  Double differential production cross sections of negative and positive pions
and the number of participating protons have been measured in central Au+Au
collisions at 1 GeV per nucleon incident energy. At low pion energies the pi^-
yield is strongly enhanced over the pi^+ yield. The energy dependence of the
pi^-/pi^+ ratio is assigned to the Coulomb interaction of the charged pions
with the protons in the reaction zone. The deduced Coulomb potential increases
with increasing pion c.m. energy. This behavior indicates different freeze-out
radii for different pion energies in the c.m.~frame.
