The last death on the Berlin Wall

Chris Gueffroy is shot dead attempting to cross the inner-German border

Just a few months before the (unforeseeable) opening of the Berlin Wall, two young men attempted to flee from East to West Berlin by swimming the Britz canal. On the night of 5 February, 1989, 20-year-old Chris Gueffroy and his friend Christian Gaudian attempted to scale a metal fence, mistakenly believing that the order to open fire on those seeking to cross the border had been suspended for the duration of a state visit from the west. Patrolling border guards were alerted to their presence and opened fire. Whilst Chris Gueffroy died immediately, his friend was seriously injured. Gueffroy was the last person to be killed attempting to cross the Berlin Wall.

Some 140 people died trying to escape from East to West Berlin between 1961 and 1989. A number of those responsible for the killings on the border were put on trial after German reunification. Of the four border guards involved in Gueffroy’s death, three were acquitted in 1994; the guard who fired the fatal shot was given a suspended sentence.