Silvio Proksch

Memorial plaque , Klemkestrasse, in Berlin-Reinickendorf

Silvio Proksch (born March 3, 1962 in East Berlin ; † December 25, 1983 ibid.) Was a victim of the Berlin Wall . He was shot dead by a member of the GDR border troops while trying to escape .

Life

Silvio Proksch grew up in East Berlin and was a bricklayer . Unlike nine other siblings, he and his brother still lived with their parents in Berlin-Pankow .

On December 25, 1983, at around 7 p.m., the brothers left their parents' apartment, seriously drunk. Without ever having expressed any intention to flee or having made any preparations to flee, Silvio Proksch told his brother that he wanted to flee to West Berlin now, that everything "puked him". On the way to the Pankow III cemetery , which bordered the interior wall , his brother tried in vain to dissuade him from trying to escape. They parted when they had crossed the Bürgerpark Berlin-Pankow and Proksch climbed the opposite cemetery fence. Even before reaching the hinterland wall, he set off an alarm at a border signal fence at 7.30 p.m. A border soldier first fired two warning shots and called out to Proksch to stop. This continued on his way towards the wall. The border soldier then opened fire on the fugitive. Two shots tore through the right hip artery and the femoral vein. Left without medical help for a long time, Proksch bled to death. He was already dead when he was admitted to the People's Police Hospital at around 9:15 pm. The shooter was awarded the bronze medal of merit of the border troops of the German Democratic Republic .

Proksch's brother heard the shots and reported them to the family. On December 28, 1983, a sister of Proksch reported a missing person to the criminal police in Berlin-Pankow. The Ministry of State Security questioned several relatives of the deceased, denying Proksch's death and imprisoning the brother for more than two years for petty offenses. His death was not recorded in a death register. The family did not find out details of his fate until the reunified Germany . Proksch's body is considered missing.

The Berlin Regional Court sentenced the shooter to a suspended sentence of one year and nine months for manslaughter in November 1994, stating that Proksch would most likely have survived the injuries if treated immediately in a normal hospital.

literature

• Udo Baron : Silvio Proksch . In: Hans-Hermann Hertle , Maria Nooke : The victims of the Berlin Wall 1961–1989. A biographical manual. Links, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-517-1 , p. 402 f.

Web links

Commons : Silvio Proksch  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Brief portrait on www.chronik-der-mauer.de
• Memorial stone for victims of the Berlin Wall