Name Hildegard Trabant | ||
Born 12 June 1927 ( 1927-06-12 ) Berlin Body discovered The closed S-Bahn tracks between the Schonhauser Allee and Gesundbrunnen stations52°32′58″N 13°24′07″E / 52.549483°N 13.401828°E / 52.549483; 13.401828 Resting place Friedhof Nordend, Berlin-Rosenthal.52°35′45″N 13°24′23″E / 52.595945°N 13.406458°E / 52.595945; 13.406458 Residence Tilsiter Strase 64, Berlin NO18 / 1020 Berlin, GDR Known for - One of eight women killed at the Berlin Wall- Probably the only Berlin Wall victim who was classified as an attempted escapee, yet was loyal to, and not critical of, the East German government. Died August 18, 1964, Berlin, Germany | ||
Hildegard Johanna Maria Trabant, née Pohl (June 12, 1927 in Berlin – August 18, 1964 in Berlin) was a German woman killed trying to cross the Berlin Wall.
Contents
Biography
Hildegard Trabant was born in Berlin and grew up there. She was loyal to the East German regime. At the age of 22, she joined the Socialist Unity Party in 1949, which was the same year that the GDR was founded; here, she was valued as an active party member. In 1954, she married Günter Horst Trabant, a People's Police officer, who was employed in the passport and registration division. The couple had no children, and because of a lower abdomen operation, she was unable to bear children. They lived in an apartment complex on Tilsiter Strasse 64 (today Richard-Sorge-Straße 64), near Frankfurter Tor, in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin. Possibly facilitating their residence there, she was a property manager in the Kommunale Wohnungsverwaltung Friedrichshain (a municipal housing administration). Whatever led her to attempt to flee East Germany was probably of a personal nature, involving domestic disputes, as well as assault and battery. She had several large clashes with her husband, which got the attention of his supervisors within the police force. At the time of her death, her mother was already dead, her father was in a nursing home in West Berlin, and with the exception of a Günter Pohl in Marl-Drewer, Kreis Recklinghausen, she had no other known relatives.
Death
On August 18, 1964, Günter Trabant reported to his office that he had not seen his wife since 7:00 AM the day prior, August 17, 1964, and that some of her clothes were missing. Also on August 18, 1964, at 6:50 PM, Hildegard Trabant attempted to cross the border between East and West Berlin. She was discovered by East German border guards and subsequently shot. She died about an hour later at the Krankenhaus der Volkspolizei (now the Bundeswehrkrankenhaus); she was 37 years old. In the presence of his superiors, her husband was either unable or unwilling to comment on circumstances which led to her attempted flight from East Germany.
Hildegard Trabant was one of only eight women killed at the Berlin wall, among the total of at least 140 victims, and one of only four women who attempted this crossing alone (the other four were with their husbands/partners). Further, of the at least 101 Berlin Wall victims that were classified as escapees/attempted escapees, she was the only one who was loyal to the East German regime.
Burial
Hildegard Trabant was buried on September 23, 1964 at the Frieden-Himmelfahrt Cemetery (now the Evangelischer Friedhof Nordend), north of Pankow, in Rosenthal. She was buried in a "linear grave", meaning, a grave which expired after the lawful regulated 20 years of resting allowed under GDR law without becoming a "family grave"—the family continues to maintain, or another family member is buried more recently there. This period of resting "expired" in 1984, and this particular section of the cemetery was rearranged. Her urn is still there, like all urns buried there, but it's now under another grave number, and under another name on the tombstone. Previously, her grave number was UH Him - 234a. The "new" grave number is UH Him - B102.
Aftermath
Unlike almost all other deaths at the Berlin Wall, Hildegard Trabant's death went totally unnoticed in West Berlin. It would be 26 years later (October 1990) when the 1964 East Berlin files were given to the German federal judiciary. After a lengthy trial, Kurt Renner, the guard who shot her, was found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to one year and nine months in prison, which was commuted later to probation. Also unlike almost all other deaths at the Berlin wall, it was obvious that when she was actually shot, she had abandoned her attempt to escape East Berlin, and was merely fleeing back towards the inner wall, to avoid arrest.