Horst Kutscher (July 5, 1931 – January 15, 1963) was a German coal apprentice and
the 36th person to die trying to cross the
Berlin Wall from
East Berlin to
West Berlin
West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...
.
Early life
Kutscher was born on July 5, 1931, in
Treptow
Treptow () was a former borough in the southeast of Berlin. It merged with Köpenick to form Treptow-Köpenick in 2001.
Geography
The district was composed by the localities of Alt-Treptow, Plänterwald, Baumschulenweg, Niederschöneweide, J ...
, the fourth of 13 children to a mechanical engineer and a flower seller.
Biography
In April 1956, he fled to West Germany, with his wife and children later following him. A year later, he and his family returned to
Berlin-Treptow. He worked as a
"border-crosser" in the West until the border was closed in August 1961.
Death
On January 15, 1963, at the border near Rudower Strasse at the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln, Kutscher slid under the barbed-wire fence and then along the security trenches with 25 meters left when he was fatally shot in the head.
After the collapse of East Germany, Kutscher’s ex-wife was a witness in the trial against the guard who shot Kutscher. In August 1997, the former guard was sentenced to one year and three months' probation.
See also
*
List of deaths at the Berlin Wall
There were numerous deaths at the Berlin Wall, which stood as a barrier between West Berlin and East Berlin from 13 August 1961 until 9 November 1989. Before the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, 3.5 million East Germans circumvented ...
*
Berlin Crisis of 1961
References
External links
*
Berlin Wall Memorial - Horst Kutscher
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kutscher, Horst
1931 births
1963 deaths
Deaths at the Berlin Wall
People from East Berlin
Deaths by firearm in East Germany
People from Treptow-Köpenick
East German defectors