Otfried Reck
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Otfried Reck (born December 14, 1944 in Berlin ; † November 27, 1962 there ) was a victim of the Berlin Wall . Together with two friends he wanted to escape from the GDR through the north-south tunnel , but was discovered by members of the GDR border troops and fatally injured by a shot in the back away from the border.
Life
Otfried Reck was born in Berlin in 1944 as the son of a men's tailor and a waitress who came from Austria and grew up on Torstrasse . Thanks to his mother's work at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden , he was able to attend the events regularly and had the desire to become an opera singer. After graduating from school with secondary school leaving certificate, he began an apprenticeship as a gas station attendant . After work, he spent his time in the roller-skating rink - where the fatal shots later fell - on Invalidenstrasse and a youth club across the street. After participating in a demonstration in Gartenstrasse, the then 16-year-old was arrested on September 12, 1961 for agitation that was dangerous to the state and sentenced to a prison sentence of 18 months, which he served until August 1962 in Dessau. After his release, he saw no future in the GDR and decided to flee to the West.
Together with his friends Gerd P. and Michael M., on November 27, 1962, he went to a barred entrance to the north-south tunnel on the site of the closed north station . Their plan was to stop a train on S-Bahn line 2 on its journey from West Berlin to West Berlin through the GDR with a red-painted flashlight and then flee to the West. They were discovered around 6:30 p.m. by a transport police officer stationed in the tunnel , who alerted a search party. Michael M. separated from the two and subsequently remained missing. When the two remaining refugees discovered their persecutors, they fled back to East Berlin and went to the roller skating rink. The search party followed them up there. In the roller skating rink, a second lieutenant shot Otfried Reck and hit him in the back. He died in a hospital three hours later.
His companions Michael M. and Gerd P. were sentenced to three years' imprisonment in the GDR. After German reunification, the shooter was sentenced to two years' imprisonment on probation in a wall rifle trial before the Berlin district court on November 14, 1995 .
literature
- Christine Brecht : Otfried Reck , in: The victims of the Berlin Wall 1961–1989 , Berlin 2009, pp. 117–119.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Reck, Otfried |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German casualty from the Berlin Wall |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 14, 1944 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 27, 1962 |
| Place of death | Berlin |