Corrections

Bernd Lünser

• Added that, according to a 1997 article in Der Spiegel, an East Berlin police officer fired three 'aimed shots' at him with his pistol before he jumped.

Burkhard Niering

• Added that, according to a Stasi report to Erich Honecker of 6 January 1974, the two men who fired from cover at the exit barrier were members of the Stasi's passport control unit at the crossing.

Ulrich Steinhauer

• In the statement that in February 1983 the sentence was reduced to four years and nine months, the words “on probation” are now attributed to the research project: the Gedenktafeln in Berlin inventory confirms the reduced term, as a youth sentence, but does not mention probation, and the 1983 newspaper reports cited by the research project could not be checked.

Hans-Dieter Wesa

• Corrected the statement that he probably died immediately: according to a West Berlin police radio message of 23 August 1962 and the police's monthly report for August 1962, he was still alive when officers reached him, and a doctor at the Jewish Hospital found that he had already died.

Hermann Döbler

• Corrected the offence to manslaughter in conjunction with attempted manslaughter, as the 1995 appeal judgment states, and added that the Federal Court of Justice dismissed the guard's appeal and the son's bid for a murder conviction, so the sentence became final.

Roland Hoff

• Added, from a Stasi report, that East German firefighters recovered his body unnoticed at about 5.45 p.m. while the West Berlin fire brigade was still searching, that it was taken to Potsdam, and that he had been identified from the work book in his briefcase.

Klaus Schröter

• Completed the outcome of the 1994 trial: the lance corporal who had led the two-man post was convicted of manslaughter and given eighteen months' youth custody, suspended on probation; the two other soldiers who had fired were acquitted.

Johannes Sprenger

• Completed the account of the trial: the guards, both 20 at the time, were found to have thought his death possible and accepted it; the third defendant, the officer responsible for briefing them, was convicted of incitement to manslaughter, which the Federal Court of Justice changed in 2001 to aiding and abetting, reducing his sentence to nine months, suspended.

Berlin Wall Shooting Trials: Guards, Generals and the Politburo

• Corrected the offence in the Hermann Döbler case: the Berlin Regional Court convicted the guard of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter, not murder, as the Federal Court of Justice's appeal judgment of 1995 and a news agency report of the 1993 verdict show; added that the Federal Court of Justice upheld the verdict.

Mauerschützenprozesse: Grenzsoldaten, Generäle und Politbüro

• Corrected the offence in the Hermann Döbler case: the Berlin Regional Court convicted the guard of manslaughter and attempted manslaughter, not murder, as the Federal Court of Justice's appeal judgment of 1995 and a news agency report of the 1993 verdict show; added that the Federal Court of Justice upheld the verdict.

Michael Bittner

• Corrected the 1997 sentences: according to the judgment, the two guards received prison sentences, not youth sentences, of one year and three months each, suspended on probation; added the date of the judgment.
• Added that his death was one of the counts on which three members of the SED Politburo were convicted of manslaughter, upheld by the Federal Court of Justice in 1999.

Klaus Brueske

• Removed the verdict date of April 1994, which the source itself contradicts (its footnote cites a judgment of April 1998); the conviction is now dated to the 1990s.
• Corrected the out-of-date statement that memorial services are still held at the cross: the crosses have long gone, and a Berlin Wall History Mile panel near Sebastianstrasse now tells the story.

Christian Buttkus

• Added that the other former border soldiers charged were acquitted, and that the guards could be identified only in the 1990s.

Hermann Döbler

• Added that the West Berlin police and Stasi reports of the day both record warning shots before the guard opened fire.

Horst Einsiedel

• Corrected the summary: the Stasi told his wife only at the end of May 1973 that he had drowned, and his family learned that he had been killed at the Wall only after German reunification.

Peter Fechter

• Added the 1997 court's finding, based on the autopsy report, that he was hit by a single bullet, most probably while taking cover by the Wall, and probably collapsed at once.
• Added the 1997 court's finding that he could not have been saved even with immediate medical care, and that the long delay was probably due to disorganisation and confusion among the officers responsible.

Peter Göring

• Removed wording that implied the wounded boy had since died; the source says he suffers the consequences of his wounds for the rest of his life.

Chris Gueffroy

• Corrected the appeal: in 1993 the Federal Court of Justice upheld the shooter's manslaughter conviction and set aside only his sentence; added the outcome for the other three guards and the later convictions of SED Politburo members for his death (1999 and 2004).

Roland Hoff

• Added that what became of his body has never been established; the research project counts him among the victims whose remains disappeared without trace.

Wolfgang Hoffmann

• Attributed the account of his fall from the police building to the People's Police and Stasi records and those involved, the only sources for what happened in custody.
• Corrected the summary in line with the biography: that he jumped from the window of the police building rests only on the People's Police and Stasi records.

Walter Kittel

• Removed the statement that the Federal Court of Justice likened the shooting to an execution, which its judgment does not contain, and added the 1992 verdicts against the commander and the two guards.

Czesław Jan Kukuczka

• Added the 2024 court's finding that he was shot in the back from close range after passing the last control point, by a Stasi officer waiting out of sight in the corridor to the trains.

Bernd Lünser

• Made clear that the assertion that no shots were fired westwards was a claim of East Berlin police and Stasi reports, not an established fact.

Willi Marzahn

• Restored the statement, left out before, that the guards who fired saw Willi Marzahn fall after their shots, which bears on whether he was shot or took his own life.

Ernst Mundt

• Added the verdict: on 4 July 1994 the Berlin Regional Court convicted the guard who fired of manslaughter and sentenced him to two years in prison, suspended on probation.

Dr. Johannes Muschol

• Added that because of the state visits the order to shoot had been expressly limited that day to self-defence, so the shots were unlawful even under East German law, and that no criminal investigation was opened in East Germany.

Siegfried Noffke

• Added the research project's 2017 finding that his body disappeared without trace, and that its fate could not be established because those involved kept silent after 1990.

Lutz Schmidt

• Added that Karin Schmidt was joint plaintiff, how the court weighed the guards' guilt, and that his death was one of the counts on which three SED Politburo members were convicted of manslaughter, upheld in 1999.

Michael Schmidt

• Set out the 1992 sentences (youth custody for the post leader, imprisonment for the other guard, both suspended), added that the Federal Court of Justice dismissed their appeals in its first ruling on the Wall shootings, and added that a member of the Politburo and National Defence Council was convicted of his manslaughter, upheld in 1999.

Johannes Sprenger

• Corrected the account of the trial: the Berlin Regional Court tried three defendants in October 2000, and in sentencing the two guards it accepted that they had not wanted to kill him.

Dieter Wohlfahrt

• Added, from the same Stasi report, that the fugitive's mother proposed using the occasion to try once more in person to persuade her daughter to return.

Who Was the Last Person Killed at the Berlin Wall?

• Corrected the account of the appeal in the Chris Gueffroy case: in 1993 the Federal Court of Justice upheld the shooter’s manslaughter conviction and set aside only his sentence; it did not overturn the verdict. Corrected in the text and in the article’s questions and answers.

Berlin Wall Shooting Trials: Guards, Generals and the Politburo

• Corrected the account of the appeal in the Chris Gueffroy case: in 1993 the Federal Court of Justice upheld the shooter’s manslaughter conviction and set aside only his sentence; it did not overturn the verdict.

Willi Block

• Moved the map pin about 3 km north, from the Heerstraße crossing to Finkenkruger Weg opposite the end of Albrechtshofer Weg in Staaken: the Stasi report of 8 February 1966 says he came from the direction of today's Albrechtshofer Weg and was seen from the watchtower at the “Heuweg barrier”, and his memorial cross stands on Finkenkruger Weg. The pin remains approximate.
• Corrected the description of where he was shot: at Staaken, on the border with Spandau, in the Albrechtshof area; according to the Stasi report, he had come from the direction of what is now Albrechtshofer Weg. The profile had placed it near the Staaken border crossing to Spandau; his biography says only “near the Staaken border crossing”.

Peter Göring

• Corrected the place of his state funeral from Luchau to Glashütte in Saxony.

René Gross

• Corrected the truck: a W 50 with a box body, not with a lifting platform.
• Corrected the account of his death: he was killed by a shot to the head; that he had given up his escape and taken cover under the truck is now attributed to the research project, which cites a Stasi report, because the Berlin court that tried one of the guards in 2004 could not establish where he was when he was hit. The note on the map pin was corrected to match (the pin itself is unchanged).

Axel Hannemann

• Corrected where he was hit: according to the court that later tried one of the guards, he still had 120 to 130 metres to swim before reaching the border; the profile had said he was hit “only metres from the bank”. The note on the map pin was corrected to match (the pin itself is unchanged).

Walter Heike

• Added the outcome of the criminal proceedings: in June 1995 the Berlin Regional Court convicted the former NCO who had shot him of manslaughter and gave him a youth sentence of one year and three months, suspended on probation.

Heinz Jercha

• Disclosed a conflict between the sources on his wound: according to his biography, which cites the post-mortem, the ricochet hit him in the chest; the memorial plaque on Heidelberger Strasse and a 2012 newspaper report say it hit him in the back. The profile had stated the chest wound as established by the post-mortem.

Michael Kollender

• Corrected the number of shots: according to a Stasi report of 1966 the four guards fired 109 shots, while the Federal Court of Justice, in its 1996 judgment on the case, put the total at 90; the profile had said “at least 109”.

Karl-Heinz Kube

• Corrected Eberhard Diepgen's position when Karl-Heinz Kube's father wrote to him in January 1990: then leader of the CDU group in the Berlin House of Representatives, not mayor of Berlin.

Czesław Jan Kukuczka

• Corrected the statement that the shot in his back went unpunished: after persistent inquiries in Poland, Berlin prosecutors charged a former Stasi officer with his murder, and on 14 October 2024 the Berlin Regional Court convicted him and sentenced him to ten years in prison. The profile also says that he appealed and that, as of 29 September 2026, the verdict was not yet final, with the Federal Court of Justice due to hear the appeal on 7 December 2026.

Horst Kullack

• Added a note on the date: the inscription on his memorial cross dates the shooting to 1 January 1972, but the border troops' own report records it at about 10.30 p.m. on 31 December 1971.

Manfred Mäder

• Corrected the truck: a W 50 with a box body, not with a lifting platform; the note on the map pin now says he jumped from the roof of the truck, not from a tail-lift (the pin itself is unchanged).
• Corrected the account of René Gross's death in this profile: that he had given up his escape and taken cover under the truck is now attributed to the research project, because the Berlin court that tried one of the guards in 2004 could not establish where he was when he was hit.

Wernhard Mispelhorn

• Corrected the reference to the later proceedings: they were criminal proceedings against the guards who had fired, in which the Berlin Regional Court gave judgment on 16 September 1998; the profile had spoken only of a criminal investigation.

Horst Plischke

• Added his place of birth, Braunau, from the German biography; the English version's “Bernau” is apparently a translation error. The note on the conflicting sources now says which version the profile follows.

Andreas Senk

• Corrected how he went into the water: according to the German sources a playmate of his own age pushed him into the Spree and ran off in fright; the summary and story had said he fell in. The time, between 10 and 12 o'clock, is unchanged.

Heinz Sokolowski

• Added the outcome of the criminal proceedings: the border soldiers involved were identified in the 1990s, and on 21 February 1997 the Berlin Regional Court convicted the guard who had fired the fatal shot of manslaughter and gave him a suspended youth sentence of 16 months.

Christel Wehage and Eckhard Wehage

• Disclosed a conflict on Christel Wehage's profession: the Federal Archives describe her as a physiotherapist, while the research project's biography calls her a psychotherapist; the profile had called her a psychotherapist.

Manfred Weylandt

• Disclosed a conflict on what his widow was told: according to the research project, which worked from the Stasi's reports, she was told the next day only that he had been recovered from the Spree and already cremated; according to the findings of the Berlin court that later tried the guards, as the Federal Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights restate them, she was told that he had taken his own life.

Dieter Wohlfahrt

• Added, attributed to the East German reports, that the ambush was prepared with the help of the mother whom he and his friends were trying to bring across: that evening she went to the local border police commander and then with the officers to the fence, where, one report says, she called out an agreed password. Also added that the Stasi recorded that she opposed flight to the West, and that what she knew of what would follow is not documented.

The Children Who Died at the Berlin Wall

• Corrected how Andreas Senk went into the water: a playmate of his own age pushed him into the Spree; the article had said he fell in while playing with another child.

Kinder als Todesopfer an der Berliner Mauer

• Corrected how Andreas Senk went into the water: his playmate pushed him into the Spree; the article had said he got into the river.

Ingolf Diederichs

• Corrected how he set out: he boarded the S-Bahn train at Pankow carrying a home-made folding ladder (German: besteigt); the text had said he used the ladder to “climb out of” a train. The summary now says he jumped from the moving train.
• Corrected the distance: near Bornholmer Strasse only a little over 20 metres separated passengers from West Berlin (German: nur gut 20 Meter), not “within twenty metres”.
• Corrected what his relatives were told: the instruction was that they were only to be told he had died after falling from a moving train (German: soll lediglich mitgeteilt werden); the text had said they were told.

Udo Düllick

• The finding that he drowned from exhaustion after the chase is now attributed to the post-mortem (German: Obduktion).
• Corrected with whom he quarrelled: a superior (German: einem Vorgesetzten), not “his supervisor”.
• Restored the hedges: he is said to have (German: soll) torn the epaulettes from the man's uniform, not “evidently”; being a good swimmer may have (German: mag) encouraged him to cross the Spree, not “probably”.

Peter Fechter

• Corrected the summary: the sources do not say he called for help for the full 50 minutes; his cries had stopped by the time he was carried away, 50 minutes after he was shot.
• The statement that he had already given up his escape is now presented as following from the border brigade commander's report (“by this account”); the text had attributed it to the guards' own report.
• Corrected the medium: the GDR programme Der schwarze Kanal, which defended the guards, was broadcast on television, not radio.
• Corrected his family: he was the third of four children; the text had said he grew up with two older sisters.
• The family's regular visits before the Wall are now hedged (“is said to have”), as in the German original (German: haben sollen).
• Corrected the building through which the two friends planned their escape: it housed a carpentry workshop that was still in use, not a derelict former workshop; how they found it is now attributed to his friend Helmut K.
• Helmut K.'s description of him is now given as he told it to the West Berlin police, with “sincere” (German: aufrichtig) instead of “warm-hearted”.
• Corrected the response of the West Berlin police officers on ladders: they did not dare to climb across (German: wagen sie nicht), rather than “would not”.
• Corrected who was convicted: two of the guards who had fired (German: zwei Schützen), not simply “two guards”.
• His sister Ruth's statement in court is no longer shown as a translated direct quotation; she was his youngest sister and spoke through her lawyer.

Winfried Freudenberg

• Corrected his profession: an electronics engineer (German: Diplom-Elektronikingenieur), not an electrical engineer.
• Corrected the couple's outlook: they saw no career prospects for themselves in East Germany (German: keine), not “few”.

Rainer Gneiser

• Corrected his family: he had five siblings; the “older sister” appears only in the English version of his biography.
• Corrected a date: 16 April 1962 is when the district court in Freiberg sentenced him, not when he was arrested.
• Restored the hedge: from the summer of 1963 the two are said to have (German: sollen) prepared their escape.

Peter Göring

• Willy Brandt's words on his death (that the blame lay with those who had built the Wall) are now given in indirect speech, as in the German original, not as a direct quotation.

Chris Gueffroy

• Corrected the appeal: the Federal Court of Justice's ruling is no longer dated 1994; March 1994 is the date of the retrial verdict of the Berlin Regional Court, to which the case had been referred back.
• Corrected the name of his school: the children's and youth sports school of FC Dynamo Berlin, not “SC Dynamo”.
• Corrected the timing: he learned early in 1989 that he was to be called up, and the two friends decided in mid-January to leave East Germany; the text had said he learned of the call-up in mid-January.
• Corrected what the friends had heard: that the order to shoot had been suspended (German: ausgesetzt), not “lifted”.

Rolf Henniger

• Corrected a rank: the passenger he was driving, who survived and shot the constable, was his platoon leader (German: Zugführer), not his guard leader.
• Added the rank to which he was posthumously promoted (German: Unteroffizier).

Roland Hoff

• Corrected how he reached the bank: according to a police report he must have mingled with the workers (German: sich unter die Arbeiter zu mischen), not “disguised himself” as one.
• Corrected the workers' reaction: they were outraged (German: empört), not “horrified”.
• Corrected the date of the memorial stone: it was unveiled a year after his death, not “a year to the day”.

Erna Kelm

• Corrected what she wore beneath her clothes: a swimming belt (German: Schwimmgürtel), not a life jacket.
• Corrected the date on which her body was found: 11 June 1962, Whit Monday, as the German biography states; the English version's “11 July” is a translation error and is no longer given as a possible date.
• Corrected her last post: head of a residential home (German: Heimleiterin), not director of a “special care facility”.
• Corrected how often she visited her children in Potsdam: several times (German: mehrfach), not “often”.
• Restored the hedge: she reportedly (German: soll) was questioned in November 1953.

Siegfried Kroboth

• Added the time of day, from the German biography: the accident happened in the morning (German: Vormittag); the English version says afternoon.
• Corrected the state of the Brommy Bridge: destroyed in the war (German: zerstört), not merely “war-damaged”.

Ingo Krüger

• Corrected his description: a sport diver (German: Sporttaucher), not an “experienced skin diver”.
• Corrected what his fiancée saw from the West Berlin bank: East German customs officers in a boat searching the water and pulling a body out; despite the poor visibility she had no doubt that it was him. The text had said that East German “officials” lifted a body into a boat.

Ulrich Krzemien

• Corrected his sister's statements: her 1990 belief that he had been shot near the Massante Bridge is now distinguished from what she said when questioned in October 1991, and the man who had told her so is described as having introduced himself as a state prosecutor.
• Corrected the outcome: the Berlin prosecutors discontinued the investigation for lack of sufficient suspicion and accepted the original post-mortem findings.
• Corrected the length of his engagement: a little over a year (German: ein gutes Jahr), not six months.

Bernd Lehmann

• Added the date on which his clothes were found, the evening of 28 May 1968, from the German biography (the English version gives 28 June).
• Removed the statement that he was “assigned” to his job as a lathe operator, which is not in the German original.
• Corrected the tense: his mother was then working as a swimming teacher in East Berlin, not a former one.

Lothar Lehmann

• Corrected where he died: according to a report by the East Berlin city command, on the way to the Potsdam District Hospital, at about 9 p.m.; the text had implied that he died in hospital.
• Corrected what his family was allowed to say: at his funeral his death could be spoken of only as an accident (German: darf daher lediglich von einem Unglücksfall die Rede sein); the text had said it “had to be called” an accident.

Rainer Liebeke

• Corrected the distance: about 500 metres to the far bank (the crossing), not the width of the lake.
• Restored the hedge: his injured collarbone probably (German: dürfte) hampered him more and more.
• Corrected his wife's belief: that he was alive and had possibly been arrested (German: möglicherweise), not “probably in prison”.
• Corrected what happened to their son: he was stopped at school and questioned about his parents, not taken out of school.

Bernd Lünser

• Corrected his background: after his parents divorced he grew up with his mother in Friedrichshain; the German source says nothing about where he lived in 1961.
• Corrected his hopes: of a pass or of help with an escape (German: Passierschein, Fluchthilfegelegenheit); the text had spoken of a legal permit and of not finding an escape route.
• Corrected a number: two border guards discovered him on the roof.
• Corrected the East Berlin protest: protest notes (plural) to the western city commandant and the Senate, not a single letter.

Çetin Mert

• Corrected the Senate's response: as a first response (German: in einer ersten Reaktion), not “for the first time”, it had the four openings to the bank welded shut and a wire-mesh fence put up in front of the quay wall, with warning signs in German and Turkish.
• Corrected a number: he was the fourth child in three years, not three months, to drown near the Oberbaum Bridge.

Ernst Mundt

• Removed the interval “third fugitive in three weeks”, which comes from the English version of his biography; the German original says “innerhalb von zwei Wochen” (within two weeks). The profile now says that he was the third fugitive shot dead at the Wall in quick succession.
• Corrected when the cross was replaced by a memorial: half a year later, not a year later.
• The pavement slab marking the place is now attributed to his biography, with its inscription quoted in German (“Dem unbekannten Opfer der Schandmauer”, singular).
• Corrected the shooting: one man fired a warning shot and an aimed shot in quick succession (German: kurz hintereinander).
• Added who told him to get down from the wall: cemetery visitors and border guards, according to eyewitnesses.

Vladimir Ivanovich Odintsov

• Corrected who fired: he was shot by one East German policeman acting on his patrol leader's order to fire, not by “East German police” in general; the summary and the account of the shooting were changed accordingly.

Franciszek Piesik

• Corrected the water temperature: little more than ten degrees (German: kaum mehr als zehn Grad), not “no warmer than ten degrees”.
• Corrected the direction: the Polish side supplied his fingerprints to the West Berlin police in mid-January 1968, not the reverse.
• Corrected the weekday: 14 October 1967 was a Saturday, not a Sunday.
• Corrected his work: inland shipping (German: Binnenschifffahrt), not freight transport.
• Corrected a number: the Polish border officer cited one East German colleague, not several.

Giuseppe Savoca

• Corrected to whom his mother spoke: she later told the West Berlin press, not the police, that a man who wanted to rescue her son had been threatened by border guards.
• Corrected the time: he was brought out of the water about an hour after he fell in (German: etwa eine Stunde), not “almost an hour”.

Jörgen Schmidtchen

• His approach to the two men and his conversation with them are now attributed to the statement his fellow guard later gave, as in the German original.

Egon Schultz

• Corrected the summary: he was shot in the courtyard of Strelitzer Strasse 55 and died on the way to hospital, not in the courtyard.
• Corrected a number: the fatal shots (plural) came from a fellow soldier's Kalashnikov.
• Corrected the party: he became a candidate member of the SED, not of “the Communist Party”.
• Corrected the later proceedings: the private criminal complaint of May 1994 accused one escape helper; the proceedings were only later extended to others.

Olga Segler

• Removed the claim that the East German authorities believed she had survived, which appears only in the English version; according to the German biography, her escape was recorded as a successful “border breach”, and as a result an investigation was opened against her.

Günter Seling

• Corrected his origin: the German biography says he came from Stahnsdorf (German: stammt er aus Stahnsdorf), not that he was born there.

Andreas Senk

• Made clear, citing the East German boat report, that West Berlin firemen searched the river from the western bank with long poles and recovered him.

Ida Siekmann

• Corrected the timing: the front doors onto the western pavement were nailed shut or bricked up from 18 August onwards, not all “by 18 August”.
• Corrected the account of her jump: she jumped before the West Berlin fire brigade could arrive with a rescue net; the text had said the firemen “had no chance to catch her”.

Ulrich Steinhauer

• Corrected the trial court: the youth chamber of the Berlin Regional Court (Jugendkammer des Landgerichts Berlin), not a “youth court”.
• Corrected his family: he was the third of six children, not of five.

Rudolf Urban

• Corrected the account of the memorial's erection: according to newspaper reports, East Berlin police insulted the workers putting it up (German: beschimpft) and threw stones at them.

Hans-Dieter Wesa

• The shooting is now told from two attributed sources: the guard's own account, and the findings of the West Berlin police and forensic examinations that a shot in the thigh brought him down before he was killed from very close range.
• Corrected where Willy Brandt and Klaus Schütz went that evening: to the place where he died, which was on West Berlin territory, not “the death strip”.
• Corrected the attendance at the memorial service: many West Berlin police officers, not “a number”.

Siegfried Widera

• Corrected a rank: the guard posted with him was a lance corporal (German: Gefreiter), not a sergeant.
• Corrected the work under way on the East Berlin bank: excavation for sewage pipes, not canal excavation.

Günter Wiedenhöft

• Corrected the direction of his journey on 5 December 1962: from Berlin to Potsdam, not the reverse.
• Added the date and place of his earlier arrest: 11 October 1962, in Treptow.
• Corrected the ice: in that cold winter the lake was already frozen near the banks (German: in Ufernähe), not “partly frozen”.

Dieter Wohlfahrt

• Corrected what the East German reports show: that the border police lured him into an ambush (German: Hinterhalt), not that they “came at him from behind”; the reports' claim that he was armed and fired first remains attributed to them.
• Corrected the strength of the suspicion that the reports were falsified: there is good reason to suspect it (German: liegt nahe), but it cannot be proven; the text had said it was “highly likely”.
• Corrected what he and his friend did at the fence: they set to work on the barbed-wire fence with bolt cutters and pliers; the German does not say they had cut through it.

Norbert Wolscht

• Restored the hedge: he is said to have (German: soll) teamed up with Rainer Gneiser in the summer of 1963.
• Corrected the cause recorded by the East German side: failure of the breathing apparatus (German: Versagen), not a “faulty” apparatus.
• His plan to emigrate to South Africa is now attributed to his sister's account; the pen-friend was the one who had emigrated.

Hans-Joachim Zock

• Corrected the scope of a Stasi statement: it said that none of its questioning of him had ever established an offence, not that no crime had ever been established against him.
• Added his convictions of 1961 and 1965, each with a suspended sentence, recorded in the Stasi files.

How Many People Died at the Berlin Wall?

• Corrected the secret deaths: in at least 11 cases the death was not confirmed or was denied, even in response to enquiries; the text had said “neither confirmed nor denied”.
• Corrected how Peter Göring died: by a ricochet (German: Querschläger), not a “stray bullet”.
• Corrected the account of Vladimir Odintsov's death: People's Police officers searching for a deserter mistook him for the wanted man, and according to the policemen's own statements one of them fired on the order of the other.
• Corrected the study's definition: deaths in the death strip or in the border area (German: im Todesstreifen oder im Grenzgebiet), not “in no man's land”.
• The Soviet soldier is no longer described as having had “no intention of escaping”; the study's wording is used instead: there is no sign that he wanted to flee.

Who Were the First Victims of the Berlin Wall?

• Corrected the timing on Bernauer Strasse: from 18 August the front doors onto the western pavement were nailed or bricked up; not all had been sealed “by 18 August”.
• Corrected where Lothar Lehmann died: on the way to hospital that evening, not in hospital.
• Corrected the account of Ida Siekmann's jump: she jumped before the West Berlin fire brigade could come to her aid with a jumping sheet; the text had said the firemen “could not catch her”.
• Corrected Ingo Krüger's description: a sport diver (German: Sporttaucher), not an “experienced diver”; what his fiancée saw and what the border police reported about his recovery are now attributed separately.
• The circumstances of Ingo Krüger's death are now given as unclear: Stasi investigations reportedly found that his breathing apparatus had failed, while investigations in the 1990s concluded that he died of a cold shock.
• Corrected how Roland Hoff reached the canal: according to a police report he must have mingled with the workers, not “disguised himself”; his call to the border police not to shoot is now paraphrased instead of shown as a translated quotation.
• Corrected the account of Dieter Wohlfahrt's death: the shooting is attributed to his friend's account; the East German claim that he was armed and fired first, his friends' denial and the suspicion that the reports were falsified are all stated; he and his friend set to work on the fence with bolt cutters and pliers rather than “cut through” it; and the 1996 self-defence reasoning is given.
• Corrected the exchange of fire during Bernd Lünser's escape: the West Berlin and East Berlin accounts are both given, and the article now says the investigations opened in 1990 could not establish how it unfolded.
• Corrected Günter Litfin's memorials: the Kapelle-Ufer memorial is a memorial stone, and the former border troops command post was turned into a memorial site at his brother's initiative.

Who Was the Last Person Killed at the Berlin Wall?

• Corrected the Chris Gueffroy appeal: the Federal Court of Justice overturned the first verdict on 25 March 1993; 14 March 1994 is the date of the retrial verdict of the Berlin Regional Court (body and FAQ).
• Corrected Chris Gueffroy's school: the children's and youth sports school of Dynamo Berlin; the text had said “SC Dynamo”, while the German source has FC.
• Corrected the timing: Chris Gueffroy learned in early 1989 that he was to be called up, and the two friends decided in mid-January to leave.
• Corrected what the friends had heard: that the order to shoot had been suspended (German: ausgesetzt), not “lifted”.
• Corrected the shooting of Chris Gueffroy: two pairs of guards opened fire one after the other, the first as the friends ran towards the last fence and the second as they ran along it to get away from the shots.
• Corrected what Ingolf Diederichs's relatives were told: they were only to be told he had died in a fall from a moving train; and near Bornholmer Strasse only just over 20 metres separated passengers from West Berlin.
• Corrected Winfried Freudenberg's profession and outlook: an electronics engineer, not an electrical engineer; the couple saw no career prospects in East Germany, not “few”.
• Restored the hedge on Lutz Schmidt: as a young racing cyclist he had been regarded in his club as a great talent; the text had called him a former cycling talent.
• Corrected the end of the order to shoot in April 1989: the article no longer says that the order was “then revoked” as a result of Chris Gueffroy's death; according to the Federal Archives, the instruction that it was no longer to be applied was given orally and passed on to the deputy defence minister on 2 April, and a Stasi note records that the border units were instructed from the evening of 3 April.

The Children Who Died at the Berlin Wall

• Corrected the framing of the five West Berlin boys' deaths: the circumstances differed from case to case, but, according to the researchers, the border situation always played a part (German: immer auch) in why they could not be saved, rather than being presented as the sole reason (description, introduction, section opening and FAQ).
• Corrected Andreas Senk's chance of rescue: there would have been a chance of rescuing him alive only within at most eight minutes of his fall, and at that spot the chance was particularly small; the text had said he could have survived if pulled out within eight minutes.
• Corrected to whom Giuseppe Savoca's mother spoke (the West Berlin press, not the police) and how long it took to bring him out of the water (about an hour, not almost an hour).
• Corrected the Senate's response after Çetin Mert's death: it had the four passages to the embankment welded shut and a wire-mesh fence put up, not a barbed-wire fence.
• Corrected the requests for permission at the Oberbaum Bridge: they are now dated to 1972 and 1975 only, rather than presented as happening every time.
• Corrected the sequence in the death of Holger H.: his mother tried in vain to calm him and, in her panic, covered his mouth.

Border Soldiers Killed at the Berlin Wall: The Eight Guards

• Corrected Ulrich Steinhauer's trial court: the youth chamber of the Berlin Regional Court, not “a Berlin youth court”.
• Corrected Ulrich Steinhauer's family: the third of six children, not of five.
• Jörgen Schmidtchen's approach to the two men and his conversation with them are now attributed to the later statement of his fellow guard.
• Willy Brandt's words on Peter Göring's death are now given in indirect speech, without quotation marks, as in the German original.
• An escapee's words on Siegfried Widera's death are now paraphrased instead of shown as a translated quotation.
• Corrected Rolf Henniger's passenger: his platoon leader (German: Zugführer), not his guard leader, who let himself drop out of the vehicle and shot the constable dead; Henniger was added to those posthumously promoted.
• Corrected Günter Seling's origin: he came from Stahnsdorf; the German source does not say he was born there.
• Corrected Egon Schultz's death: a fellow border soldier, on the instruction of a Stasi officer, fired into the dark courtyard and hit him by mistake; the fatal shots (plural) came from his Kalashnikov (body and FAQ).

Was There a Shoot-to-Kill Order at the Berlin Wall?

• Corrected what Chris Gueffroy's friends had heard: that the order to shoot had been suspended, not “lifted”.
• Corrected the starting point: political instructions from August 1961 told guards to stop escapes with firearms; the Defence Minister's order of October 1961 applied to the army's border units (introduction and FAQ).
• The claim that the Stasi had not been informed of the April 1989 change is now attributed to the historian Hans-Hermann Hertle, and a Stasi note of 12 April 1989 is added, recording that the platoon leader of the passport control unit at Chausseestrasse had been briefed on 5 April.
• Corrected the wording of Order No. 76/61: people “evidently trying to violate the GDR's state border”, and its scope (the western border and the coast).
• Corrected the 1982 Border Law: it declared such shooting justified (a permission), not a duty to shoot (introduction and FAQ).
• Completed the Federal Constitutional Court's holding: the exclusion of criminal liability “through grounds of justification”.

Berlin Wall Shooting Trials: Guards, Generals and the Politburo

• Corrected the Chris Gueffroy appeal: the Federal Court of Justice overturned the verdict on 25 March 1993 (5 StR 418/92), not on 14 March 1994; 14 March 1994 is the date of the retrial verdict.
• Corrected the Walter Kittel case: he was shot after the guards had already stopped him, not after he had “given himself up”; the case is now presented as one of the 31 cases brought by the Neuruppin prosecutors over shootings on the outer ring, outside the Berlin figures (body and FAQ).
• Corrected the Herbert Mende case: after 1990 his father set off the investigation, and in 1998 the Attorney General of Brandenburg declined to bring charges because a conviction was not likely.
• Added to the Michael Kollender case that another guard had been convicted of attempted manslaughter and given a nine-month suspended sentence, and that on appeal the Federal Court of Justice acquitted him too.
• The usual range of sentences for guards who fired (six to 24 months, as a rule suspended) is now attributed to Hertle's overview, noting that some received longer terms (body and FAQ); Manfred Weylandt is described as hit by a bullet in the Spree and drowned.

Berlin Wall Victims Memorials: Where to Remember the Dead

• Corrected the accessibility of the Bernauer Strasse outdoor exhibition: it is barrier-free only in part, not “mostly barrier-free”.
• Corrected the Window of Remembrance: it shows a photograph of each person only where one could be found (introduction, FAQ and section).
• Corrected the 29 memorial columns: they are described as a plan announced by the Brandenburg state government in 2011, not as columns the Foundation “began putting up”; the 2009 count of more than 100 memorial sites is now in the past tense.

Michael Bittner

• Corrected the sentences of the two guards who fired (youth sentences of one year and three months) and the two later prison sentences from “commuted to probation” to “suspended on probation” (German: zur Bewährung ausgesetzt).

Willi Block

• Corrected his earlier case in West Berlin: proceedings were opened against him at the Kammergericht for violating the freedom protection law; the court did not charge him.
• Added the charge brought in 1993 against four former officers and guards: attempted manslaughter.
• Corrected the course of the trial: the main defendant was first convicted of attempted manslaughter and only after an appeal by the prosecution and a ruling of the Federal Court of Justice convicted of manslaughter, with three years in prison without probation; the Federal Court of Justice did not pass the sentence itself.

Peter Böhme

• Corrected the legal term: the proceedings against the guard who shot him were discontinued in August 1992 on the grounds of self-defence (German: eingestellt), not “dismissed”.
• Corrected the public prosecutor's conclusion: Peter Böhme was held to be guilty of the manslaughter (Totschlag), not the murder, of Jörgen Schmidtchen.

Dieter Brandes

• Corrected “charges” to a criminal complaint: the West Berlin police chief filed a criminal complaint on suspicion of manslaughter against unknown members of Border Regiment 33.
• Corrected the legal term: the proceedings were discontinued on 29 May 1996 (German: eingestellt), not “dismissed”.

Klaus Brueske

• Corrected the sentence: a suspended sentence of one year and two months (German: Bewährungsstrafe), not one year and two months “of probation”.

Christian Buttkus

• Corrected the sentence: one year and six months for manslaughter together with attempted manslaughter, suspended on probation, not one year and six months “of probation”.

Hermann Döbler

• Corrected an earlier episode in his life: he had spontaneously helped a teenage girl, not a young man, to flee to West Berlin (German: einer Jugendlichen).
• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.
• Corrected the court's finding: the man who fired had acted intentionally (German: vorsätzlich), not “with premeditation”.

Friedhelm Ehrlich

• Corrected who closed the case: the investigation was discontinued in mid-June 1994 by the prosecutors, not dismissed by a court.

Horst Einsiedel

• Corrected the sentences: prison sentences of a year and three months, suspended on probation, not a year and three months “of probation”.
• Corrected the case against their commander: it concerned aiding and abetting manslaughter and was discontinued in 2002, not “dismissed”.
• Corrected the legal term for the proceedings that ended in August 1997 under the statute of limitations: they were discontinued, not “dismissed”.

Peter Fechter

• Corrected who set the prosecution in motion: in July 1990 his sisters (plural) filed a criminal complaint; the text had said his sister “pressed charges”.
• Corrected the sentences of 20 and 21 months for the two guards from “commuted to probation” to “suspended on probation”.

Horst Frank

• Corrected the sentences: suspended sentences (German: Bewährungsstrafen), not “probation sentences”.

Lothar Fritz Freie

• Corrected the gunman's sentence: a two-year youth sentence for manslaughter, suspended on probation, not two years in prison “commuted to probation”.
• Corrected the guard leader's conviction: as a co-perpetrator (German: Mittäterschaft), not for “complicity”.
• Removed the length of the guard leader's suspended sentence (“a year and eight months”): the German biography's figure (“einem Jahr und 18 Monaten”) cannot be right as written, and the sources disagree.

Christian Peter Friese

• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.

Klaus Garten

• Corrected the legal term: the proceedings were discontinued in 1995 (German: eingestellt), not “dismissed”.

Manfred Gertzki

• Corrected the conviction: the guard leader who fired from 300 metres was convicted of attempted manslaughter with conditional intent, not “second-degree manslaughter”, and sentenced under juvenile law to one year, suspended on probation.

Peter Göring

• Corrected the legal term: in July 1991 the proceedings against the West Berlin police officer believed to have fired the fatal shot were discontinued (German: eingestellt), not “dropped”.
• Corrected the 1996 proceedings over the shots at the 14-year-old fugitive: June 1996 was when three former guards were charged, not when they stood trial; they were later acquitted because it could not be established who had fired.

Peter Grohganz

• Corrected an earlier sentence against him: a week later a military court sentenced him to four months in prison, suspended with a year's probation; the sentence was not “later changed” to probation.

René Gross

• Corrected the legal term: two months later the East German military prosecutor closed the investigation (German: eingestellt); it was not merely “suspended”.
• Corrected the 2004 verdict: the Berlin Regional Court convicted the one guard who had shot Manfred Mäder, not “the two guards”, of manslaughter and gave him a ten-month prison sentence, suspended on probation.

Chris Gueffroy

• Corrected “charges” to a criminal complaint: in January 1990 his mother filed a criminal complaint against persons unknown (Strafanzeige gegen Unbekannt).
• Corrected the 1991 step: four former guards were charged that year, which began the first of many such trials; they did not “go on trial” in 1991.
• Corrected the retrial sentence: two years, this time suspended on probation, not “commuted to probation”.

Lutz Haberlandt

• Corrected the March 1996 verdict: he was convicted of manslaughter and given a youth sentence of a year and a half, suspended on probation, not “a year and a half on probation”.

Herbert Halli

• Corrected the sentence: a one-year prison sentence, suspended on probation, not “a year's probation”.

Axel Hannemann

• Corrected the sentence: the two-year prison sentence was suspended on probation, not “commuted to probation”.

Jörg Hartmann

• Corrected the 1997 verdict: the Berlin Regional Court gave the former guard a twenty-month suspended sentence, not “twenty months' probation”.

Peter Hauptmann

• Corrected “charges” to a criminal complaint: his widow filed a criminal complaint for negligent homicide against the border troops.
• Corrected the legal term: the proceedings were discontinued in December 1996, not “dismissed”.

Walter Hayn

• Corrected “pressed charges”: in 1991 his brother filed a criminal complaint.
• Corrected the sentence from “commuted to probation” to “suspended on probation” (German: zur Bewährung ausgesetzt).

Lothar Hennig

• Corrected the 1996 verdict: on 26 June 1996 the Potsdam Regional Court (not district court) convicted the guard who fired of bodily injury resulting in death and gave him a youth sentence of one year and two months, suspended on probation.

Wolfgang Hoffmann

• Corrected the legal term: the Berlin public prosecutor discontinued the proceedings, not “dismissed the case”.

Reinhold Huhn

• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.
• Corrected the sentence from “commuted to probation” to “suspended on probation” (German: auf Bewährung).

Heinz Jercha

• Corrected the outcome of the proceedings: no court was involved; the proceedings were discontinued without charges being brought, because it was accepted in the Stasi agents' favour that they had been trying to arrest an armed West Berliner who had entered East German territory illegally, so the shooting could not be prosecuted as manslaughter.

Marienetta Jirkowsky

• Corrected “murder charges”: a criminal complaint for murder was filed against the East German defence minister.
• Corrected the sentence: a youth sentence of one year and three months, suspended on probation, not “commuted to probation”.

Rolf-Dieter Kabelitz

• Corrected the outcome: on 15 August 1994 the Berlin prosecutors discontinued the investigation without bringing charges; they did not “dismiss the case without an arraignment”.

Herbert Kiebler

• Corrected the name of the court: the Potsdam Regional Court (Landgericht Potsdam), not the “Potsdam district court”.
• Corrected the sentences: suspended sentences of 24 and 15 months, not “probationary sentences”.

Walter Kittel

• Corrected his 1964 sentence: nine months in prison, suspended with two years' probation, not “commuted to” probation.

Helmut Kliem

• Corrected the 1997 verdict: the Potsdam Regional Court (not district court) convicted the gunman of manslaughter together with attempted manslaughter and gave him a youth sentence of one year and eight months, suspended on probation.

Klaus-Jürgen Kluge

• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.
• Corrected the charge against two others: aiding and abetting manslaughter (German: Beihilfe zum Totschlag).

Horst Körner

• Corrected the legal term: the investigation opened in 1992 was discontinued in 1994 (German: eingestellt), not “dismissed”.

Michael Kollender

• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.

Peter Kreitlow

• Corrected the sentences: prison terms of between ten and 18 months, as the German biography gives them.

Siegfried Krug

• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.
• Corrected the sentence: a two-year suspended sentence, not “two years' probation”.

Ulrich Krzemien

• Corrected the legal term: the investigation was discontinued (German: eingestellt), not “dismissed”.

Karl-Heinz Kube

• Corrected “file charges”: his father went to file a criminal complaint against persons unknown.

Werner Kühl

• Corrected the May 2000 verdict: one of the two guards was convicted of manslaughter as a co-perpetrator and given a youth sentence of a year and two months, suspended on probation, not “a year and two months' probation”.

Erich Kühn

• Corrected the 1995 verdict: the Berlin Regional Court (not district court) gave each of the three former border soldiers a one-year prison or youth sentence, suspended on probation; some were youth sentences.

Czesław Jan Kukuczka

• Corrected the offence for which a Polish court had earlier sentenced him: alleged embezzlement (German: Unterschlagung), not fraud.

Horst Kullack

• Corrected “charges”: his uncle filed a criminal complaint.
• Corrected the date: 1 November 1995 was the date of the verdict, not of the charges; on that day the two guards were convicted of joint manslaughter and each given a youth sentence of a year and three months, suspended on probation.

Horst Kutscher

• Corrected the court that rejected the family's claim: the Treptow district labour court (Stadtbezirksarbeitsgericht), not a district court.
• Corrected the sentence: a year and three months in prison, suspended on probation, not a year and three months “on probation”.

Johannes Lange

• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.
• Corrected the sentence: a youth sentence of a year and three months, suspended on probation.

Leo Lis

• Corrected the legal term: the investigation was discontinued in April 1997, not the case “dismissed”.

Günter Litfin

• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.
• Corrected the sentences of one year and of one year and six months: both were suspended on probation; the guards were not “then released on probation”.

Bernd Lünser

• Corrected the outcome of the trial: the only defendant was acquitted; the text had spoken of several defendants.

Manfred Mäder

• Corrected the legal term: the East German military prosecutor's investigation was closed two months later (German: eingestellt), not “suspended”.
• Corrected the verdict: the Berlin Regional Court gave the one guard who shot Manfred Mäder, not “the men”, a ten-month prison sentence, suspended on probation, for a less serious case of manslaughter.

Peter Mädler

• Corrected the verdict: the Potsdam Regional Court (not district court) gave both guards prison sentences of a year and three months, suspended on probation, not “probationary sentences”.

Willi Marzahn

• Corrected the legal term: the case against the border soldiers was discontinued (German: eingestellt), not “dismissed”.

Joachim Mehr

• Corrected the 1994 verdict: the Potsdam Regional Court (not district court) sentenced the former non-commissioned officer to 18 months in prison, suspended on probation, not “18 months' probation”.

Herbert Mende

• Corrected the legal term: the case was discontinued in autumn 1996 (German: eingestellt), not “dismissed”.

Heinz Müller

• Corrected the sentence: a two-year youth sentence, suspended on probation, not two years' imprisonment “commuted to probation”.

Dr. Johannes Muschol

• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.
• Corrected the later proceedings: it was an investigation into perverting the course of justice and shielding offenders, with senior Stasi officers among the suspects, and it was discontinued in 1998; no charges had been brought.

Burkhard Niering

• Corrected “criminal charges”: his mother filed a criminal complaint (Strafantrag).
• Corrected the date: September 1997 is when the Berlin prosecutors discontinued their investigation, not when they opened it.

Horst Plischke

• Corrected the legal term: on 3 May 1995 the Berlin prosecutors discontinued their investigation, not “dismissed the case”.

Werner Probst

• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.

Silvio Proksch

• Corrected the verdict: the Berlin Regional Court (not district court) gave the gunman a prison sentence of a year and nine months, suspended on probation, not a “probationary sentence”.

Otfried Reck

• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.

Max Sahmland

• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.

Lothar Schleusener

• Corrected the 1997 verdict: the Berlin Regional Court (not district court) gave the former guard a 20-month suspended sentence, not “20 months' probation”.
• Corrected the outcome of the proceedings over the false death certificate: they were discontinued without result in August 1997.

Heinz Schmidt

• Corrected one of his earlier offences: embezzlement (German: Unterschlagung), not fraud.
• Corrected the step taken against the West Berlin police officers at the scene: a criminal complaint was filed against them for failing to help a person in danger; they did not face charges.

Lutz Schmidt

• Corrected the verdict: the Berlin Regional Court (not district court) gave each guard two years, one as a youth sentence and the other as a prison sentence, both suspended on probation; the text had said both were sentenced as youths and that the sentences were “commuted”.

Michael Schmidt

• Corrected the proceedings over the delay in getting him medical help: an investigation into killing by omission was discontinued in March 1992; no charges had been brought.
• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.

Dorit Schmiel

• Corrected the sentences of 18 months from “commuted to probation” to “suspended on probation”.

Heinz Schöneberger

• Corrected the legal term: the West Berlin manslaughter investigation was discontinued in 1967 (German: eingestellt), not “dismissed”.
• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.

Egon Schultz

• Corrected who ended the proceedings against the soldier who fired the fatal shots: the prosecutors discontinued them, accepting self-defence and that he had fired on orders; no court was involved.
• Corrected the later proceedings against the escape helpers: they arose from criminal complaints, which his mother supported, and were discontinued in the summer of 1999; no charges had been brought.

Paul Schultz

• Corrected the 1995 verdict: the Berlin Regional Court (not district court) imposed an 18-month suspended sentence, not “18 months' probation”.

Eberhard Schulz

• Corrected the legal term: the investigation was discontinued in November 1996, not the case “dismissed”.

Klaus Schulze

• Corrected the legal term: the proceedings against one defendant were discontinued because he was permanently unfit to stand trial, not “dismissed”.
• Corrected the name of the court: the Potsdam Regional Court (Landgericht Potsdam), not the “Potsdam district court”.

Dietmar Schwietzer

• Corrected the verdict: the Potsdam Regional Court (not district court) gave the other three youth sentences of one year and three months each for joint manslaughter, suspended on probation, not “commuted to probation”.

Johannes Sprenger

• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court, not the “Berlin state court”.
• Corrected the sequence: the truth about his death came to light in 1997 in the course of the criminal investigation of the guards who shot him; the Berlin Regional Court later sentenced both, for joint manslaughter, to nine months in prison each, suspended on probation.

Hans-Jürgen Starrost

• Corrected the proceedings against the People's Police officer: an investigation for attempted killing was discontinued in June 1995; no charges of attempted manslaughter had been brought.

Ulrich Steinhauer

• Corrected the legal term: the sentence was eventually reduced (German: herabgesetzt) to four years and nine months, on probation, not “commuted”.

Paul Stretz

• Corrected the 1997 verdict: the Berlin Regional Court (not district court) gave the guards who shot him one year in prison, suspended on probation, not “commuted to probation”.

Gerald Thiem

• Corrected the verdict: the Berlin Regional Court (not district court) gave each of the two guards a youth sentence of one year and three months, suspended on probation, not prison “commuted to probation”.

Hildegard Trabant

• Corrected the sentence of a year and nine months from “commuted to probation” to “suspended on probation”.

Unidentified fugitive

• Corrected the outcome: in 1995 the Berlin prosecutors closed their preliminary investigation without solving the case or finding new evidence; they did not “dismiss” it.

Anton Walzer

• Corrected the August 1994 verdict: the Berlin Regional Court (not district court) imposed one and a half years in prison, suspended on probation, not “commuted to probation”.

Elke Weckeiser and Dieter Weckeiser

• Corrected the name of the court: the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin), not the “Berlin district court”.
• Corrected the sentence: a suspended sentence of one year and nine months, not “a probation term” of that length.

Christel Wehage and Eckhard Wehage

• Corrected Eckhard Wehage's earlier sentence as a 15-year-old: an eight-month prison sentence on probation, not “eight months' probation”.
• Corrected the legal term: the investigation opened in 1996 was discontinued in June 1997, not “dismissed”.

Henri Weise

• Corrected an earlier episode: instead of a passport he was reported to the police (Anzeige) on suspicion of preparing to cross the border illegally; he was not charged.

Manfred Weylandt

• Corrected the outcome: 21 years after his death the Berlin Regional Court convicted the two guards of joint manslaughter and gave them youth sentences of a year and ten months, suspended on probation; the text had said that they were “indicted”, without naming the court or saying that they were convicted, and had described the sentences as prison “commuted to probation”.

Siegfried Widera

• Corrected the West German proceedings against the escapees: the investigation was discontinued in April 1969; no charges had been brought.
• Corrected the reason: it could not be proven that they had committed intentional or joint manslaughter (German: vorsätzlichen oder gemeinschaftlichen Totschlag); the text had spoken of premeditation.

Dieter Wohlfahrt

• Corrected the outcome: the criminal investigation of the former border policemen (plural) who shot him was discontinued in 1996 on the grounds that, given the doubt, they had to be assumed to have acted in self-defence; the text had spoken of one border policeman, of proceedings “dismissed”, and of self-defence he “may have” acted in.

Hans-Joachim Wolf

• Corrected the second sentence: in September that year the court sentenced the other defendant for manslaughter to one year and four months, not a year and a half, suspended on probation.

Eduard Wroblewski

• Corrected the name of the court: the Potsdam Regional Court (Landgericht Potsdam), not the “Potsdam district court”.
• Corrected the sentences: 18-month suspended sentences for manslaughter, not “18 months probation”.