Rainer Balhorn
Rainer Balhorn (born June 25, 1955 in Stixe , Kaarßen municipality ; † December 18, 1970 near Hitzacker ) was a fatality on the inner-German border .
Life
Rainer Balhorn grew up in Stixe (today part of the Neuhaus district , at that time the Schwerin district ) near the inner-German border. He had an aunt in the Federal Republic of Germany whom he did not know personally, but to whom he wanted to flee together with his 14-year-old friend Reinhard B. Originally, they wanted to carry out their escape plan, which included swimming through the Elbe , only at the age of 18. To realize the plan, they practiced long swimming distances. Before the onset of winter in 1970, however, they decided to flee much earlier. Balhorn had only turned 15 that year. They packed plastic bags with their clothes and their FDJ ID cards and hid them.
On December 17, 1970, they tried to cross the more than 200 meters wide Elbe between Prilipp and Bitter (both now districts of Amt Neuhaus) at Elbe kilometer 525 at around 6 p.m. The two managed to swim through the 5 ° C cold water, but Balhorn reached the bank with difficulty and with the help of his friend. On the way, they lost their garment bags, which were soaked in water, and were therefore only dressed in their wet tracksuits. His friend left Balhorn on the west bank to fetch help. Reinhard B. was not discovered by a driver until around 8 p.m., also severely hypothermic and at the end of his strength, and brought to the customs office. A search for Rainer Balhorn was initiated, but it only led to success after hours. He was found unconscious only at 0:20 by a search party and died on the way to the hospital in Dannenberg to hypothermia .
His body was handed over to the GDR authorities on December 21, 1970 .
Web links
- Information on Rainer Balhorn can be found on the website of the SED State Research Association of the Free University of Berlin
- The story of the dead at the GDR border. The youngest victim was six months old ; KirchenZeitung ONLINE from June 8, 2017
- Study: Death at the Inner German Border: Hundreds of Fates ( Memento from June 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ); heute.de (archive version) from June 6, 2017
- Karin Toben: Weite Heimat Elbe - life paths on a river of fate , Hermann Lüers Verlag, ISBN 978-3-9813621-9-0
literature
- Karin Toben: Weite Heimat Elbe: Lives on a river of fate , Lüers Verlag, Jever 2011, ISBN 978-3981362190
- Jochen Staadt , Klaus Schroeder (ed.): The victims of the GDR border regime on the inner-German border 1949–1989. A biographical manual . Wissenschaftsverlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2017, pp. 305–306 ISBN 978-3-7425-0119-6 (licensed edition for the Federal Agency for Civic Education )
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Jochen Staadt , Klaus Schroeder (ed.): The victims of the GDR border regime on the inner-German border 1949–1989. A biographical manual. Wissenschaftsverlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2017, pp. 305–306 ISBN 978-3-631-72594-8
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Balhorn, Rainer |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German schoolchildren, fatalities on the inner-German border |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 25, 1955 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Stixe , municipality of Kaarßen |
| DATE OF DEATH | 18th December 1970 |
| Place of death | at Hitzacker |