Conrad Schumann

Hans Conrad Schumann, also known as Konrad Schumann (28 March 1942 – 20 June 1998), was an East German Bereitschaftspolizist who escaped to West Germany during the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.

Early life Born in Zschochau (now part of Jahnatal) during World War II, Schumann enlisted in the Volkspolizei-Bereitschaft, a paramilitary unit of the East German police, following his 18th birthday. After three months of training in Dresden, he was posted to a non-commissioned officers' college in Potsdam, after which he volunteered for service in Berlin.

Escape to West Germany

On 15 August 1961, 19-year-old Schumann was sent to the corner of Ruppiner Straße and Bernauer Straße to guard what would become the Berlin Wall on its third day of construction. Schumann and his unit arrived at 4:30 a.m., where an officer ordered them to "take control and protect the border from the enemies of socialism." Schumann later recalled: "We stood around looking pretty stupid at first. Nobody had told us how that's done: taking control of a border." At the time, the barrier was a single coil of concertina wire.

Throughout the morning, Schumann became distressed by West Berlin residents shouting at him: "You pigs!" "You traitors!" "You concentration camp guards!" as he stood at his post.

Schumann moved from West Berlin to West Germany, and settled in Bavaria. In 1962, he met and married Kunigunde Gunda in Günzburg, had a son, and began a new job at a winery. Schumann subsequently worked at the Ingolstadt Audi factory until his death in 1998.

Later life and death

Until the fall of the Berlin Wall, Schumann feared that the Stasi would try to assassinate him. After the fall of the Wall Schumann said, "Only since 9 November 1989 [the date of the fall] 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. When he returned to East Germany after the reunification to visit his relatives, he was rejected by them, as they saw him as a traitor who had abandoned his family.

On 20 June 1998, suffering from depression, he died by suicide, hanging himself in his orchard near the town of Kipfenberg in Upper Bavaria. His body was found by his wife a few hours later.

In May 2011, the photograph of Schumann's "leap into freedom" was inducted into the UNESCO Memory of the World programme as part of a collection of documents on the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Monument

A sculpture called Mauerspringer ("Walljumper") by Florian and Michael Brauer and Edward Anders could be seen close to the site of the defection, but has since been moved to the side of a building on Brunnenstraße, several meters south of Bernauer Straße.

Literature Christoph Links: Schumann, Conrad. In: Wer war wer in der DDR? 5. Ausgabe. Band 2, Ch. Links, Berlin 2010.

Motion pictures The 1982 Walt Disney movie Night Crossing's pre-opening credits scenes include footage of Schumann's escape before the Wall's completion.