Hans Conrad Schumann, a former East German soldier immortalized in a photograph as he leaped across a barbed-wire fence to freedom in West Berlin, hanged himself Saturday. He was 56.

Every Soldier from First Army Division East received an award. After the ceremony, the Soldiers were treated to a bit of German culture, enjoying German food and music from a German band.

The East German armed forces, once considered the pride of Eastern European contingents allied with the Soviet Union in the Warsaw Pact, are headed for dissolution. Almost half of the 98,000 East G… ...

The new exhibition features stills from videos that German-American artist Stefan Roloff shot of the Berlin Wall from the west in 1984 — including East German soldiers peering through binoculars ...

Leibing’s photo instantly made Schumann famous, immortalizing him as the first East German soldier to desert over the wall. Over 2,000 more would follow his example in the coming decades.