The Leap to Freedom That Had Consequences

By Robin Itzler

Editor's Note:  This is one of the commentaries selected from Robin's weekly newsletter Patriot Neighbors. Any cartoons appearing will have been added by me.  If you wish to get the full edition,   E-mail her at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com to get on her list, it's free.  RK

Whatever country they live in, most soldiers are proud to serve their nation. In 1961, this German soldier was caught on film jumping up and it went viral—for what could be considered “viral” in those days, there's even a statue of him where he made his jump in Germany.

Following Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II, Germany was divided into East and West. The West was controlled by the United States, France and Great Britain. East was controlled by the Soviet Union. By August 1961, 2,000 East Germans were easily walking over to the West side daily. Some just to visit family, others making a permanent move. To stop the hemorrhaging, on August 13, East Germany put up barbed wire barriers along the border, the precursor to the infamous Berlin Wall.

Two days later, 18-year-old East German police officer Konrad Schumann was guarding a section of the barrier at the corner of Bernauer Strasse and Ruppiner Strasse. Peter Leibing, a 19-year-old photographer was on the West German side. He noticed Schumann’s nervous pacing and chain smoking. 

He also picked up on how when there was a commotion that attracted the attention of other guards’, Schumann switched his loaded submachine gun for an unloaded (and lighter) gun. There was just something about Schumann that made Leibing keep watching him.  About an hour later, Schumann made a jump for freedom and Leibing caught the exact moment!

Schumann was the first East German soldier to desert. He regularly wrote to his family in East Germany (letters were read by the infamous Stasi police). When the Wall came down on November 9, 1998, Schumann reunited with his family. However, he was greatly disappointed that his East German relatives rejected him for jumping. They viewed him as a traitor who had abandoned his family.

Depressed throughout his life, he never fully came to terms with his historic story. Sadly, in 1998, Schumann committed suicide at age 56, leaving no note for his wife or son.