Udo Düllick

Memorial plaque on May-Ayim-Ufer, in Berlin-Kreuzberg

Udo Düllick (born August 3, 1936 in Werder ; † October 5, 1961 in Berlin ) was one of the first to die on the Berlin Wall . He drowned while escaping in the Spree between Berlin-Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg near the Oberbaum Bridge .

Life

Düllick studied engineering and was employed by the Reichsbahn . He still lived with his parents in Werder, east of Berlin . There he grew up with his older brother in a Catholic family. The father remarried after the mother's death. His brother went to West Germany in 1959.

On the evening of October 5, 1961, he attended a company party for the Reichsbahn. There he got into an argument with a superior, from whom he is said to have torn off the shoulder pieces of the Reichsbahn uniform. He was then released on the spot. Around midnight he took a taxi to Berlin's Osthafen and jumped into the water there. While he was swimming west, the border guards first fired warning shots. Finally, they shot the fugitive specifically. He drowned without being hit. The West Berlin fire brigade recovered the body of the refugee, whose name was still unknown.

During the escape, West Berliners watched what was happening. However, they had to stay on the quay wall because the Spree at that point completely belonged to East Berlin. The day after his death, hundreds of West Berliners gathered on the Gröbenufer for a funeral service. Udo Düllick's brother, who lives in the west, identified the body after the family suspected that the unknown corpse could be Udo Düllick. There is still a memorial stone on the banks of the Gröben, which was erected on Eternity Sunday 1961. A cross from the White Crosses Memorial on the bank of the Reichstag commemorates Udo Düllick.

literature

• Christine Brecht : Udo Düllick , in: The victims of the Berlin Wall 1961–1989 , Berlin 2009, pp. 51–53.

Web links

Commons : Udo Düllick  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

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