Michael-Horst Schmidt

Michael-Horst Schmidt (born October 20, 1964 in Bernau near Berlin ; † December 1, 1984 in Berlin ) was a victim of the Berlin Wall .

Michael Horst Schmidt learned in the GDR the profession of carpenter and was busy road Schulze during a repair brigade in the area of Wollank- and. He was dissatisfied with the conditions in the GDR and the forthcoming military service, so he decided to cross the border. Out of consideration for his family, he did not want to submit an official application to leave the country .

On the evening of his escape, November 30, 1984, he met friends in a youth club on Grabbeallee . After drinking alcohol, he and a friend left the club and went to the border near the Berlin Wollankstrasse station on the Berlin S-Bahn . They took two ladders with them from Schmidt's workplace at Wollankstrasse 112 and went to the hinterland wall on the Schulzestrasse 23 property. Schmidt's friend broke off the project here and left him alone.

With one of the ladders he overcame the hinterland wall at around 3.15 a.m. the following day. Two members of the GDR border troops spotted him from their watchtower 200 meters away. One of the soldiers went in pursuit, the other launched volleys from his AK-47 in the direction of the refugee. Meanwhile, Schmidt overcame the signal fence and placed his ladder on the last wall. As he climbed it, he was hit by the gunfire of the approaching soldier - he was about 100 meters away - and fell from the ladder. Border guards recovered the refugee, who had been hit in the back and knee, and took him to a watchtower. An hour later he was taken to a hospital where he bled to death.

The border guards Udo Walther and Uwe Hapke were rewarded by the GDR with a medal for exemplary border service and a bonus of 200 marks, but reprimanded for their increased ammunition consumption of 50 rounds. In reunified Germany, they were sentenced to probation for the shooting.

Web links

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