"SPRUNG IN DIE FREIHEIT"
Conrad Schumann leaping over barbed wire into West Berlin on 15 August 1961.
Hans Conrad Schumann (1942 – 1998) was an East German soldier who famously defected to West Germany during the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.
On 15 August 1961, Schumann was sent to the corner of Ruppiner Strasse and Bernauer Strasse to guard the Berlin Wall on its third day of construction. At that time, the wall was only a low barbed wire fence. From the other side, West Berliners shouted to him, "Komm' rüber!" ("Come over!"), and a police van pulled up to wait for him. Schumann jumped over the barbed wire fence and was promptly driven away from the scene by the West Berlin police. West German photographer Peter Leibing photographed Schumann's escape. His picture has since become an iconic image of the Cold War era.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall Schumann said, "Only since 9 November 1989 have I felt truly free." Even so, he continued to feel more at home in Bavaria than in his birthplace, citing old frictions with his former colleagues, and was even hesitant to visit his parents and siblings in Saxony. On 20 June 1998, suffering from depression, he committed suicide, hanging himself in his orchard.
BERLIN WALL 🥀
13 August 1961 - 9 November 1989
