Conrad Schumann and a leap into history - Historic Berlin

Historic Berlin - www.historicberlin.com

Over the years, there have been quite a few iconic photographs taken of Berlin during the cold war, but the most famous has to be the daring mid-air leap to freedom by East German border guard Conrad Schumann.

At 4pm on 15 August 1961, two days after the Communist regime began erecting the Berlin Wall, the 19-year-old soldier entered the history books when he leapfrogged over a low barbed wire fence and into the arms of West German police officers.

He had been encouraged by a crowd of people on the West side of the street shouting “come over here”.

The remarkable moment was captured by a photographer Peter Leibing who was mingling with onlookers on the western side of Bernauer Strasse.

“Many people were standing around, and that was good, because they distracted my colleagues,” Schumann told journalists after the event.

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