User:Bullzeye/Michael Gartenschläger

Michael Gartenschläger was a West German defector and former political prisoner. He is best known for his untrained (but successful) efforts to breach the Inner German Border from West Germany in order to steal a live SM-70 antipersonnel mine from the border defenses. The SM-70 had never before been seen by the eyes of the West, and its very existence was heavily obfuscated and often outright denied by the East German government. In a series of audacious nighttime excursions to the border zone, Gartenschläger managed to steal two SM-70s on two separate occasions and present the "secret" mines before the startled eyes of the Western diplomats and press. He was killed on his third expedition after the Stasi Border Guards were tipped off to his activities and laid an ambush, shooting him off his ladder as he reached over the fence.