Klaus garden
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Klaus Garten (born July 19, 1941 in Radeberg ; † August 18, 1965 in Berlin ) was a victim of the Berlin Wall . A member of the GDR border troops shot him while trying to escape.
Life
He grew up with his mother and her second husband - his father was noticed during World War II - in the city of his birth. After school, he completed an apprenticeship as a body plumber. From 1959 to 1962 he served in the National People's Army , which stationed him in Stahnsdorf . After completing military service, he and his girlfriend moved into a gazebo in their hometown Schmachtenhagen . He worked there as a locksmith in a branch of the VEB Stahl- und Walzwerk Hennigsdorf and was active in the SED . Because of this commitment, he was excluded from the workforce of the company. His private situation made him even more uncomfortable. As a childless couple, he and his wife had no prospect of being assigned an apartment. Building materials for an extension of their arbor were scarce and - due to a lack of transport - not available for them. They would have had to wait ten years for a new car and used cars were too expensive. So they decided to buy an accident car that Klaus Garten wanted to repair.
On August 17, 1965, he drove to Teltow to look for an accident vehicle. When there was no prospect of success there either, Klaus Garten decided to leave the GDR. He went to the Teltow district of Seehof, which he still knew from his army days. There he climbed over the rear fence of the border fortifications around 9 p.m. He was discovered by a border guard 200 meters away who fired three shots at the fugitive and hit him in the thigh. A group of border guards later found him lying in the vehicle ditch at the border. In order to prevent a discovery by West Berlin police officers present, they did not take Klaus Garten to a hospital, but also went into hiding. Around 9:50 p.m. they transported him wrapped up in a tarpaulin and thus invisible to West Berliners. Finally they took the poorly bandaged person to the detention hospital of the Ministry for State Security in Hohenschönhausen, an hour away . There he died of his injuries the next day as a result of the high blood loss.
Klaus Garten's body was cremated on August 20, 1965 in the Berlin-Baumschulenweg crematorium , and the remains were buried shortly afterwards in the Schmachtenhagen cemetery.
The alleged gunman was investigated after the fall of the Wall, but the wall shooter trial was discontinued because only one warning shot could be proven.
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 | Garden, Klaus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German casualty from the Berlin Wall |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 19, 1941 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Radeberg |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 18, 1965 |
| Place of death | Berlin |