Erhard Neubert

Erhard Neubert was born in Suhl in 1946. Even as a teenager, he had a strong desire for freedom. He completed an apprenticeship as a confectioner and, at the same time, applied for a job on the FDGB holiday ship "Völkerfreundschaft". His application was rejected due to his "lack of social maturity". He then attempted to flee the GDR at the age of 18. He was arrested near Helmstedt and sentenced to one year and seven months in prison.

Neubert served his sentence at the Berlin-Rummelsburg prison. He was released in June 1966. Six years after his imprisonment, he received a call-up order to the National People's Army (NVA). As he was opposed to the suppression of the Prague Spring in 1968 by Warsaw Pact troops, he declared that he would never be able to serve in the NVA and made a second escape attempt across the Hungarian border in April 1972. He was arrested again. After several weeks in prison in Hungary, he was extradited to the GDR and remanded in custody at Lindenstraße in Potsdam. He was released in October 1972 due to an amnesty. Erhard Neubert was able to move to West Berlin in 1974. There he worked as a confectioner at the Kaufhaus des Westens department store. He has been guiding groups of visitors through the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial site since 2009 and has been working for the Coordinating Office of Contemporary Witnesses at schools and educational institutions since XXXX.