Size: 20.5cm x 25cm Media: Wirephoto, gelatin siver fiber base paper. Dates: Shot and printed in 1961 Peter Leibing’s photo of East German border guard Conrad Schumann, jumping over barbed wire line to West Berlin ran on front pages across the world. It made Schumann, reportedly the first known East German soldier to flee, into a poster child for those yearning to be free, while lending urgency to East Germany’s push for a more permanent Berlin Wall. Schumann was sadly haunted by the weight of it all. While he quietly lived in the West, he could not grapple with his unintended stature as a symbol of freedom, and he committed suicide in 1998. Minor scratches and creases, yellow stains.