Herbert Mende
Herbert Mende (born February 9, 1939 in Steinaugrund , Upper Silesia , † March 10, 1968 in Potsdam ) was a victim of the Berlin Wall . After visiting a club, a border police officer shot him in the back near Glienicke Bridge on the morning of July 8, 1962 when he was trying to catch a bus to Potsdam.
Life
Herbert Mende grew up with his two sisters in Steinaugrund. In 1945 the family fled to the Altmark without their father Franz, who was a British prisoner of war . After the release, the father followed. In 1957 the family moved on to Potsdam. After an apprenticeship as a floor layer, Herbert Mende worked there in the VEB Expansion Potsdam.
On the evening of July 7, 1962, Herbert Mende went to a youth club in the east of Potsdam near the border and the Glienicke Bridge. The drunk Mende left the club after midnight to take the last bus home. On the way to the stop, he passed the bridge's turnpike and had a short conversation with a border policeman who showed him the way to the stop. With the border at his back, Mende ran to the stop, gesticulating. He caught the attention of a People's Police patrol who wanted to control him. Instead of his ID, he only had a military service registration card with him. The People's Police decided to take him to the police station and took him to a guard house at the border crossing to be transported. While Mende was waiting in front of the door, the People's Police went inside.
When Herbert Mende saw the approaching bus, he said goodbye to the People's Police and, believing that the matter was over, ran towards the bus. He moved away from the border and ran back into the territory of the GDR. The people's police asked a border guard to use the firearm. After a warning shot, he fired two targeted shots at the running Mende and hit him twice in the back. The injured was admitted to a Potsdam hospital. The gunshot wound in the abdomen made him an invalid .
The GDR authorities described the incident as an accident without finding any individual guilt on either of those involved. Internal investigations criticized the behavior as tactically awkward and the use of firearms as unnecessary. The lawyer Mendes did not obtain any state compensation for him. Mende's insurance, who from then on received a disability pension of around 100 marks, refused to pay out benefits pending legal proceedings. In June 1966 he was awarded a total of 26,000 marks. Herbert Mende died on March 10, 1968 in Potsdam from the long-term effects of the gunshot wound.
After the German reunification , there were several preliminary investigations into the matter, all of which were discontinued because the shooter could not be proven to have intended to kill. Franz Mende objected to any setting.
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 | Mende, Herbert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German casualty from the Berlin Wall |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 9, 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Stone foundation |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 10, 1968 |
| Place of death | Potsdam |