Ulrich Steinhauer

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Ulrich Steinhauer (born March 13, 1956 in Behrenshagen ; † November 4, 1980 in Schönwalde ) was a border soldier in the GDR . He was shot dead by a comrade who fled from the border troops and is believed to have been killed on the Berlin Wall . His grave is in the Ribnitz cemetery .

Life

Memorial stele Ulrich Steinhauer general view.jpg
Ulrich Steinhauer memorial stele Detail.jpg
Ulrich Steinhauer memorial stele Detail Karte.jpg


Memorial steles for Ulrich Steinhauer on the Berlin Wall Trail
Steinhauer's grave in Ribnitz-Damgarten

Ulrich Steinhauer came from a large working-class family from Behrenshagen in the Ribnitz-Damgarten district . After attending primary school in Behrenshagen and secondary school in Damgarten, he learned the trade of a carpenter . After completing his apprenticeship in 1973, Ulrich Steinhauer worked as a skilled worker in the agricultural inter-company facility ( ZBE ) in Damgarten. For eighteen months of military service he was called up in November 1979 in the border training regiment 40 in Oranienburg . From May 1980 he was deployed in the Border Regiment 34 in Groß Glienicke . It is known from letters to his family members and documents from the Ministry for State Security that Ulrich Steinhauer longed for the end of his military service and told superiors in the border troops that he would only be prepared to use the firearm in an extreme emergency.

After his promotion to private, Ulrich Steinhauer was assigned to the border between Schönwalde ( Nauen district ) and the West Berlin district of Spandau on November 4, 1980, together with the border soldier Egon Bunge, as a bicycle patrol. Steinhauer was the post leader. The 19-year-old Bunge had intended to flee for a long time. The border strips were put together in new pairs for each duty, which was supposed to prevent border guards from being able to arrange to escape together. Shortly after 4 p.m., Bunge decided to put his escape project into practice. Unnoticed by his post leader Steinhauer, Bunge pulled a plug and switched off the acoustic border reporting network. Then he drew his service weapon and reloaded it. Egon Bunge shot Ulrich Steinhauer five times from a distance of about 26 meters, a shot in the back was fatal. On the following escape to the west, Bunge left his service weapon behind.

In West Berlin Bunge to the authorities and was in the same day remand taken. In the fall of 1981, he was sentenced to six years imprisonment under juvenile justice, the sentence was later reduced to four years and nine months probation. In fact, Bunge only served 20 months in prison. The sentence met with outrage among Steinhauer's relatives. After the escape, the government of the GDR submitted an extradition request to the Federal Republic, which was rejected. For its part, the West Berlin public prosecutor's office submitted a request for legal assistance to the GDR government.

Sign on Ulrich-Steinhauer-Straße in the Groß Glienicke district of Potsdam

Ulrich Steinhauer's death was exploited for ideological purposes in the GDR despite his reserved attitude towards the border service and against the will of the relatives. Steinhauer was promoted posthumously to NCO and received awards. Two polytechnic high schools , one in Ribnitz , the other in Schönwalde, were named after Ulrich Steinhauer in the GDR. In the Groß Glienicke district of Potsdam, Ulrich-Steinhauer-Strasse still commemorates the dead. Since Steinhauer was serving in the border troops of the GDR at the time of his death, the appropriate form of remembrance for him - as well as for the other border soldiers killed on duty - was the subject of controversy. In Schönwalde-Glien, on the 50th anniversary of the construction of the Wall in 2011, the memory of Ulrich Steinhauer and the refugee Dietmar Schwietzer, who was shot in the area of ​​the Stone Bridge in 1977, were honored together.

The death of Ulrich Steinhauer and the events that followed were thematized in a documentary by Dirk Simon ( Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk , 2004: The Case B. and the Stasi's plans for revenge ), an English-language long version of the documentary was published under the title Between the Lines .

literature

Hans-Hermann Hertle , Maria Nooke : The Fatalities at the Berlin Wall 1961-1989. A biographical manual . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-517-1 , p. 466-470 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed June 8, 2013]).

Web links

Commons : Ulrich Steinhauer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Steinhauer. Berlin Wall Memorial, accessed June 8, 2013 .
  2. ↑ For the definition cf. Fatalities at the Berlin Wall. Chronicle of the Wall, accessed June 8, 2013 .
  3. ^ Martin Ahrends, Udo Baron, Hans-Hermann Hertle: Steinhauer, Ulrich, border soldier killed in service. Chronicle of the Wall, accessed June 8, 2013 .
  4. ↑ The bereaved accuse: My brother was a victim! (No longer available online.) SUPERillu, July 29, 2009, formerly in the original ; Retrieved June 8, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.superillu.de  
  5. ↑ The eyes wet with anger. The death limit of the Germans (III): GDR hero cult around 25 soldiers and police officers . In: Der Spiegel . No. 28 , 1991, pp. 114 ( online ). Quote: "Ursula Steinhauer, the mother of the victim, commented at the time: 'I see this as a mockery of the lives of hopeful young people.'"
  6. ^ Joachim Nawrocki: Deadly border incident. Bunge is not delivered . In: Die Zeit , No. 47/1980
  7. ↑ Thorsten Denkler: Wall Memorial Day. “Border guards can also be victims”. Maria Nooke, deputy head of the Berlin Wall Memorial, on the difficult handling of border guards killed on duty in the GDR. sueddeutsche.de, May 17, 2010, accessed June 8, 2013 .
  8. ↑ PHARUS PLAN Potsdam. Pharus Publishing House, 2013, accessed June 8, 2013 .
  9. ↑ Katrin Aue: New dispute over the Wall Memorial - Who is the victim, who is the perpetrator? rbb Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg, June 17, 2009, accessed June 8, 2013 .
  10. ↑ Central memorial event in Schönwalde-Glien. 50th anniversary of the construction of the wall - monument project presented. CDU Landesverband Brandenburg, August 16, 2011, accessed on June 8, 2013 .
  11. ↑ Case B. and the Stasi's plans for revenge on Vimeo , duration 43:56 minutes, accessed on March 3, 2017
  12. ↑ Between the Lines ( Memento of the original from December 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on Vimeo , duration 1:21:46, (technical opening credits 01:40) accessed on March 3, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / vimeo.com
  13. ^ The case of B. and the Stasi's plans for revenge (2004). crew united, accessed June 8, 2013 .
  14. ^ Between the lines (2004). crew united, accessed June 8, 2013 .
  15. ^ Christian F. Ostermann, Kristina Terzieva: Between the Lines: A Documentary Film. Wilson Center, November 9, 2007, accessed June 8, 2013 .
personal data
SURNAME Steinhauer, Ulrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German border soldier of the GDR, victim of the wall
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1956
PLACE OF BIRTH Behrenshagen
DATE OF DEATH November 4th 1980
Place of death Schönwalde-Glien