Peter Fechter Remembered

[ImaginalDisc]

I happened to be reading the Wikipedia article on the Berlin wall, and I came across this bit.

Quote:

Peter Fechter Remembered

On the 18th of August 2007, artist S Mark Gubb staged an outdoor live re-enactment of the death of Peter Fechter. The event, held in Greenwich London UK attended by around 100 people was not only held in remembrance of Peter Fechter but also as "... metaphor for today’s forced migration of many thousands of people due to economic, political and civil unrest" (Richard Brooks, The Sunday Times 19th August 2007). The scene was reconstructed with actors playing border guards from East Berlin and West Berlin, Helmut Kulbeik and Dominik Danielewicz (http://www.adproductionsfilms.com/dominik.htm) playing Fechter. The event was filmed and will be screened at a later date at the ICA.

Considering the real Peter Fechter died while no one did anything, this reenactment leaves me feeling somewhat queasy, which probably means it's a good idea.

Non-Wiki source, for Wiki-haters.

[Darth Rotor]

Originally Posted by ImaginalDisc

I happened to be reading the Wikipedia article on the Berlin wall, and I came across this bit.

Considering the real Peter Fechter died while no one did anything, this reenactment leaves me feeling somewhat queasy, which probably means it's a good idea.

Non-Wiki source, for Wiki-haters.

From the article:

Seriously wounded, he lay a few yards short of the wall shouting for help. Having seen what had happened, hundreds of citizens of West Berlin gathered, shouting demands at the GDR guards and American soldiers to help Peter, but they did nothing.

I am trying to figure out what American soldiers were supposed to do, ID, with Peter on the East Berlin side of the wall. Were they supposed to jump into East Berlin and get shot at, and thus start a fire fight with the Volkspolizei? I don't think the Commander of the Berlin Brigade was going to permit that, if it could be helped, since starting fights with the East Germans was not part of his mission.
FWIW, the VoPos were not kindly disposed toward the folks on the West side of the wall. (It's a wiki cite, so take with such salt as you find necessary.)

Quote:

When the army and the Volkspolizei erected the Berlin Wall in 1961, it was declared by the East German leadership that it would protect East Germany against the negative elements of Western society, particularly fascist sympathizers (the wall was officially called the "anti-fascist protection rampart") and help on the way to a crime-free workers' state.

This partially came true. In comparison to West Germany, East Germany had almost no crime. This was largely because the Volkspolizei and the Stasi were ruthless in their pursuit of real and alleged criminals and did not have to follow the same procedures as Western police forces.

Maybe an American medic with the standard red-cross-on-white arm band (were one assigned to the guard post) could have been asked to go help him. If you look at how the Wall worked, as a system, the East Germans would have had to agree to let an American into their territory to help Peter. If a medic jumps the wall and renders aid, he is likely to get riddled with bullets if either a slightly trigger happy VoPo doesn't recognize the arm band, or if the local guy in charge of the VoPos has standing orders to shoot people crossing into East Berlin without authorization.

Your post and the link raises a very interesting question: what were the communication procedures between the East and West authorities at the time? Could someone call, on a phone or a radio, right away and ask, plea, for assistance to be rendered?

From a practical point of view, the Volkspolizei were in a position to render aid, and chose not to. What a shame. Why is it significant to note that the "American soldiers did nothing." What were they supposed to do? They were constrained from acting on the East side, the side where they had zero authority to be.

DR

[RandFan]

One can't help but wonder the mob didn't do something? Perhaps it was the guns of the East Germans.

[Gurdur]

Originally Posted by RandFan

One can't help but wonder the mob didn't do something? Perhaps it was the guns of the East Germans.

The East German guards along the wall had strict orders to shoot to kill. Moreover, since guards would later shoot and kill others in similar incidents, and the wall was there between the mob and the wounded fleer, it's hardly surprising.

[Gurdur]

Originally Posted by Darth Rotor

....Your post and the link raises a very interesting question: what were the communication procedures between the East and West authorities at the time?

Tense, and over the official 4-power channels.

Quote:

Could someone call, on a phone or a radio, right away and ask, plea, for assistance to be rendered?

Not as far as I know. It would have had to go to a 4-power channel. The East Germans and Russians loved making it as official and bureaucratic as possible.

Quote:

Why is it significant to note that the "American soldiers did nothing." What were they supposed to do? They were constrained from acting on the East side, the side where they had zero authority to be.

American soldiers did what they could all during that time; starting WW3 by going over the Wall was probably far too much of a demand on them. Seriously, if they had gone over the Wall, it would have started a REAL firefight, and they knew it; the Wall in Berlin remained extremely tense throughout the 1960's and 1970's.

[Daylight]

What is interesting is the cold war wan't as cold as people think. He's a list of aircraft shot down

http://users.skynet.be/Emmanuel.Gust...shotdowns.html

Amazing WW3 never started

[RandFan]

Originally Posted by Gurdur

The East German guards along the wall had strict orders to shoot to kill. Moreover, since guards would later shoot and kill others in similar incidents, and the wall was there between the mob and the wounded fleer, it's hardly surprising.

Yeah, that is the point I'm trying to make.

Sometimes a mob can do much more than a few soldiers with guns (like the American or West German soldiers and police). If the mob wanted people to risk their lives to save another perhaps they the mob should have put their own lives at risk.

Still, it is tragic.

[Beerina]

Originally Posted by Darth Rotor

From the article:

Quote:

This partially came true. In comparison to West Germany, East Germany had almost no crime.

I am eternally astounded how people see "no crime" in a society where massive crime is entrenched in the very government itself? What is a dictatorship but a mafia organization that has seized control?

Eh, a death is a tragedy. A million deaths, a statistic.

[Gurdur]

Originally Posted by RandFan

... If the mob wanted people to risk their lives to save another perhaps they the mob should have put their own lives at risk.
....

Agreed. Fully agreed.

[Beerina]

It's also interesting that lying there, dying, just out of reach probably helped sway more opinion against communism than had he escaped. This was a period in history where many people, including many in the West, felt communism was a viable "system".

Fifty years later, seeing just the results of substandard living of "the masses" (and neglecting issues of freedom, which it must do), the defenders are few and far between, and are pushed into a corner making claims it isn't real communism, much like defenders of religion are pushed into a corner making claims God can hide, and has a desire to do so.