Wolfgang Engels

Wolfgang Engels (born in 1943 in Düsseldorf) is a former East German soldier.At the end of April in 1963, on the eve of the communist May Day celebrations, he stole an East German Army (NVA) armoured personnel carrier (APC) from his military-base and rammed it into the Berlin Wall in an attempt to escape to West Berlin. The APC did not fully penetrate the Wall, having been stuck halfway on the fortified border, so Engels hurriedly exited the vehicle and was shot twice by East German border-guards while struggling to free himself from the rolls of razor-sharp barbed wire. He was finally pulled to safety by West Berliners, with a passing West German policeman retaliating by opening fire on the East German border-guards shooting at Engels, and then taken to a nearby bar. Later, he received medical treatment for and recovered from his wounds in a West German hospital. He settled down in West Germany and later became a teacher for biology and history in the town of Soltau. While he managed to escape to West Germany and gain his freedom, he ended up losing touch with his mother, who, being a dedicated communist, rejected him as a traitor to East Germany and denounced his escape.