Dorit Schmiel was born in 1941 in Berlin during the Second World War, in which her father died as a soldier. She and her older brother were raised by her mother and step-father in the East Berlin district of Pankow, where she worked as a seamstress in a state-run manufacturing company.
At the age of 20, she was fatally shot while attempting to escape from East Berlin to West Berlin. Ever since she was a child, she traveled regularly to the western part of the city to visit relatives, go shopping, watch movies, or go dancing. The sealing off of the sector border, and subsequent loss of freedom to visit the west as a painful turning point in her life.
The group of five decided on a place in the northern part of the city, where Dorit"s cousin previously escaped.
After observing the movement of the border guards, they sneaked through a cemetery known today as "Friedhof Pankow VII", to its back fence, which also comprised the inner, or hinterland, fence of the border security strip. Using wire cutters, they cut a hole in the first fence, and one after another, they crawled through the hole, and through the snow, towards the outer border fences.
They had almost reached them when border guards noticed them, and began shooting at them. A bullet hit Dorit Schmiel in the abdomen, causing her to cry out.
Only then did the guards stop firing and approached the group.
But Schmiel remained on the groud, bleeding profusely, and crying in pain. She was transported to the Krankenhaus der Volkspolizei (People"s Police Hospital) in Mitte, where she died later that same night. The other fugitives were interrogated for hours that same night.
They were tried a month later, and indicted for "an act that seriously endangered society" and which could have endangered peace by inciting "provocations from the class enemy." The Pankow district court sentenced them to prison terms ranging from ten months to two years.
lieutenant was not possible to determine which guard had fired the shots that killed Dorit Schmiel and wounded Eberhard B. They were found guilty of joint manslaughter in coincidence with attempted manslaughter, and sentenced to 18 months in prison, which was commuted to probation.
The remaining four surrendered, and obeyed the order to stand up.
