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Seven meters.
In the end, only seven meters are missing.
Michael B. and Bert G. had done more than 20 times as much, but then a shot was fired and the two young men stopped.
The two wanted to flee to freedom, but did not want to risk their lives: They gave up and let themselves be arrested without resistance.
With this poorly resolved picture, West German newspapers reported on the failed attempt to escape
Source: Hamburger Abendblatt
A camera team from the SFB's “Abendschau” captured the escape attempt, which lasted a few seconds, and broadcast it that same evening.
Probably for this reason, the GDR agency ADN spread reflexively that the attempt to escape was "an action organized and ordered from Berlin (West)".
The allied protective powers in the free part of the city protested similarly reflexively against “this renewed use of force” by the GDR border troops.
A spokesman for the West Berlin Senate announced that it was "with dismay" that the SED dictatorship "even in broad daylight on a busy transition and accepting the risk of bystanders not before using this most brutal means of preventing freedom of movement" recoil.
The "Hamburger Abendblatt" reported on the last shot at the Berlin Wall in 1989
Source: Hamburger Abendblatt
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It was April 8, 1989, a warm and sunny spring Saturday.
Michael B. and Bert G., both 27, had come up with a daring plan: They wanted to sprint into a better future.
The way was short, only 150 meters.
So much lay on Chausseestrasse between the East Berlin district of Mitte in the south and the West Berlin district of Wedding between the marking of the restricted area, which GDR citizens were not allowed to cross, and the district border.
And because it was also a border crossing for cars, there were steel gates and barriers, but no fixed wall here.
After 150 meters they would be safe, the two friends had calculated.
In other words: 20 seconds separated them from a self-determined life.
They trained and completed countless speed sprints and hurdles.
They chose a Saturday morning because experience shows that the border was always busy.
Before they started, they warmed up in the World Youth Stadium.
At 9:30 a.m. Michael gave the command, they sprinted, jumped a barrier, had the goal in mind.
Symbol of division and unity
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The Brandenburg Gate was closed for 10,315 days - it has been open again for 10,315 days.
A look back at the division of Berlin in this historical place.
Source: Getty Images / Andrew Wakeford (2); Montage WELT
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August 13, 1961: Units of the National People's Army, the People's Police and the factory combat groups seal off the sector boundary.
The building of the wall followed.
Source: picture-alliance / akg-images
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1987: The wall became a graffiti area on the west side.
Source: Getty Images
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The night of November 9th to 10th, 1989: Cheering people on the wall - the border was opened a few hours earlier.
Source: picture alliance / dpa / Wolfgang Kumm
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Today: There are no more traces of the wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
Source: Getty Images
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In the investigation protocol of the Stasi it was said: "When the barrier had to be opened for motor vehicle traffic at around 9.30 am, both people ran into the area of the border crossing point." Uniform they wore, but from "passport control units" of the Stasi - reacted immediately: someone hit the alarm button, a siren howled.
Immediately the barriers and gates closed automatically.
Someone shouted: “Stop, stand still!” Nevertheless, Michael B. and Bert G. ran on.
Then a man in captain's uniform who was on duty in the last guardhouse in front of the white line tore out his pistol.
There was a cigarette in his mouth when he pulled the trigger.
When the two escapees heard the shot, they had the last barrier in front of their eyes.
Nevertheless, they now finished their sprint.
The young men had agreed beforehand to give up if there was any shooting.
Border guards immediately surrounded the two of them with Kalashnikovs and led them away.
This was followed by solitary confinement, a pre-arranged trial and sentencing to 20 months' imprisonment for “attempting to break through the border in a difficult case”.
Axel Springer newspapers headlined the construction of the Berlin Wall
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The plan to build the Berlin Wall was a state secret of the GDR.
When the border construction began on August 13, 1961, people and the press reacted with horror.
Source: Axel Springer AG
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It was a sunday.
Therefore, the "Bild am Sonntag" knew nothing.
Source: Axel Springer AG
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The wave of refugees from the GDR also dominated in WELT AM SONNTAG.
Source: Axel Springer AG
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The "Berliner Morgenpost", at that time at Axel Springer, immediately published a special edition.
Source: Axel Springer AG
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A special edition followed.
Source: Axel Springer AG
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The "BZ" also brought out an extra sheet in which there was talk of a - possibly temporary - blockade.
Source: Axel Springer AG
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Even in the regular editions, the largest newspaper in West Berlin had no other topic.
Source: Axel Springer AG
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"Bild" initially denounced the barrier ...
Source: Axel Springer AG
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... and in another issue reflected the mood of the Berliners.
Source: Axel Springer AG
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DIE WELT, at that time still in Hamburg, accused the SED regime.
Source: Axel Springer AG
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The most famous headline about the building of the wall was "Bild" on August 16, 1961.
Source: Axel Springer AG
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Actually, the captain shouldn't have fired at all. Because only five days earlier, the deputy GDR defense minister Fritz Streletz had called the three top officers of the border troops and announced that SED general secretary Erich Honecker had stated: “It is important to be aware - it is better to let a person run away than in the current political one Situation to use the firearm. "
This instruction was so important that the head of the border troops, Klaus-Dieter Baumgarten, immediately forwarded it to all the associations subordinate to him - but initially only verbally. The Colonel General expressly ordered "not to use the firearm in border service at the state border with the Federal Republic and Berlin (West)". On the following morning, April 4th, for the first time the many thousands of border guards on the early shift were no longer asked to prevent “escapes from the republic” with literally all means.
However, this instruction apparently did not reach the passport control at the Berlin border crossing at Chausseestrasse.
Because they belonged to the Stasi, not the border troops.
Perhaps that is why the captain believed that he still had all means to prevent “escapes”, including firearms.
Naturally, the path taken by Honecker's oral instruction cannot be precisely reconstructed.
New pictures from the construction of the wall in 1961
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Berlin in August 1961: a few days after the wall was built, the Fechner brothers set off with their father's cine camera and captured the construction of the wall in pictures.
The first rows of the new border are already on Bernauer Strasse between the districts of Wedding and Mitte.
Source: Berlin Wall Documentation Center
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West Berliners move to the border of the French sector ...
Source: Berlin Wall Documentation Center
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... where dramatic scenes occurred on and after August 13th.
Source: Berlin Wall Documentation Center
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East Berliners fled through windows or tunnels into the French sector.
Source: Berlin Wall Documentation Center
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The GDR leadership used heavy equipment at the Brandenburg Gate ...
Source: Berlin Wall Documentation Center
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... to cement the border.
Source: Berlin Wall Documentation Center
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On Liesenstrasse, not far from Bernauer Strasse, the gate was walled up insurmountably high with a dozen layers of stones.
Source: Berlin Wall Documentation Center
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In October, the Fechners were there when the so-called tank confrontation occurred at Checkpoint Charlie.
Source: Berlin Wall Documentation Center
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Soviet and American tanks came up and turned the cannons against each other.
Source: Berlin Wall Documentation Center
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On October 27, the cold almost turned into a hot war.
Source: Berlin Wall Documentation Center
However, the consequences are clear: after the escape on Chausseestrasse was prevented, the oral shooting order, which had been in effect since mid-August 1961, was revoked in writing on April 12, 1989.
"All subordinate associations", it said in the order, were "verbally instructed not to use the firearm in the border service to prevent border breaches";
the "not" was underlined for emphasis.
“Firearms may only be used when there is a threat to one's own life,” the order continued with a truism.
But armed escape attempts had always been the absolute exception;
they were almost exclusively found among GDR border guards and Soviet soldiers who had deserted, and in very few cases when they were trying to escape through tunnels.
Michael B. and Bert G. had to spend more than seven months in custody until they were released three days after the fall of the Berlin Wall on the night of November 9-10, 1989.
A high price for seven meters.
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This article was first published in April 2019.