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Klaus Brueske (14 September 1938 – 18 April 1962) was a Germantruck driver who became thesixteenth person to die at theBerlin Wall. Brueske died in an attempt to break through the Heinrich-Heine-Straße border crossing in a truck, and was the first Berlin Wall victim to die fromsuffocation.

Klaus Brueske was born on 14 September 1938 inBerlin,Nazi Germany, one of eight children raised in theFriedrichshain area of the city. By 1962, Brueske still lived inFriedrichshain, now inEast Berlin, but was aGrenzgänger (cross-border commuter) who worked as atruck driver forAEG inWest Berlin. Following the abrupt closing of the border and construction of theBerlin Wall on 13 August 1961, byEast German authorities, Brueske remained in East Berlin and found a new job as a truck driver. Quickly becoming unhappy with the situation in the East Germany, Brueske started to plan his escape to West Berlin with friends, deciding to break through the border with a truck.^[1][2]

On 17 April 1962, Brueske borrowed a truck from his workplace then loaded it withsand, and that evening met with six friends who wanted to take part in the escape attempt, where theydrank for courage. When Brueske and the men went to the truck to begin they sawVolkspolizei officers nearby, instead parting ways to not to attract any attention from the policemen. At the later meeting, only three of Brueske's friends were still willing to escape. Brueske sat down at the steering wheel to drive, Lothar M. sat in the passenger seat, and Peter G. laid down in the loading area of the truck. After midnight, they drove at the Heinrich-Heine-Straße border crossing at about 70 km/h (44 mph), breaking through the first twoboom barriers, and a soldier of theEast German border guards fired a total of 14 shots at the vehicle. The truck came to a halt on the West Berlin side after hitting a wall, but Brueske had died and his friends were injured, and all three were taken to the hospital. Brueske was pronounced dead, and anautopsy of hiscorpse revealed that he had suffered two non-fatal gunshot injuries to the neck, instead Brueske hadsuffocated in the sand loaded on the back of the truck, which had poured into the cab due to the impact with the wall.

Klaus Brueske's funeral, which his mother and siblings were prohibited from attending by the East German government, took place at the Friedhof Lübars cemetery in West Berlin.^[1][2]

After theGerman reunification, the Berlin public prosecutor at theLandgericht Berlin brought charges against the border guard who had fired the shots at Brueske's truck. The court sentenced him in 1998 to imprisonment of 14 months, which was converted toprobation.^[1][2]

• List of deaths at the Berlin Wall
• Berlin Crisis of 1961

• Christine Brecht:Klaus Brueske, in:Die Todesopfer an der Berliner Mauer 1961–1989. Links, Berlin 2009,ISBN 978-3-86153-517-1, p. 79–81.

• Deaths at the Berlin Wall
• 1938 births
• 1962 deaths
• People from Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg
• People from East Berlin
• Deaths from choking
• East German defectors

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