Defecting East German soldier Hans Conrad Schumann leaps over a barbed wire barricade at the Bernauer Street sector into West Berlin on Aug. 15, 1961 Schumann was guarding the “Berlin Wall” (at the time it was only a barbed-wire barricade) during it’s construction at the corner of Ruppiner Straße (street) and Bernauer Straße. As West Berliners shouted “Komm rüber!” (come over), the soldier lept the barbed wire where he ran to a waiting West German police car that took him to safety.
