Siegfried Widera
Siegfried Widera (born February 12, 1941 in Silesia ; † September 8, 1963 in Berlin ) was a member of the GDR border troops who was fatally injured while serving on the Berlin Wall . Three refugees from the republic hit him and his post with an iron bar on August 23, 1963, causing him to suffer a fractured skull base .
Life
Siegfried Widera learned to be a lathe operator before volunteering for the border troops in 1960. In 1963 he married. His wife was expecting a child when he died.
On August 23, 1963, he was guarding the Berlin Wall near the Massante Bridge with a guard . Construction work was in progress in the area in close proximity to the border. Even after the end of the working day at 7 p.m., three construction workers were present working on an excavator. These three engaged the border guards in a conversation in the course of which they hit the two border guards with their fists and an iron bar. Then they ran to the blocked Massante bridge and overcame the wall. The second guard fired at the fugitives. Siegfried Widera was admitted to the Köpenick City Hospital with a fractured skull base, where he died 15 days later. He was buried in Gorenzen with military honors .
In divided Germany, the action met with different echoes. While Western media spoke of a sophisticated escape, the GDR media, including in New Germany , constructed the Girrmann group to be involved in the crime and established a connection to the deaths of other border soldiers Jörgen Schmidtchen , Peter Göring and Reinhold Huhn , who allegedly were murdered by the same backers. A real involvement of the Girrmann group could not be proven. In an internal report, the border troop leadership criticized the behavior of the two border guards, who had acted too carelessly and too trustingly. Widera's name was included in the memorial for killed border guards.
After the press reports of Widera's funeral, the public prosecutor's office in West Berlin started investigations against the three refugees who were hired in 1969. The Berlin public prosecutor's office resumed investigations in 1994 that were directed against the second guard who shot the fugitives. Since he was not fully conscious when the gunshots were fired from the beating, the prosecution closed the investigation that same year.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Widera, Siegfried |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German members of the border troops of the GDR who were fatally injured on duty at the Berlin Wall |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 12, 1941 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Silesia |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 8, 1963 |
| Place of death | Berlin |