Johannes Sprenger
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Johannes Sprenger (born December 3, 1905 in Greifenhagen , † May 10, 1974 in Berlin ) was a victim of the Berlin Wall . Members of the GDR border troops shot him while he was moving in the border area near Altglienicke .
Life
Johannes Sprenger learned the trade of road builder. Married in his second marriage, Johannes Sprenger lived in Lüttenhagen / Weitendorf. The father of nine children was already retired, but continued to work as a cooperative farmer. He was politically active, joined the KPD before 1945 , was active in the SED and had been a member of the municipal council since 1970. In the local elections in 1974 he ran again as a candidate for the National Front . As a pensioner, Johannes Sprenger was allowed to travel to West Berlin and the Federal Republic. He took advantage of this opportunity in both 1970 and 1972. Those around him did not know that he had lung cancersuffered. Johannes Sprenger himself did not get a clear diagnosis from his doctors either. In April 1974 he came to a clinic in Berlin-Buch . During a home visit three days before his death, he told his wife that he would return home in a coffin.
Together with two other patients from the special clinic, he went to the “Schlosskrug” restaurant on the afternoon of May 9th. At about 7.30 p.m. he left his company under a pretext. Border guards saw him at 0.40 a.m. on the border between Altglienicke and West Berlin . It is not clear how and why the sick pensioner who did not know the area covered the 30 km between Berlin-Buch and Altglienicke within the next five hours, and how he overcame the hinterland fence at the border. Border soldiers watched from their watchtower as Johannes Sprenger ran between the hinterland fence and the border signal fence in the direction of their watchtower without moving further towards West Berlin. When he was about 100 m from the watchtower, the border guards called him without success. When Sprenger had approached the tower to about 60 to 80 meters, the guard leader gave the order to shoot. His post released a burst of fire at Sprenger without a prior warning shot , which collapsed hit in the head and neck.
Nine days after his death, he was re-elected in local elections. At the time, only the Ministry of State Security knew of his death.
The Berlin Regional Court came in 2000 in a wall protecting process to the conclusion that he had entered the border area to be shot by border guards, and ordered the two perpetrators for communal homicide to prison terms of nine months on probation .
literature
- Hans-Hermann Hertle , Maria Nooke: The Fatalities on the Wall 1961–1989. A biographical manual. 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 | Sprenger, Johannes |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German fatality on the Berlin Wall |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 3, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Greifenhagen |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 10, 1974 |
| Place of death | Berlin |