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German History in Documents and Images
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Peter Fechter at the Berlin Wall (August 17, 1962)
On August 17, 1962, Peter Fechter, an eighteen-year-old East Berliner, bled to death at the base of a barricade after being shot multiple times by East German border guards during the course of an escape attempt. For the West German public, Fechter's death brought home with unprecedented directness the barbarity of the shoot-to-kill order in effect along the inner-German border. Photographer unknown.