Walter Hayn
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Walter Hayn (born January 31, 1939 in Breslau ; † February 27, 1964 in Berlin ) was a victim of the Berlin Wall . While trying to escape, he was shot dead by members of the GDR border troops in Berlin-Treptow.
Walter Hayn was born in Breslau in 1939. The family with five children - Walter Hayn was the second youngest - was expelled from Silesia towards the end of the Second World War and moved to Ebersbach near Dresden . Hayn's father did not come back from the war. After school he completed an agricultural training. After various activities in construction, he joined the People's Police in 1958 , which deployed him in East Berlin on the sector border. After leaving the police force in June 1961, a few months before the wall was built, he began to work on the construction again. Walter Hayn married and had a son. The couple, who lived in Berlin-Lichtenberg , were divorced in September 1963.
On the evening of February 27, 1964, he went to a pub at the garden colony "Sorgefrei" and drank some courage. In addition to identification documents, he also carried the address of his eldest brother, who fled to West Germany in 1950. He went to the border, overcame the hinterland fence and tried to get to the last border fence. At about 10:20 p.m., two guards spotted him, who called him to stop, and then opened fire. Another guard also shot the fleeing man from his watchtower. Two of the 17 shots fired hit Walter Hayn, one of them fatal.
The GDR authorities kept the circumstances of Walter Hayn's death secret from his relatives. According to the official version, he drowned. Only after the German reunification did details of the events become known. In 1995, the Berlin public prosecutor brought charges against the three shooters who were praised in the GDR for the offense at the Berlin district court . All three claimed that they had not aimed at the fugitive. In 1996, the court sentenced two shooters to suspended sentences of 18 and 21 months for acting collectively and accepting the death of Walter Hayn. The third shooter was acquitted in the wall shooting trial.
literature
- Hans-Hermann Hertle , Maria Nooke : The victims of the Berlin Wall 1961 - 1989. A biographical handbook. Edited by the Center for Contemporary History Potsdam and the Berlin Wall Foundation. Links, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-517-1 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hayn, Walter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German casualty from the Berlin Wall |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 31, 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Wroclaw |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 27, 1964 |
| Place of death | Berlin |