2019 we honor Dieter Wohlfahrt

In the 30 th year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we honor Dieter Wohlfahrt. Because he is denied access to high school in the GDR, Dieter goes to school in West Berlin and commutes between the sectors. When the border becomes eventually closed, he remains in West Berlin and studies chemistry at the Technical University of Berlin. Already during his studies, he joins Dieter Thieme and Bodo Köhler and their students group of escape helpers. From then on, he helps former fellow students, relatives und acquaintances to escape the GDR through the sewage system. His Austrian passport makes it possible to go back and forth between the borders. As a ‘lid man’ his job is to travel to East Berlin and unobtrusively opens the lids of the sewage system for the refugees.

On December 9,1961 he drives with Elke C., Karl-Heinz Albert and another friend to Staaken to help the Elke C.’s mother to escape. Dieter Wohlfahrt is cutting the border fence with a bolt cutter, when Mr. C approaches then from the eastern side and calls for her daughter. Within no time, the GDR border posts open the fire. Karl-Heinz Albert manages to return to the West. Dieter Wohlfahrt collapses and remains motionless next to the border. The GDR border posts stops any rescue attempts by the West Berlin police and British military police are stopped by force of arms. From the East, he gets no help. He lies motionless at the same spot for more than an hour without showing any sign of life. Then he is carried away.


100 Meilen Berlin - Der Mauerweglauf |