The Leap into Freedom is one of the most famous pictures of Berlin - taken on August 15th, 1961 by Peter Leibing.
Conrad Schumann was posted at the barbed wire to guard it but he decided to jump and gave photographers on the West Berlin side a signal. They understood his plan and the West Berlin Police positioned a car just a few meters from the wire and left the back door open.
The photographers pretented to take photos of the other guards so they turned around.
This was Schumann's moment and he jumped - when his old unit turned back around they saw how Schumann was driven away at high speed in a police car.
East German police first tried to portray it as a kidnapping but due to the broad press coverage in the West it was too hard to maintain this story.
Sadly the iconic image of Schumann jumping over the fence haunted him his entire life - he was in fear of the Stasi (State Security in East Germany similar to the KGB). He said he never regretted his escape but for unknown reasons he committed suicide in 1998.
He was the first GDR soldier to officially defect to the West.
#history #berlinwall #schumann #berlin #gdr #stasi #germany #eastgermany #escape
