HOME | DD

Description
This is a statue of Hans Conrad Schumann 'the man who leaped in to history'. He was an East German soldier who famously defected to the West German side during the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. On 15 August 1961 Schumann, who was 19 at the time, was sent to guard a section of the Berlin Wall that was on it's third day of construction. The only significant wall that was there was a some barbed wire. On the other side, Germans shouted "Komm' rüber!" ("Come over!"). Schumann promptly jumped the fence and was driven away from the scene by West Berlin police. Peter Leibing, a West German photographer captured Schumann's escape which would later become an iconic image of the Cold War era, a symbol of defiance against the iron grip of dictatorships, a glimmer of hope for those suffering due to the Soviet occupation.

Description
This is a statue of Hans Conrad Schumann 'the man who leaped in to history'. He was an East German soldier who famously defected to the West German side during the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. On 15 August 1961 Schumann, who was 19 at the time, was sent to guard a section of the Berlin Wall that was on it's third day of construction. The only significant wall that was there was a some barbed wire. On the other side, Germans shouted "Komm' rüber!" ("Come over!"). Schumann promptly jumped the fence and was driven away from the scene by West Berlin police. Peter Leibing, a West German photographer captured Schumann's escape which would later become an iconic image of the Cold War era, a symbol of defiance against the iron grip of dictatorships, a glimmer of hope for those suffering due to the Soviet occupation.