prosecutor's office started an investigation, which in November 1996 culminated in a wall shooter trial against the shooter who had been awarded the medal for exemplary border service by the GDR . In July 1998, the manslaughter was sentenced to 12 months suspended prison sentence. The MfS also let the shooter believe that he had not killed Herbert Halli.
literature
- Hans-Hermann Hertle, Maria Nooke : The victims of the Berlin Wall 1961–1989. A biographical manual . Ch. Links, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-517-1 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Halli, Herbert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German fatality on the Berlin Wall |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 24, 1953 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Brandenburg on the Havel |
| DATE OF DEATH | 3rd April 1975 |
| Place of death | Berlin |