Klaus Brueske

Klaus Brueske (born September 14, 1938 in Berlin ; † April 18, 1962 there ) was a victim of the Berlin Wall . When attempting to break through the sector boundary at the Heinrich-Heine-Straße border crossing with a truck, he suffered several gunshot wounds and suffocated in the sand after the truck hit a wall and the sand had gotten from the loading area into the driver's cab.

Life

He grew up with eight siblings in Berlin-Friedrichshain . After a broken bricklayer apprenticeship, he worked as a driver for AEG in West Berlin. After the Wall was built, he stayed in East Berlin and found a new job as a driver. Dissatisfied with the situation in the GDR, he and friends began to plan their escape. They decided to break through a border crossing with a truck from Brueske's company.

For an alleged move, Brueske borrowed a truck from his company on April 17, 1962 and loaded it with sand. In the evening he met six friends who wanted to take part in the attempt to escape. They drank courage in a pub. When they were about to go to the truck, they saw People's Police officers and parted to avoid attracting any attention. At the later meeting at the truck there were only three people who wanted to flee. Klaus Brueske got behind the wheel, Lothar M. took his place next to him. Peter G. lay down on the loading area. After midnight they drove towards the border crossing at around 70 km / h and broke through the first two barriers . A border soldier fired a total of 14 shots at the vehicle, which only came to a stop after the border line on a property wall. The injured refugees were taken to the Urban hospital. Brueske's death was found there. An autopsy on the body revealed that he had sustained two non-fatal gunshot wounds in the neck. He had suffocated in the sand that had gotten into the driver's cab from the truck bed when it hit the property wall.

The funeral took place in the West Berlin cemetery Lübars. The working group on August 13 , 1966 , set up a memorial cross for him and Heinz Schöneberger, who also died there, at the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse border crossing .

After German reunification, the Berlin public prosecutor brought charges against the border guard who fired the shots before the Berlin district court . In 1998 the court sentenced him to 14 months probation, a common sentence in wall rifle trials .

literature

• Christine Brecht : Klaus Brueske , in: The victims of the Berlin Wall 1961–1989 , Links, Berlin 2009, pp. 79–81.

Web links

• Brief portrait on www.chronik-der-mauer.de