West Berlin bystanders started to take notice.
Over the course of two hours, when no other soldier was watching, he pushed down the same section of wire. Schumann started to think that he should leave, especially after trucks arrived with concrete posts and steel plates. I didn't want to shoot and I wasn't supposed to." īefore Schumann was forced to act, more soldiers arrived in armored cars and pushed the crowd back with rifles fixed with bayonets. I was nervous and didn't know what to do. I thought: they're going to run over us right away. They shouted various slogans, including " Freiheit (Liberty)." Schumann recalled: "Suddenly the mass of people moved toward us like a living wall. Īround noon, a west Berlin crowd of about 1,000 demonstrators approached the wire at Schumann's post. The young lady apologized for not being able to visit, then motioned to Schumann and added, "Those over there, they won't let me cross anymore." Schumann started to reconsider whether he really wanted to spend the rest of his working life keeping his fellow citizens imprisoned. A young lady in east Berlin passed a bouquet of flowers over the top of the wire to an older lady in west Berlin, obviously the younger lady's mother, and wished her a happy birthday. "You pigs!" "You traitors!" "You concentration camp guards!" Throughout the day, as Schumann paced ten steps up and down, West Berlin residents shouted catcalls. Nobody had told us how that's done: taking control of a border." Īt that time and place, the wall was only a single coil of concertina wire. He and his unit arrived at 4:30 AM, where an officer ordered them to take control and protect the border "against the enemies of socialism." Schumann later recalled: "We stood around looking pretty stupid at first. On 15 August 1961, the 19-year-old Schumann was sent to the corner of Ruppiner Strasse and Bernauer Strasse to guard the Berlin Wall on its third day of construction. After three months' training in Dresden, he was posted to a non-commissioned officers' college in Potsdam, after which he volunteered for service in Berlin. Born in Zschochau (now part of Ostrau, Saxony) during World War II, Schumann enlisted in the East German Grenzpolizei (border police) following his 18th birthday.
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