Heinz Schäfer (born c. 1930/31) is a former

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

Stasi The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...

officer who was present during at least two significant European events of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, the

Berlin Crisis of 1961 The Berlin Crisis of 1961 () was the last major European political and military incident of the Cold War concerning the status of the German capital city, Berlin, and of History of Germany (1945–90), post–World War II Germany. The crisis cul ...

and the

Fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (, ) on 9 November in German history, 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, marked the beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain, as East Berlin transit restrictions we ...

Checkpoint Charlie

On 27 October 1961,

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and US forces confronted one another at Berlin's

Checkpoint Charlie Checkpoint Charlie (or "Checkpoint C") was the Western Bloc, Western Bloc's name for the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War (1947–1991), becoming a symbol of the Cold War, representin ...

, creating the potential for all-out war between the powers. Heinz Schäfer was an East German border guard at the time, and states that only by keeping calm did both sides avoid catastrophic confrontation.

Opening of the Berlin Wall

9 November 1989 marked the opening of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

. Schäfer—at the time a

colonel—claims to have been the first to open the wall, having ordered his men to deactivate the automatically triggered weapons at his Waltersdorf Chaussee/Rudow Chaussee border crossing, and then to have ordered the opening of the gate. His account places his actions hours ahead of Harald Jäger, who has long been recognized as the first East German officer to breach the wall, at the Bornholmer crossing. However, unlike Jäger's station, Schäfer's facility at Waltersdorf-Rudow was small and had no television coverage. Therefore, there is no confirming documentation of Schäfer's account. Jäger maintains that Schäfer is lying. Schäfer came forward with these conflicting claims during a 2009 gathering of school girls. If true, his actions would explain reports of East Berliners in West Berlin hours before the opening of Jäger's Bornholmer checkpoint. From accounts by both Schäfer and Jäger, the two made their decisions independently of one other, without orders from supervisors.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schafer, Heinz Stasi officers 1931 births People from Berlin Berlin Wall Living people 1989 in Berlin Cold War