Hermann Döbler
Hermann Döbler (born October 28, 1922 in Roderbeck , † June 15, 1965 in Kleinmachnow ) was a victim of the Berlin Wall . A member of the GDR border troops shot the West Berlin entrepreneur when he was crossing the border to East Berlin in a motorboat in the Teltow Canal .
Life
Hermann Döbler was drafted into military service at the age of 18. At the end of the Second World War he was in Berlin. There, the unskilled Hermann Döbler first worked as a messenger before he went into business for himself. He moved into a room in the city's Soviet sector. He met his wife Irene, with whom he had three children, in 1949. In Eberswalde he set up a haulage company until the family moved to Karlshorst , where they ran a car repair shop. After Döbler spontaneously helped a young woman to escape to West Berlin in 1958, he was sentenced to six months in prison. That did not prevent him from taking over a garage in Berlin-Steglitz in 1960 , where he registered a secondary residence. The construction of the wall separated him from his family, who fled to the West in hiding in May 1962 on a truck. However, his wife returned with the children because she saw the marriage as a failure.
Accompanied by 21-year-old Elke Märtens, Hermann Döbler went on a trip with his motorboat on June 15, 1965. From Wannsee they drove on the Havel and through the Griebnitzsee to the Teltow Canal , which partly belonged to the GDR area. Hermann Döbler wanted to drive to a water barrier and turn around there. He didn't know that the actual border was 100 meters from the barrier. Two border guards watched the boat from a watchtower on the southern bank of the canal. They felt provoked by the waving of the excursionists and decided to "use the firearm to destroy border violators". Without warning, one of the guards opened fire and continued to fire after the boat turned and headed back towards West Berlin. Hermann Döbler died in the boat, hit by four projectiles in the knees, upper body and head. His companion suffered a grazing shot in the head, which resulted in permanent damage.
The act led to public excitement in West Berlin. There were full-page reports on what had happened in the newspapers. Governing Mayor Willy Brandt spoke of "cold-blooded murder". Over 1000 people attended Hermann Döbler's funeral. In East Berlin, however, Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler spread that Hermann Döbler was known as a provocateur and had carried out targeted attacks against the Berlin Wall . Propaganda also exploited his multiple aids in fleeing the GDR .
After German reunification , the Berlin public prosecutor brought charges before the Berlin Regional Court against the two border guards and their platoon leader for murder and attempted murder. On November 16, 1993, the gunman was sentenced. He was sentenced to six years' imprisonment because the court concluded that he had acted willfully. This was one of the highest sentences imposed in a wall shooter trial.
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
- Portrait of Hermann Döbler at chronik-der-mauer.de
Individual evidence
- ^ The deaths on the Berlin Wall 1961-1989: a biographical handbook , p. 194, accessed on May 25, 2019
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Döbler, Hermann |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German casualty from the Berlin Wall |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 28, 1922 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Roderbeck |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 15, 1965 |
| Place of death | Berlin |