Berlin Wall memorial (AFP Photo / Berthold Stadler)
Berlin Wall claims 3 more victims
Published 26 September, 2008, 10:28
Edited 25 September, 2009, 16:27
The Berlin Wall may have been dismantled in 1989 but the number of deaths attributed to the barrier continues to rise.
New research has added three more victims to the previous count of 133 people who are said to have lost their lives at the cold war boundary that once divided the city into four sectors that were controlled by the American, French, British and Russians respectively.
Ongoing examinations of hundreds of possible cases, carried out at the Potsdam Centre for Historical Research in conjunction with the Berlin Wall Memorial have raised the number to 136 and in doing so remind us of the human tragedy behind the barricade.
The three new victims illustrate how the wall affected everyone, regardless of age or circumstance.
The most heart-breaking story of the macabre additions concerns 6-year-old Andreas Senk. The boy and some friends were playing by the Spree River on a warm, late-summer’s day in September, 1966. Senk fell into the water from his perch in the Western Bank’s area of Kreuzberg. The banks belonged to West Berlin but the water Andreas was in belonged to East Berlin – his plunge effectively meant he crossed the border. His companions ran off to find help but on-lookers could not save the boy; knowing well that those attempting escape or seen to be attempting escape could be shot. He drowned in front of them.
Another of the three, 25-year-old Thomas Taubmann – managed to hide himself on a freight train in 1981 when it stopped momentarily while passing through the district of Pankow. Taubmann attempted to disembark before it passed through Berlin's western sector, only to die when jumping off. His demise was discovered by an engine driver who noticed a dark object on the track ahead.
The last addition, Ulrich Krzemien, drowned in 1965 while apparently trying to swim from west to east. Reports from the time claim the man, ‘most likely in a drunken state’, ran into trouble just twenty meters short of the East Berlin bank – his cries for help to an East German guard reportedly going unheeded.
The newly unveiled numbers are based on exhaustive investigations, analysis of archived files and contemporary witness interviews. Hans-Hermann Hertle, who led the research, said previous data was too low because it only counted the number of deaths caused through the application of force. The deaths of Sink, Taubmann and Krzemien were not as a result of arrest or capture but were due to the presence of the wall – and the toll could rise even further – an additional 16 suspicious cases are still to be examined.
Ciaran Walsh for RT
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