February 10th, 2022
6minute read
Berlin, April 8, 1989.
Saturday mornings were always busy at the checkpoint at Chausseestrae, and April 8thwas no exception.
Wearing sneakers and sweatpants, the two East Berliners took their place in the queue and watched and waited.
Although Baumann and Greiser did not know for sure that this had happened, they suspected it.
They burst through the open gate and then hurdled a waist-high barrier beyond it like a couple of gazelles.
Baumann and Greiser were only 20 feet from West Berlin when a single shot rang out.
Since that threshold had been crossed, both men stopped and put their hands up.
East German border guards armed with MPi-KMS-72 assault rifles hastily swarmed the would-be defectors and took them into custody.
As it turns out, his shot from anEast German Makarovwas the final shot fired at the Berlin Wall.
