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Chronicle 1986

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    • 3 November

      1986

      At a meeting of the Political Advisory Committee of the Warsaw Pact, CPSU leader Mikhail Gorbachev moves away from the Brezhnev doctrine of the limited sovereignty of Warsaw Pact member states. more

    • 4 November

      1986

      Start of the third CSCE follow-up meeting in Vienna. more

    • 6 November

      1986

      The first German-German town twinning is agreed between Saarlouis and Eisenhüttenstadt. more

    • 12 November

      1986

      The two German states agree on the restitution of archival documents evacuated in the Second World War.

    • 20 November

      1986

      After fleeing to the West, an officer from the GDR border troops talks about everyday life as a border officer and the effects of the "order to shoot". In the previous months, the number of border troop members who have fled has risen noticeably.
      RIAS report on a GDR border soldier who has fled to the West, 20 November 1986 (in German) (Source: Archiv Deutschlandradio, Broadcast: Die Spätausgabe, Reporter: Ernst Steinke)

    • 21 November

      1986

      The 22-year-old René Gross and the 38-year-old Manfred Mäder are shot dead while attempting to escape in a truck at the Berlin sector border. René Gross, shot dead at the Berlin Wall on November 21, 1986 while trying to escape Manfred Mäder, shot dead at the Berlin Wall on November 21, 1986 while trying to escape

    • 24 November

      1986

      Michael Bittner: born on Aug. 31, 1961, shot dead at the Berlin Wall on Nov. 24, 1986 while trying to escape (date of photo not known)
      Michael Bittner; date of photo not known (Photo: Polizeihistorische Sammlung/Der Polizeipräsident in Berlin)
      The 27-year-old Michael Bittner is killed by several shots in the back at the Berlin Wall while trying to escape. The Ministry for State Security manages to keep the murder of Michael Bittner secret to the end of the GDR. The death certificate and autopsy findings are destroyed at the instigation of the Stasi.

      The Stasi also ensures that no proof of Michael Bittner’s burial exists to this day. In 1997, the two men that fired the fatal shots, Olaf H. and Hartmut B., are handed a suspended sentence of one year and three months. In 1990/1991, the two WDR television journalists Werner Filmer and Heribert Schwan speak with Irmgard Bittner, the mother of Michael Bittner, and record her memories of her son’s escape attempt. Irmgard Bittner: An Unbelievable Story (in German) Michael Bittner, born on August 31, 1961, shot dead at the Berlin Wall on Nov. 24, 1986 while trying to escape
      RIAS report and commentary on the latest fatality at the Wall: Michael Bittner has been shot dead by a border guard on 24 November 1986, 25 November 1986 (in German) (Source: Archiv Deutschlandradio, Broadcast: RIAS-Aktuell/Die Spätausgabe, Comment: Wolfgang Hauptmann)
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