RUNNING GERMANY: BERLIN – 100 Miles Berlin – The Wall-Trail – The Wall Runners commemorate Marienetta Jirkowsky this year

The Berlin Wall Race is each year dedicated to another Berlin wall victim  – representative for the at least 138 people, who lost their lives at the border between 1961 and 1989. And this year the medal of the Wall Race, which is handed to every finisher at the award ceremony, shows the image of Marienetta Jirkowsky.

Marienetta (also called „Mickey") was fatally shot at by border control soldiers during an attempted escape between Hohen Neuendorf and Berlin-Frohnau on 22 November 1980. She succumbed her severe injuries in the hospital shortly after. Marienetta became 18 year old. In contrast her fiancé and a common friend overcame the death strip unharmed.

Her father gained knowledge from the death of his daughter not until two days later. Before there was only a rumor of detention in the border zone towards West-Berlin. The family was not allowed to publish an obituary. In addition the funeral on 14 December 1980 was nearly completely shielded by the staff of the State Security Service („Stasi").

And beyond that point: A commemorative cross was dismounted in the West-Berlin district Frohnau in 1981 by an employee of the „Stasi" and afterwards secretly brought into the GDR. After the German re-unification one of the East Berlin Wall Guards was convicted to a prison sentence on probation due to "homicide in a less severe case".

Signs of commemoration to Marienetta can be found until today in different forms: Her name is listed at one of fourteen white crosses at the Reichtagsufer. In addition on 13 August 2010 a square in Hohen Neuendorf was named after Marienetta Jirkowsky (even though it is only a small square at a rotary intersection). And close to the set of the crime a commemorative stone was established in the Florastrasse. At the memorial "Window of Remembrance" at the Bernauer Strasse in Berlin the photography of Marienetta is seen which was used as template for this years finisher medal.

The finisher medal with the image of the victims of the Wall has become tradition at the Wall Races:

At its premiere in 2011 Chris Gueffroy, who was shot shortly before the fall of the Wall in 1989, was commemorated this way. 2013 Günter Litfin was valued who was the first one to be shot during an attempted escape.

And last year the medal showed the portrait of Peter Fechter, who died in 1962 during his attempted escape close to Checkpoint Charlie.

Source: 100 Miles Berlin – The Wall Trail

100 Miles Berlin – The Wall Trail

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