On 17 August 1962, around one year after the construction of the Berlin Wall, Fechter and Helmut Kulbeik attempted to flee from East Germany.

[1] Their plan was initially successful as both Fechter and Kulbeik reached the final wall, but as they began to climb the East German border guards fired at them.

Although Kulbeik succeeded in crossing over the wall, Fechter was shot in the pelvis while still climbing, in plain view of hundreds of witnesses.

[2] It also emerged during the trial that any aid attempt from the West had indeed been made impossible, but according to a report from forensic pathologist Otto Prokop, "Fechter had no chance of survival.

At the invitation of Willy Brandt, the mayor of West Berlin, the Yale Russian Chorus sang a German translation of Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus near the site in the week following the shooting.

[7] After German reunification in 1990, the Peter-Fechter-Stelle memorial was constructed on Zimmerstraße, at the precise spot where he had died on the Eastern side, and this has been a focal point for some of the commemorations regarding the wall.

In 2007, artist Mark Gubb was commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Arts to create a performance[9] based on the death of Peter Fechter.

The performance was a one-hour live piece that was later recorded and screened at the ICA with a discussion panel at the end consisting of the artist, and actor Dominik Danielewicz who played the part of Peter Fechter.