Last Boy Scout

The wall and border fortifications were not enough to hinder fugitives from escaping. They also had to be guarded by armed soldiers who had the order to shoot at fugitives if they were otherwise unable to hinder their escape. The use of weapons caused many people to lose their lives at the border to East Germany. In Berlin alone, 90 people, most of them trying to flee, were shot and killed by East German border soldiers between 1961 and 1989. The order to shoot was not revoked until April 1989 and in November, when the border opened, it lost its significance entirely. This art piece shows an East German soldier helping a little boy cross the newly fortified border in one of the many dramas that unfolded in the first days of the separation. Checkpoint Charlie Museum in Berlin reported that the little boy was an East Berliner who had been in West Berlin with his father when the barbed wire went up. Perhaps the parents were separated, or perhaps the father had simply decided not to return; in any case, hoping the boy could be taken back to his mother, he took him to the border and told him to walk to the fence. The soldier is young, and he is clearly afraid. It was forbidden, of course, to let anyone cross from one sector to the other in either direction. But nevertheless the soldier acted: he lifted the boy up and across the wire. Sources say that the act was witnessed and that the soldier was probably punished. Descriptions of this photo say that “no one knows what became of him”. I ask myself: “Wasn’t this young soldier only following all the beliefs and regulations he had been taught in the Russian Sector? Why wasn’t the Government of East Germany proud of such a patriotic move to keep the residents of East Berlin together?” In the years of its existence, East Germany had many celebrations where people were given medals for all kind of achievements. So, at least in my art piece, our young soldier is also getting a retroactive medal. Für Verdienste bei der Festigung und Gründung der DDR / For achievements during the consolidation and formation of the GDR, an awards ceremony that was part of the 30th anniversary celebration of the GDR.