Sunday, July 27, 2008

Berlin Wall



Peter Leibing is a German photographer known for his 1961 photographs of escaping East German border guard, Conrad Schumann jumping a barbed wire fence during construction of the Berlin Wall.

On 15 August 1961 Leibing, working for the Hamburg picture agency Contiepress, had been tipped by police that an East German border guard might escape the Berlin Wall, then in its third day of construction.[1] At that stage of construction, the Berlin Wall was only a low barbed-wire fence. As people on the Western side shouted Komm rüber! ("come over"), Leibing captured a photograph of Schumann jumping a barbed wire fence and making his escape. The photo became a well-known image of the Cold War and won the Overseas Press Club Best Photograph award for 1961.[2]

2 comments:

Jorge De La Garza said...

I was recently shopping around and found this photo framed in a 20×30in print. any ideas of what I should do with it?

in Houston, TX

MATTHEW ROSE said...

Hi Jorge,

Is it an original? Signed? Dated? You could probably sell it. Send me a scan/jpg and I'll post it with your e mail if you like. Or just toss it onto eBay and see what shakes.