Fechter Shot at the Wall: Cold War's Youngest Martyr

Peter Fechter was 18 years old when East German border guards shot him as he tried to climb the Berlin Wall on August 17, 1962. He fell back on the Eastern side, landing in a narrow strip between two barriers known as the death strip, and lay there bleeding and crying for help for nearly an hour. West Berlin police and American soldiers watched from the other side, unable to intervene without risking an international incident. East German guards eventually carried his body away. He became one of the Cold War's most powerful symbols of communist oppression. Fechter was a bricklayer from East Berlin who had planned his escape with a coworker, Helmut Kulbeik. The two young men hid in a carpentry workshop near the wall on Zimmerstrasse and waited for what they judged to be a quiet moment. They sprinted toward the barrier. Kulbeik made it over. Fechter, just behind him, was struck by gunfire from East German guards as he reached the top of the wall. He tumbled back to the ground on the eastern side. What followed was broadcast to the world. West Berliners gathered on their side of the wall, screaming at the guards to help the dying teenager. American military police at nearby Checkpoint Charlie were under orders not to enter East German territory. Western witnesses threw first-aid kits over the wall, which landed near Fechter but beyond his reach. He called out for help repeatedly, his cries growing weaker, until he lost consciousness. East German border guards retrieved his body approximately 50 minutes after he was shot. Fechter's death provoked outrage across West Berlin. Crowds of several thousand marched on Checkpoint Charlie, throwing stones at Soviet military buses. The incident intensified international condemnation of the wall, which had been erected just one year earlier. At least 140 people died attempting to cross the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989, but Fechter's death, because of its public nature and the agonizing wait, became the most infamous. A memorial now stands at the site on Zimmerstrasse where he fell.