Chris Gueffroy (21 June 1968 – 6 February 1989) was the last person to be shot and the second-last to die in an escape attempt while trying to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin across the Berlin Wall.

Biography

thumb|Südostallee 218, Johannisthal, Treptow, East Berlin. Last residence of Berlin Wall victim Chris Gueffroy.

thumb|Close-up of Chris Gueffroy's grave, April 2014, at the Baumschulenweg Friedhof/Neuer Städtischer Friedhof in Berlin-Treptow

Chris Gueffroy was born in Pasewalk, Bezirk Neubrandenburg (present-day Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) on 21 June 1968. As a waiter, his income was better than average, and he had a strong degree of freedom, but he was disgusted by the widespread corruption in the restaurant business. His friend Christian Gaudian, whom he had met at gastronomy school, shared his feelings. At twenty, he found it increasingly unbearable to think that he would remain locked up with the knowledge that it would always be this way and that he would never have the freedom to decide for himself where he wanted to live. In mid-January 1989, upon learning that he was to be conscripted into the National People's Army the following May, he and Gaudian decided to leave East Germany.

Death

Gueffroy and Gaudian based their decision to try to flee over the wall on mistaken beliefs that the Schießbefehl, the standing order to shoot anyone who attempted to cross the wall, had been lifted (it had not), and that the Swedish prime minister Ingvar Carlsson was to pay a state visit to East Berlin (he had already left when they attempted their escape). Their attempted escape from East Berlin to West Berlin, along the Britz district canal, would take place on the night of 5–6 February 1989, about two kilometres (1¼ miles) from what would be Gueffroy's last residence on Südostallee 218, Johannisthal, Treptow, East Berlin. Climbing the last metal lattice fence, the two were discovered and came under fire from the NVA border troops. Gueffroy was hit in the chest by two shots and died in the border strip. Gaudian, badly but not fatally injured, was arrested and was sentenced on 24 May 1989 to imprisonment of three years by the Pankow district court for attempted illegal border-crossing of the first degree ("versuchten ungesetzlichen Grenzübertritts im schweren Fall"). In September 1989 Gaudian was freed on bail by the East German government, and on 17 October 1989 he was transferred to West Berlin.

The four border guards involved at the time at first obtained an award (Leistungsabzeichen der Grenztruppen) from the chief of the Grenzkommandos Mitte border guards, Erich Wöllner, and a prize of 150 East German Marks each. However, after the reunification of East and West Germany, they were prosecuted by the Berlin regional court. Two of the former border guards, Mike Schmidt (now a millwright with two children), and Peter Schmett (now an electrician with three children), were acquitted and released in January 1992, because the presiding judge, Theodor Seidel, ruled that they "did not kill and did not intend to kill". A third former border guard, Andreas Kuehnpast (now unemployed), received a suspended sentence of two years. The fourth former border guard, Ingo Heinrich (now an electronic engineer), who was responsible for the mortal shot in the heart, was at first sentenced to three and a half years of jail. On appeal, the Bundesgerichtshof (High Court of Justice) in 1994 reduced the penalty to a suspended sentence of two years. Written and directed by Brandon Ashplant and produced by Jonathan Tammuz, the film features Cameron Ashplant as Chris Gueffroy.. The film had its German Premiere at the DDR Museum in Berlin, and regularly screens at the Museum's exhibition cinema - including on the 5th February in commemoration of Gueffroy's death.

See also

  • Sven Hüber
  • List of deaths at the Berlin Wall
  • Berlin Crisis of 1961

References

Memorials

Memorials to his death are located in the "White Crosses" memorial, next to the Reichstag building, in the "Window Of Remembrance" of the Berlin Wall Memorial in Berlin and near the former scene of the attempted escape, on the Teltow Canal.

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File:Chris Gueffroy.jpg|Commemorative tablet to Chris Gueffroy. In the background is the partly destroyed Wall, near Reichstag. Winter 1989/90.

File:Chris Gueffroy Stele Berlin.jpg|Monument erected in 2003 at the Britz district canal in Berlin's Treptow-Köpenick borough.

File:Chris Gueffroey Stele Distant.JPG|Distant view of the Chris Gueffroy Steele, showing what was Chris' "letzte Blick" (last view) as he attempted to escape from Berlin.

File:Chris Gueffroey Gedenktafel Front.JPG|Berliner Mauerweg memorial to Chris Gueffroy, looking from Chris-Gueffroy-Allee, a few hundred meters from where he attempted his escape in 1989.

File:Chris Gueffroey Gedenktafel Rear.JPG|Berliner Mauerweg memorial to Chris Gueffroy, looking towards Chris-Gueffroy-Allee, a few hundred meters from where he attempted his escape in 1989.

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  • Short Portrait of Chris Gueffroy at chronik-der-mauer.de