Winfried Freudenberg

Winfried Freudenberg ( born August 29, 1956 in Easter Wieck, † March 8, 1989 in Berlin) was killed while trying to escape in a balloon from East to West Berlin. He is the last deaths at the Berlin Wall.

Life

In preparation for his escape ( " flight from the republic " ), the trained electrical engineer Winfried Freudenberg had accepted a job at East Berlin's energy combine in the field of gas supply. In his apartment, he prepared together with his wife in front of a balloon filled with natural gas should serve as a means of escape.

After the weather had announced favorable conditions for the night of 7 to 8 March 1989, the couple drove to the site of a regulator station of the Berlin gas supply near the S-Bahn station Blankenburg. There they built the balloon, which consisted of several glued-together sheets of polyethylene over which a carrier network was curious together and filled it with natural gas. During the preparations they were observed by a passerby who alerted the people's police. The balloon was only half full, so he could only bear the weight of a person. Winfried Freudenberg's wife urged him to flee alone and they catch up later. She herself disappeared on foot and was arrested in front of her apartment building.

Winfried Freudenberg came with his balloon over the border to West Berlin. He flew several hours on West Berlin until he crashed on Berlin -Zehlendorf and succumbed to his injuries in the front garden of a villa.