Peter Fechter

Peter Fechter (January 14th 1944 † August 17th 1962 in Berlin), a mason of Berlin East, became at age the 18 years one of the first victims of the frontier guards of the Berlin Wall

Context

Berlin Wall

Died

One year after the construction of the wall, Fechter tried to flee the Democratic republic of Germany (RDA) with a friend, Helmut Kulbeik. Their plan consisted in hiding in a workshop of carpenter close to the wall in Zimmerstrasse then, having observed the guards borders of this place, to jump of a window until in the " death-strip" (the band of death, a ribbon of territory running between the principal wall and a parallel barrier from which construction came to begin); then it was necessary for them to pass through, and to climb the 2 m overcome of barbed wires of the wall separating them from the district Kreuzberg district (western Berlin), close to the checkpoint Charlie.

At the time to reach the wall, the two friends were taken for targets by the guards. Although Kulbeik succeeded in crossing the wall, Fechter, always above, accepted a ball in the basin, under the eyes of hundreds of witnesses. It fell down in the death-strip of the east coast, where it remained for the spectators ouestiens, of which journalists. In spite of its cries, it accepted any medical help, neither of the east nor of the west. He died one hour after, having lost too much blood. The crowd of western Berlin expressed spontaneously, treating " meurtriers" the guards borders.

The absence of medical intervention in Peter Fechter was allotted to a mutual fear: the passers by ouestiens were apparently prevented by the weapons from lending assistance to him (although according to a report/ratio of Times, an American second-lieutenant present on the spot of the incident accepted strict orders of the American commander in West Berlin to remain there and not to act). Just as the command of group GDR declared as it was afraid to intervene, because of an incident occurred three days earlier when a soldier of GDR, Rudi Arnstadt, had probably wiped the shooting of a soldier of the west. Nevertheless, guards GDR removed the body of Peter Fechter one hour after his fall.

Commemoration

A cross was placed west coast, close to the place where Fechter accepted the shot and died. On the invitation of Willy Brandt, then mayor of western Berlin, Yale Russian Chorus sang a German translation of the Ave verum Corpus of Mozart not far from the site, the following week. For the first birthday, Willy Brandt and the American commander Polk placed a floral crown there. After the German reunification of 1990, the memorial Peter Fechter was set up in Zimmerstrasse, at the place of the east coast where he died; it is since then a place-headlight of the commemorations which relate to the Wall. The shooting was the subject of number of documentary on television German. Cornelius Ryan dedicated its book " The Last Battle" with the memory of Fechter. The type-setter Aulis Sallinen composed orchestral work Mauermusik in order to commemorate Fechter.

Lawsuit

In March 1997, two East-German ex-guards, Rolf Friedrich and Erich Schreiber, were shown of manslaughter on Fechter. They were both condemned to one year of prison with testing period.

It as arose from the lawsuit as the assistance of the west coast had been made impossible, but according to a report/ratio of the medical examiner pathologist Otto Prokop, " Fechter did not have any chance of survival. The shooting in the right hip had caused serious wounds interns."

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