← Back to the front page

This is What Life was Like in Communist East Germany

Tim Flight December 18, 2019 25 min

Berlin Wall - Checkpoint Charlie — A man peers over the newly-built Berlin Wall in August 1961. The Guardian

9. Around 140 people died trying to get over the Wall

Hans Conrad Schumann, an East German soldier, leaps over a barbed wire barricade to rejoin his family in West Berlin in August 1961. The Guardian

It’s hard to know for sure how many people died trying to escape across the Berlin Wall. Escapees knew the danger they faced, and the number of attempts bespeaks the desperate circumstances people faced in the GDR. Known victims range in age from 1 to 80. Some people committed suicide when they realized they’d failed. Most people died by accident when their attempts went wrong, but border guards shot about a third. The reunified Germany prosecuted several former soldiers for their actions in the 1990s. Today, a memorial to those who died trying to escape the GDR stands in Berlin.

Written by

Tim Flight

I am a freelance historical and literary writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. I read for a funded PhD in English at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and graduated in 2016. I am a former lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. My publications include peer-reviewed articles in academic publications, and pieces in mainstream magazines such as History Today and Fortean Times. For more information, please see www.drflight.co.uk