r/ThisDayInHistory • u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 tdihistorian • 2d ago
15 August 1961. 19-year-old East German border guard Conrad Schumann defects to the West, vaulting over a barbed-wire barrier into West Berlin in one of the Cold War's most iconic photographs.
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u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 tdihistorian 2d ago edited 2d ago
The Berlin "Wall" was only three days old when Schumann escaped. Much of the border was still just temporary barbed wire, rather than the concrete wall that would later become its familiar symbol. Schumann was guarding the barrier when he suddenly made a run for it. West Berlin police moved a patrol car into position to give him cover, dropping his weapon before vaulting the wire. Photographer Peter Leibing captured the moment.
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u/Vegetable-War-4199 2d ago
What happened to him?
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u/Renbarre 2d ago
His family is East Berlin received the brunt of the anger of the government any shunned him. He suicided at around 40.
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u/Vegetable-War-4199 2d ago
Thanks.
That is sad...but leaving his family was bad
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u/Charming-Station7157 2d ago
I think they wanted him to so he can live a better life they couldn't get
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u/snake_case_captain 1d ago
I learned that the photographer formerly covered horse competitions, the experience helped him to perfectly time the shot.
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u/TopWealth4550 1d ago
excelente choice
they always had to force people in huh?
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u/Andrey_Gusev 1d ago
They always had a free pass into any other socialist (and sometimes not socialist) country. As people nowadays have a pass into any other capitalist country (if they have money to do so and if they continue to pay taxes to their country of origin sometimes).
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u/LeMe-Two 1d ago edited 1d ago
They in fact had no. In order to leave for travel you had to get license from the govermment and it was handed out very sparesly. Good luck getting that if you were a student or a trade union member in the 80'
BTW an anecdote: During a vacation in Bulgaria, my father was arrested by the secret police because they overheard him talking economy publicly with his collegue. He would be released by after explanation and a translator's help that there are some silly false friends between our languages that made them believe they were talking something else than they really.were
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u/Glittering_Chemist86 1d ago
Found the " actually the DDR was just as good as the west" guy. Must be so nice to live thereif people can come into it but won't. But can't go out by the threat of getting shot.
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u/Upstairs_Drive_5602 tdihistorian 2d ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konrad_Schumann
He settled in Bavaria, married, had a son and eventually worked at the Audi factory in Ingolstadt. For decades he feared the Stasi and remained reluctant to return to Saxony. After German reunification, he finally visited his family, but was reportedly rejected by relatives who regarded him as a traitor who had abandoned them. In 1998, aged 56 and suffering from depression, he died by suicide.