Talk:Heinz-Josef Große

A fact from Heinz-Josef Große appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 14 November 2009 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Heinz-Josef Große was an East German construction worker shot and killed on the inner German border in 1982 while trying to escape across it (route pictured)?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2009/November.

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

In the two-syllable surname, the letter ß is pronounced like "s" as in "this", and the second vowel is a schwa. I think this should be explained at the beginning of the article, but I'm not adept at Wikipedia's conventions for pronunciations. Michael Hardy (talk) 19:43, 14 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Untitled

Was he held captive by GDR? It's not clear from the article why he tried to trespass into West Germany. --Zvn (talk) 21:15, 14 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

He was an East German citizen. Pretty much by definition, they were all held captive by the GDR... -- ChrisO (talk) 22:15, 14 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The question surprises me a bit, but ok, here we go: No he was not held captive by his government. In the years 1961-1989 GDR citizens could not leave their country. Thousands tried to escape, but only a small percentage succeeded. The vast majority was arrested, shot or killed by land mines. This article is not the place to explain, if you want to know more the articles about the GDR, the Inner German Border and the Berlin Wall are good starting points. Jaho (talk) 23:26, 14 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Zvn, you must have been born very very recently. East Germany was a totalitarian state that thoroughly spied on its citizens (planting hidden microphones in their living rooms, bedrooms, etc., paying children to report their parents dissatisfactions with the government, etc.) and forbade dissent. Entering West Germany would not have been considered "trespassing" by the West German government, since their laws held that all German citizens, whether residents of the Federal Republic (i.e. West Germany) or other parts of Germany, had the right to reside in whatever part of Germany they wished, and they supported the right of all Germans to enter West Germany, and condemned the practice of East Germany of killing those who tried to leave East Germany without permission. See in particular Berlin Wall. Michael Hardy (talk) 23:27, 14 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

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