Who was the last person shot and killed while trying to cross the Berlin Wall, in February 1989? The answer is Chris Gueffroy. He was shot by East German border guards during an attempted escape on the night of February 5–6, 1989, near the Britzer Verbindungskanal in East Berlin.
Gueffroy and his friend Christian Gaudian believed, incorrectly, that the standing order to shoot escapees had been suspended. As they climbed the final border fence, guards opened fire. Gueffroy was hit twice and died in the border strip; Gaudian was wounded, arrested, and later imprisoned.
Gueffroy is specifically remembered as the last person killed by gunfire while attempting to cross the Berlin Wall. The distinction matters: Winfried Freudenberg became the final person to die during an escape attempt, when his improvised balloon crashed on March 8, 1989. He was not shot.
Earlier victims are often confused with Gueffroy. Günter Litfin was the first person killed at the Wall, Ida Siekmann was the first fatality, and Peter Fechter became one of its best-known victims after being shot in 1962.