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Ida Siekmann

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Name
  
Ida Siekmann


Ida Siekmann Berlin Wall Memorial Ida Siekmann the first victim of

Born
  
23 August 1902 (
1902-08-23
)
Gorken

Cause of death
  
Leapt from fourth floor apartment window on Bernauer Strase to reach West Berlin

Body discovered
  
Bernauer Strasse 4852°32′25″N 13°24′10″E / 52.5402°N 13.4029°E / 52.5402; 13.4029 (Site of Ida Siekmann fatality)

Resting place
  
Urnenfriedhof Seestrase Berlin-Wedding52°33′08″N 13°21′16″E / 52.5521°N 13.3544°E / 52.5521; 13.3544 (Location of Ida Siekmann's grave)

Monuments
  
"Window Of Remembrance", Berlin

Residence
  
Bernauer Strasse 48, Berlin N58, GDR

Known for
  
First casualty at the Berlin Wall

Died
  
August 22, 1961, West Berlin

iDA SIEKMANN


Ida Siekmann (23 August 1902 – 22 August 1961) was the first person to die at the Berlin Wall, only nine days after the beginning of its construction.

Contents

Ida Siekmann idabzjpg

Biography

Ida Siekmann Ida Siekmann Storie dal Muro Berlino Explorer

Ida Siekmann was born in Gorken near Marienwerder (West Prussia) (now Górki, Kwidzyn County, Poland). She had moved to Berlin where she worked as a nurse, and lived at Bernauer Straße 48 in the center of Berlin. She had a sister, Martha L., who lived only a few blocks away, on Lortzingstraße. As of August 1961, she was already a widow; it is not known when she was widowed.

Ida Siekmann Memorial to Ida Siekmann Bernauer Strasse Berlin 27

After World War II, Berlin was divided in four Allied sectors. While the street and the sidewalk of the Bernauer Straße lay in the French sector of West Berlin, the frontage of the buildings on the southern side lay in the Soviet sector of East Berlin. Until 13 August 1961, the day the Berlin Wall was built, Siekmann crossed the sector’s border just by leaving her house. Her sister's apartment was also in the French sector of West Berlin.

Death

Ida Siekmann wwwberlinermauergedenkstaettedeenuploadstod

Immediately after the border between East and West Berlin was closed on 13 August 1961, numerous families and individuals from 50 Bernauer Straße addresses fled to the West. On 18 August 1961, Walter Ulbricht ordered the East German border troops to brick up the entrances and windows on the ground floor of the houses on the southern side of the street. Members of the Combat Groups of the Working Class and police controlled every person who tried to enter the houses and the residents were subject to rigid controls, even in the hallways. Many residents of such tenements still fled to West Berlin: residents of the upper floors were often rescued by jumping-sheets held open by the West Berlin fire department. On 21 August, the entrance and windows of Bernauer Straße 48 were barred. In the early morning of 22 August, Siekmann, living on the fourth floor (by North American standards, third floor/dritter Stock/Obergeschoss by German standards), threweiderdowns and some possessions down onto the street and jumped out of the window of her apartment before the firefighters were able to open the jumping-sheet. She fell on the pavement and was severely injured. Siekmann died shortly after on her way to the Lazarus Hospital, thus becoming the first casualty at the Berlin Wall. She died a day before her 59th birthday.

Burial

Siekmann was buried at the Seestraße cemetery on 29 August; in September a memorial was erected at Bernauer Straße 48. The memorial was often visited by foreign politicians (including Robert F. Kennedy and Archbishop Makarios) to honour the victims of the Berlin Wall.

Ida Siekmann Berlin Wall Memorial The Historical Site

The houses on the southern side of Bernauer Straße were torn down in 1963 and replaced by a concrete wall.

Literature

  • Hans-Hermann Hertle, Maria Nooke, The deaths at the Berlin Wall 1961–1989: a biographical handbook (ed. the Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and the Berlin Wall Foundation). Links, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86153-517-1, pp. 36–38
  • References

    Ida Siekmann Wikipedia