# Victims of the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: complete text

> Remembering the 140 people who were killed at the Berlin Wall or died in connection with the East German border regime between 1961 and 1989: their lives, the circumstances of their deaths, and where they died.

Source: https://victimsofthewall.com/ (Berlin Experiences). Facts from the research project "The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989"
(Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation), published on Chronik der Mauer.

## Key facts

- At least 140 people died at the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989, according to the research project of the Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF) and the Berlin Wall Foundation (findings dated August 2017, by Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke).
- They were 101 people trying to escape; 30 people from East and West with no intention of escaping, and one Soviet soldier; and eight East German border soldiers killed on duty.
- Ida Siekmann was the first to die, on 22 August 1961; two days later Günter Litfin became the first person to be shot dead at the Wall. Chris Gueffroy, shot on 5 February 1989, was hit by what his biography calls the last fatal bullets fired at the Berlin Wall. Winfried Freudenberg fell to his death from a balloon over Berlin-Zehlendorf on 8 March 1989.
- Separately from the 140, at least 251 travellers, most of them elderly, died before, during or after passing through a Berlin checkpoint, mostly of heart attacks.

---

# How Many People Died at the Berlin Wall?

> At least 140 people died at the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989: 101 escapees, 30 people with no intent to escape, a Soviet soldier and eight border guards.

Published 24 September 2026, updated 28 September 2026. Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/how-many-people-died-at-the-berlin-wall/

At least 140 people died at the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989. They were 101 people trying to escape; 30 people from East and West who had no intention of escaping, together with one Soviet soldier; and eight East German border soldiers killed on duty. The figure comes from a research project of the Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (ZZF) and the Berlin Wall Foundation, and its findings, dated August 2017, were written up by Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke.

The same research found that at least 251 travellers, most of them elderly, died at Berlin's border checkpoints, before, during or after the border check. They are not part of the 140 and are discussed separately below. Every one of the 140 has a profile in the [list of victims](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/).

## Earlier estimates

When the project began in 2005, 15 years after the East German archives had been opened, there was still no reliable count. The figures in circulation varied with the basis, purpose and date of the counting: 78 (the Central Registry of State Judicial Administrations in Salzgitter), 86 (the Berlin Public Prosecution Service), 92 (the Berlin Police President) and 122 (the Central Investigation Office for Government and Unification Criminality), while the Working Group 13 August put the number at more than 200. Many of the victims' names, and the circumstances of their deaths, were still largely unknown.

## How the GDR tried to conceal deaths

Many deaths at the Wall became known to the public and to relatives and could not be covered up, but the GDR tried to keep shootings as secret as possible. To that end, the Ministry of State Security (Stasi) was made responsible for dealing with the dead. In more than 30 cases, relatives were informed of a death, usually without being told the exact circumstances, and were then either obliged to stay silent or give others a false account, or were themselves lied to about the cause of death. In at least 11 cases, even in response to enquiries, the death was not confirmed or was denied, and the victim's name was kept secret although the Stasi knew it. One of them was [Roland Hoff](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hoff-roland/), shot in the Teltow Canal in August 1961, whose name the East German authorities never disclosed.

## How the 140 were counted

The researchers first had to decide who counts as a victim of the Berlin Wall. The deciding criterion is either an escape background or a link in time and place between the death and the border regime. Deaths caused by force of arms and deaths from accidents in the border installations both count, whether the person died directly in the death strip or in the border area, or in hospital hours, days, weeks or months later. [Herbert Mende](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mende-herbert/) died years later: he was shot at the Glienicke Bridge on 8 July 1962 and died of the effects of his gunshot wounds on 10 March 1968. The definition therefore also takes in deaths that the criminal prosecutions of violence at the border did not cover, because those prosecutions concentrated solely on cases in which the involvement of another person could be proven.

Between 2005 and 2009 the team looked into 576 deaths and suspected cases in all. It was also the first project able to use the files that the public prosecutors in Berlin and Neuruppin had compiled on violence at the Wall: more than 150 investigation files and over 70 preliminary investigation files. The Stasi records archive supplied files on more than 100 deaths and suspected cases, and some 300 cases were researched in the records of the GDR defence ministry, the border troops and the military prosecutors at the Federal Archives Military Archive. The team also sought contact with victims' families and friends, and succeeded in more than 70 cases.

Among the findings of the case reviews:

- **At least 140** people were victims of the Berlin Wall.
- **24 cases** could not be classified either way: 16 in which the surviving archive material did not settle the question, all of them unidentified bodies recovered from the water, and eight for which no archive material could be found.
- **164 suspected cases** were ruled out, because there was neither an escape background nor a link in time and place with the border regime, or because nobody had died. They include escapees who survived shootings with severe injuries.

The project ended in 2009, but further suspected cases were investigated afterwards, and four people were added to the list: [Peter Grohganz](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/grohganz-peter/), [Czesław Jan Kukuczka](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kukuczka-czesaw-jan/), [Vladimir Ivanovich Odintsov](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/odintsov-vladimir-ivanovich/) and [Hans-Joachim Zock](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/zock-hans-joachim/). The study presents its figure as a minimum ("at least 140"), and the 24 cases that could be neither confirmed nor ruled out are not included.

## Who the 140 victims were

### 101 escapees

Of the 101 people who died trying to escape, 68 were shot dead. Thirty died in accidents during their escape, among them people who fell to their deaths on Bernauer Strasse and people who drowned in Berlin's border waters. Three took their own lives after their escape attempts had failed. All but two of the escapees were citizens of the GDR, and ten of them were military deserters; the two exceptions were Polish citizens. Eight of the 101 were women.

Most escapees came from East Berlin and the surrounding area. The researchers note that those who tried to escape in the first period after the Wall was built belonged mainly to the war and post-war generation, who had known the open border, while later escapees belonged to a generation largely raised in the GDR that had not consciously experienced it.

### 30 people with no intent to escape, and a Soviet soldier

The second group is made up of 30 people from East and West who were killed, or died in accidents, although they were not trying to escape, and one Soviet soldier. Twenty-two of these 31 were residents of or visitors to West Berlin. Fifteen of them were shot, among them escape helpers, and seven died in accidents, five of them children (see [children who died at the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/children-who-died-at-the-berlin-wall/)). The group also includes eight GDR citizens who were shot in the border area although they had no intention of escaping, and the 18-year-old Soviet soldier Vladimir Ivanovich Odintsov, of whom the study says there is no sign that he wanted to flee: he was shot dead in the immediate vicinity of the border area after People's Police officers searching for a deserter mistook him for the wanted man; according to the policemen's own statements, quoted in his biography, one of them fired on the order of the other.

### Eight border soldiers

The third group consists of eight GDR border soldiers killed on duty: by military deserters, fellow soldiers, escapees, an escape helper or, in one case, a ricochet from a West Berlin police officer's gun. Their stories, and how the GDR portrayed seven of them as heroes, are told in [border soldiers killed at the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/border-soldiers-killed-at-the-berlin-wall/).

## Where the victims died

About two thirds of the deaths happened on the sector border running through the city. The other 47 people died on the "outer ring", the border between West Berlin and the surrounding GDR territory in Brandenburg: 34 escapees, eight people from East and West with no intention of escaping, the Soviet soldier and four border guards.

## When the deaths happened

According to the study, roughly half of the 140 deaths happened in the first five years of the Wall's existence; counting 1966 as well, the share is just under 60 per cent. Twelve people died in 1961, in the four and a half months after the border was sealed, and 22 in 1962, the highest figure of any year. The first to die was [Ida Siekmann](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/siekmann-ida/) on 22 August 1961, and two days later [Günter Litfin](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/litfin-guenter/) became the first person to be shot dead at the Wall (see [the first victims of the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/first-victims-of-the-berlin-wall/)).

The researchers identify two turning points. From 1967 the number of deaths fell significantly, mainly because of the technical modernisation of the border begun in 1966, the so-called "modern border". A second change came from 1976. Between 1961 and 1975, 120 people died in connection with the border regime (85.7 per cent of all victims); in the almost equally long period from 1976 to 1989 there were 20 (14.3 per cent). The study attributes this mainly to further technical upgrades such as the electronic "border signal fence 74" and the "border wall 75", and to tighter guarding of the area in front of the Wall. It also points to the Helsinki Accords of August 1975: escape attempts fell, while applications to emigrate, which were less dangerous, rose. The study's table records no deaths at all in 1976, 1978, 1985 and 1988.

The last deaths came in 1989. [Chris Gueffroy](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gueffroy-chris/), shot on 5 February 1989, was hit by what his biography calls the last fatal bullets fired at the Berlin Wall. [Winfried Freudenberg](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/freudenberg-winfried/) fell to his death from a balloon over Berlin-Zehlendorf on 8 March 1989; his biography calls him "the last person to die in Berlin as a consequence of the Berlin Wall" (see [the last victims of the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/last-victims-of-the-berlin-wall/)).

## The 251 travellers who died at the border checkpoints

Separately from the 140, the study found that at least 251 travellers from East and West, most of them elderly, died at a Berlin checkpoint, before, during or after the border check, mostly of heart attacks. The Friedrichstrasse Station crossing alone accounted for at least 227 of these deaths. Of those 227, 164 were citizens of the GDR, 40 were West Berliners and 20 came from West Germany; one was a Czechoslovak citizen, and two were GDR citizens who had been given permission to emigrate to West Germany and were about to cross.

In most cases the records say nothing about exactly where or how these people died, and whether a death happened before, during or after the checks, or even in the course of an interrogation, often cannot be established. For that reason, the researchers write, not every one of these deaths was necessarily linked to the border regime. At the same time, they stress that these deaths cannot be seen in isolation from the Wall, and that more research is needed.

The 140 do include people who died after being shot at a crossing point in connection with an escape. [Klaus Brueske](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/brueske-klaus/) was shot at the wheel of a lorry as he broke through the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse crossing in April 1962 and died after it crashed on the West Berlin side; [Burkhard Niering](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/niering-burkhard/) was shot at Checkpoint Charlie in January 1974, and Czesław Jan Kukuczka at the Friedrichstrasse Station crossing in March 1974. [Heinz Schöneberger](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schoeneberger-heinz/), a West German, had entered East Berlin as a visitor to bring two women out hidden in a car; when the hiding place was discovered at the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse crossing in December 1965, he tried to break through and was shot a few metres short of the border line.

## What about the inner-German border?

The 140 cover only the Berlin Wall. A separate study by the Research Association SED State (Forschungsverbund SED-Staat) at the Free University of Berlin, presented in 2017, counted 327 deaths caused by the border regime on the GDR's western border between 1949 and 1989, after checking 1,492 suspected cases. That study counts differently: it begins in 1949, well before the Wall, and it also includes, for example, 44 suicides of border police and soldiers with a service-related background and people who were arrested in the border area and executed in Moscow. According to the university, 262 of the 327 deaths fall into groups that correspond to the categories of the Berlin study. The researchers argued that the executions and suicides also belong among the victims of the border regime: for the executions, they pointed out that all the arrests had been made in the border area and that the verdicts referred to border service or to escapes; for the suicides, they cited indications of a possible link with the pressures of everyday service at the border.

Its count has been disputed. In a review published in 2019 in the Federal Agency for Civic Education's *Deutschland Archiv*, the historian Michael Kubina criticised the inclusion of suicides of border guards and of people executed in Moscow, as well as the counting of deaths from before the Wall was built, most of which, by his count, were not escape attempts. He also argued that the study interpreted a causal link ("kausaler Zusammenhang") with the border regime considerably more broadly than Hertle and Nooke had for Berlin. The 327 concern the border between Lübeck Bay and the former Czechoslovakia, not Berlin, and the two studies do not define their victims in the same way.

## Remembering the 140

The researchers wrote a biography of every one of the 140 people. Their stated aim was to give each victim a face and a story, and to rescue them from the oblivion imposed by the SED regime or, in the case of the border soldiers killed on duty, from the regime's use of them for its own purposes. Those biographies are the basis of the profiles on this site. Places in Berlin where the victims are remembered are described in [Berlin Wall victims memorials](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-victims-memorials/), and surviving sections of the Wall itself can be found at [Where Is the Wall](https://whereisthewall.com).

## Questions and answers

**How many people died at the Berlin Wall?**

At least 140 people died at the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989, according to the joint research project of the Berlin Wall Foundation and the Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam (findings as of August 2017).

**Who were the 140 victims of the Berlin Wall?**

101 were escapees who were shot, had fatal accidents or took their own lives after a failed escape. 31 form a second group: 30 people from East and West who had no intention of escaping, and one Soviet soldier of whom the study says there is no sign that he wanted to flee. Eight were East German border soldiers killed on duty.

**How many people were shot at the Berlin Wall?**

The study states that 68 of the 101 escapees were shot dead. Of the 31 people in the second group, 15 West Berlin residents or visitors, eight GDR citizens and the Soviet soldier were shot. These figures do not include the eight border soldiers killed on duty.

**Are the at least 251 travellers who died at Berlin checkpoints included in the 140?**

No. The researchers counted at least 251 travellers, most of them elderly, who died at a Berlin checkpoint, before, during or after the border check, mostly of heart attacks. They are listed separately from the 140; the records rarely show exactly where or how these people died, and the researchers write that not every one of these deaths was necessarily linked to the border regime. The 140 do include people who died after being shot at a crossing point in connection with an escape: for example Czesław Jan Kukuczka at Friedrichstrasse Station in 1974, and Heinz Schöneberger, a West German who had entered East Berlin as a visitor and was shot at the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse crossing in December 1965 while trying to bring two women out hidden in a car.

**Why were earlier estimates so different?**

Before the project began in 2005, figures ranged from 78 to more than 200; according to the study, they varied with the basis, purpose and date of the counting. Many of the victims' names, and the circumstances of their deaths, were still largely unknown.

## Sources

1. Hertle/Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project (2017): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/
2. Chronik der Mauer: Herbert Mende: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180554/mende-herbert
3. Chronik der Mauer: Chris Gueffroy: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180603/gueffroy-chris
4. Chronik der Mauer: Roland Hoff: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180481/hoff-roland
5. Chronik der Mauer: Winfried Freudenberg: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180604/freudenberg-winfried
6. Chronik der Mauer: Olga Segler: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180483/segler-olga
7. Chronik der Mauer: Günter Litfin: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180480/litfin-guenter
8. Freie Universität Berlin press release on the inner-German border study (2017): https://www.fu-berlin.de/presse/informationen/fup/2017/fup_17_155-studie-opfer-des-ddr-grenzregimes/index.html
9. Michael Kubina, Wer war Opfer des Grenzregimes? Eine andere Sicht, Deutschland Archiv (bpb), 2019: https://www.bpb.de/themen/deutschlandarchiv/295024/wer-war-opfer-des-grenzregimes-eine-andere-sicht/

Cite as: “How Many People Died at the Berlin Wall?”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/how-many-people-died-at-the-berlin-wall/

---

# Who Were the First Victims of the Berlin Wall?

> Ida Siekmann was the first person to die at the Berlin Wall, on 22 August 1961; Günter Litfin was the first to be shot dead. Twelve people died there in 1961.

Published 24 September 2026, updated 27 September 2026. Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/first-victims-of-the-berlin-wall/

The first person to die at the Berlin Wall was [Ida Siekmann](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/siekmann-ida/), who jumped from her third-floor window on Bernauer Strasse on 22 August 1961, nine days after the border was sealed. The first person to be shot dead was [Günter Litfin](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/litfin-guenter/), killed in the Humboldt Harbor two days later, on 24 August 1961. By the end of that year twelve people had died at the Wall.

Their deaths fell in the first weeks and months after the East German leadership sealed the sector border on 13 August 1961. In the first few days the border was not yet completely guarded, and many East Berliners still found ways across. The researchers who established the total of [140 victims](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/how-many-people-died-at-the-berlin-wall/) note that, in the first period after the Wall was built, most escapees belonged to the war and post-war generation: they had known the open border, and many had relatives in the West or, before the border was closed, had lived in the East and worked in the West.

## Bernauer Strasse: the first deaths

Bernauer Strasse was one of the first places where the new border took lives. The apartment buildings on its south side stood in the East Berlin district of Mitte, but the street and the pavement in front of their doors belonged to Wedding, in West Berlin. After 13 August residents tried to flee from these border houses. From 18 August the authorities began nailing up or bricking in the front doors that opened onto the western pavement and making new entrances through the back courtyards, and members of the factory militias and the police checked everyone who wanted to enter a building or flat. Many residents jumped from their windows or let themselves down on ropes, while West Berlin firemen held rescue nets below.

### Rudolf Urban

[Rudolf Urban](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/urban-rudolf/), a 47-year-old driver, lived with his wife at Bernauer Strasse 1, the building in which he had been born. According to his wife, the decision to leave came on the evening of 18 August, when the couple heard the building's front door being nailed shut. The next day, 19 August 1961, they tied a rope to their window frame and let themselves down to the street, but both slipped and were injured. Rudolf Urban had crushed his heel bone. He caught pneumonia in the West Berlin Lazarus Hospital and died there on 17 September 1961. Although he was hurt three days before Ida Siekmann's fall, he died almost four weeks after her.

### Ida Siekmann

Ida Siekmann, born on 23 August 1902 in Gorken, a village then in West Prussia and now in Poland, lived alone at Bernauer Strasse 48. Her sister lived just a few blocks away in West Berlin. On 21 August she saw the entrance to her building barricaded. Early on 22 August she threw her bedding and a few possessions out of the window, then jumped from the third floor herself, before the West Berlin fire brigade could come to her aid with a jumping sheet. She died on the way to the nearby Lazarus Hospital, a day before she would have turned 59. In West Berlin her death caused widespread indignation; her funeral on 29 August, at the Municipal Cemetery on Seestrasse in Wedding, was attended by many West Berliners.

### Olga Segler

[Olga Segler](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/segler-olga/) was 80 years old and lived at Bernauer Strasse 34; her daughter lived a short distance away in West Berlin. In September the situation on Bernauer Strasse grew worse: on the morning of 24 September a large-scale clearance began, and 2,000 people were to leave their homes, most of them against their will. The next day Olga Segler jumped from her second-floor window as her daughter waited on the pavement below. The firemen caught her in their net, but she injured her back and was taken to the Lazarus Hospital. She died the following day, 26 September 1961, of a heart condition that the agitation of the escape had made fatal.

### Bernd Lünser

[Bernd Lünser](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/luenser-bernd/), a 22-year-old from Friedrichshain, had been studying at an engineering school in West Berlin when the border was closed; according to his father, he was determined to finish his studies there. On the evening of 4 October 1961 he climbed onto the rooftops, planning to reach the corner of Bernauer Strasse and let himself down on a clothes line, but border guards discovered him. After a struggle with one of his pursuers on the roof of Bernauer Strasse 44, he jumped, missed the firemen's net by a few metres and died instantly. Shots were fired during the pursuit, and for the first time since the Wall was built, West Berlin police fired at East Berlin border guards. According to the West Berlin police, they returned fire only after shots from the other side had endangered police officers, firemen and residents; East Berlin police and Stasi reports claimed instead that the West Berlin police had opened fire without any shot having been fired towards the West. Even the investigations opened in 1990 could not establish exactly how the exchange of fire unfolded.

## Günter Litfin: the first person shot dead

Günter Litfin was born in Berlin on 19 January 1937 and lived in Weissensee. A trained tailor, he worked in a West Berlin workshop and dreamed of making costumes for the theatre. He had taken a flat in Charlottenburg, but after his father died in May 1961, his brother later said, he felt a particular duty to stand by their mother, and he put off the move. The Wall ended those plans.

Shortly after 4 p.m. on 24 August 1961 he tried to get from East to West Berlin between Friedrichstrasse and Lehrter Bahnhof stations. According to East Berlin police reports, he crossed the grounds of the Charité Hospital and climbed a wall to the bank of the Spree, where transport police spotted him. From a railway bridge they called on him to stop and fired warning shots, then opened fire when he jumped into the Humboldt Harbor. He was hit in the back of the head just before he reached the West Berlin bank. Crowds of West Berliners gathered on the far side of the harbour and saw the body removed. The East Berlin press portrayed him as a criminal. The Stasi harassed his family: his brother was arrested and interrogated all night, and his mother's flat was searched. They first learned that he had been shot dead from the West Berlin news programme *Abendschau*, which reported his death on 26 August.

In 1997 the Berlin Regional Court found two former transport policemen who had fired at him guilty of joint manslaughter and gave them suspended sentences of one year and of one year and six months. A memorial stone on Kapelle-Ufer in Mitte, near the place where he tried to escape, remembers him as the first victim of the order to shoot in Berlin. At the initiative of his brother Jürgen, the former command post of the border troops by the Spandau shipping canal was turned into a memorial site that keeps his memory alive, and in 2000 a street in Weissensee was named after him.

## Roland Hoff in the Teltow Canal

Five days later, on 29 August 1961, [Roland Hoff](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hoff-roland/) became the third person to die at the Wall. Born in Hanover on 19 March 1934, he had moved to East Germany in June 1961 and soon wrote to his mother that he was thinking of coming back. He apparently spoke out against the border closure at work and was dismissed. In Teltow, according to a police report, he must have managed to mingle with the workers clearing the canal bank and so reach the water; he jumped into the Teltow Canal at about 2 p.m. and swam towards Lichterfelde in West Berlin. When the first shots were fired he called out to the border police not to shoot, but four of them kept firing until he was hit in the head.

The East German authorities knew who he was but never revealed his name, and his family was not told. A West Berlin newspaper reported the death of an unknown fugitive, and a year later a memorial stone to the unknown refugee was unveiled on the western bank. Only after the East German archives were opened was the dead man identified as Roland Hoff. After the Wall fell, three former border guards were tried, but the court could not establish which of them had fired the fatal shot.

## Autumn and winter 1961: the rivers and canals

From October, most of the deaths happened in the water.

- **[Udo Düllick](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/duellick-udo/)**, a 25-year-old engineer with the East German railway, tried to swim across the Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge late on 5 October 1961. Border guards fired at him and a boat pursued him. He sank just short of the western bank; his body had no bullet wounds; according to the post-mortem, he had drowned from exhaustion after the pursuit. At least 2,500 people gathered for a memorial service for the then unidentified man on the Gröbenufer in Kreuzberg on 7 October.
- **[Werner Probst](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/probst-werner/)**, 25, entered the Spree beneath the Schilling Bridge on the evening of 14 October 1961. Border guards opened fire on him as he swam. Already wounded in the temple and thigh, he reached the ladder on the West Berlin quay wall and was pulling himself up the rungs when he was fatally hit and collapsed. In 1995 the Berlin Regional Court convicted three former border guards of joint manslaughter.
- **[Lothar Lehmann](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/lehmann-lothar/)**, 19, had begun his military service in September 1961 and was serving in a police unit that guarded the border between the Potsdam district and West Berlin. On 26 November 1961, while repairing boats on the Havel at Sacrow, he entered the water in a life jacket to swim to West Berlin. The cold water evidently caused a shock and he lost consciousness; border guards pulled him out of the water, and he died that evening on the way to hospital. His parents were told not to speak about the escape attempt, and at his funeral his death could only be spoken of as an accident.
- **[Ingo Krüger](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/krueger-ingo/)**, 21, a trained cook and a sport diver, was engaged to a woman in West Berlin. Late on 10 December 1961 he entered the Spree in a diving suit. From the West Berlin bank his fiancée watched East German customs officials search the water from a boat and pull a body out; according to East Berlin border police reports, he was already dead when he was recovered near the Marschall Bridge. The records differ on whether he died on 10 or 11 December, and the exact circumstances of his death remain unclear: Stasi investigations reportedly found that his breathing apparatus had failed, while investigations in the 1990s concluded that he died of a cold shock.
- **[Georg Feldhahn](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/feldhahn-georg/)**, 20, was a border policeman who disappeared from his post near the Massante Bridge on the Teltow Canal while trying to desert. He is recorded as having drowned on 19 December 1961. His body was found in the canal on 11 March 1962, and even his sister did not learn of his death until the 1990s.

## Dieter Wohlfahrt, the escape helper

One of the twelve who died in 1961 was not trying to escape himself. [Dieter Wohlfahrt](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wohlfahrt-dieter/), a 20-year-old chemistry student at West Berlin's Technical University, held Austrian citizenship and could still cross the border. He joined a group of students who helped people escape. On 9 December 1961, at the corner of Bergstrasse and Hauptstrasse in Staaken, he and a friend set to work on the barbed-wire fence with bolt cutters and pliers to help a woman whose daughter had already fled. According to his friend, someone shouted a challenge and shots were fired at once; Dieter Wohlfahrt was hit and lay motionless on East German territory, a few metres from the border line. West Berlin police officers, who arrived soon afterwards, as did British military police, tried to reach him but were kept back by the border guards' threat to use their weapons, and he lay there for more than an hour before being taken away. East German military and Stasi reports claim that he was armed and fired first; his friends credibly stated that none of them was armed, and his biography considers it likely, though it cannot be proven, that the reports were falsified or manipulated for propaganda. Sebastian Haffner, a contemporary observer, pointed out at the time that his death was the first at the Wall to prompt protests against the political leadership in the West as well. The criminal investigation of the former border policemen who shot him was discontinued in 1996 on the grounds that, in case of doubt, they had to be assumed to have acted in self-defence.

## What the first deaths already showed

These first deaths already show some of the ways in which each side reacted to killings at the Wall. According to the study, when a killing was seen from West Berlin or otherwise became known, East German propaganda tended to call the dead "criminals"; Günter Litfin and Roland Hoff are among the examples it names. Some families were kept in the dark; others were told to stay silent. In West Berlin, the deaths of Günter Litfin, Udo Düllick and Dieter Wohlfahrt were followed by protests, and memorials of wood and barbed wire were put up for Ida Siekmann, Rudolf Urban, Olga Segler, Bernd Lünser and Udo Düllick. According to Roland Hoff's biography, from his death onwards the West Berlin authorities opened an investigation into the suspected perpetrators in every case. According to the researchers' count, roughly half of all 140 deaths happened in the first five years of the Wall's existence.

Several of these first victims are remembered near the places where they died, among them Günter Litfin on Kapelle-Ufer and Roland Hoff on the Teltow Canal; see [Berlin Wall victims memorials](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-victims-memorials/). Escapes from the same streets and waterways, including those that succeeded, are documented at [Berlin Wall Escapes](https://berlinwallescapes.com).

## Questions and answers

**Who was the first person to die at the Berlin Wall?**

Ida Siekmann, a 58-year-old woman who lived at Bernauer Strasse 48. She jumped from her third-floor window towards the West Berlin pavement on 22 August 1961 and died on the way to hospital, one day before her 59th birthday.

**Who was the first person shot dead at the Berlin Wall?**

Günter Litfin, a 24-year-old tailor from Weissensee. On 24 August 1961 transport police shot him in the Humboldt Harbor as he swam towards the West Berlin bank. A memorial stone on Kapelle-Ufer commemorates him as the first victim of the order to shoot in Berlin.

**How many people died at the Berlin Wall in 1961?**

Twelve people died at the Berlin Wall in 1961, between 22 August and 19 December. Eleven of them were trying to escape; the twelfth, Dieter Wohlfahrt, was a West Berlin student helping others to escape.

**Was Rudolf Urban the first victim of the Berlin Wall?**

Rudolf Urban was injured on 19 August 1961, three days before Ida Siekmann's fall, when he escaped by rope from his home on Bernauer Strasse. He caught pneumonia in a West Berlin hospital and died there on 17 September 1961. Ida Siekmann, who died on 22 August, is recorded as the first fatality.

## Sources

1. Hertle/Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project (2017): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/
2. Chronik der Mauer: Ida Siekmann: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180479/siekmann-ida
3. Chronik der Mauer: Günter Litfin: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180480/litfin-guenter
4. Chronik der Mauer: Roland Hoff: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180481/hoff-roland
5. Chronik der Mauer: Rudolf Urban: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180482/urban-rudolf
6. Chronik der Mauer: Olga Segler: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180483/segler-olga
7. Chronik der Mauer: Bernd Lünser: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180484/luenser-bernd
8. Chronik der Mauer: Udo Düllick: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180485/duellick-udo
9. Chronik der Mauer: Werner Probst: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180486/probst-werner
10. Chronik der Mauer: Lothar Lehmann: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180487/lehmann-lothar
11. Chronik der Mauer: Dieter Wohlfahrt: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180488/wohlfahrt-dieter
12. Chronik der Mauer: Ingo Krüger: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180489/krueger-ingo
13. Chronik der Mauer: Georg Feldhahn: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180490/feldhahn-georg

Cite as: “Who Were the First Victims of the Berlin Wall?”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/first-victims-of-the-berlin-wall/

---

# Who Was the Last Person Killed at the Berlin Wall?

> Chris Gueffroy, shot on 5 February 1989, was the last person shot dead at the Berlin Wall; Winfried Freudenberg, who fell from a balloon, was the last to die.

Published 24 September 2026, updated 27 September 2026. Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/last-victims-of-the-berlin-wall/

The last person shot dead at the Berlin Wall was [Chris Gueffroy](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gueffroy-chris/), a 20-year-old waiter who was killed on the night of 5 February 1989 at the Britzer Zweigkanal between Treptow and Neukölln. Of the 140 people now counted as victims of the Wall, the last to die was [Winfried Freudenberg](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/freudenberg-winfried/), who fell to his death from his home-made gas balloon over the West Berlin district of Zehlendorf on 8 March 1989, eight months and one day before the Wall fell.

They were two of the three people who died at the Wall in its final year. The first, in January 1989, was [Ingolf Diederichs](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/diederichs-ingolf/). This article tells their stories and those of the people who died in the mid- and late 1980s, drawing on the biographies from the joint research project of the Berlin Wall Foundation and the Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam. For the overall figures, see [how many people died at the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/how-many-people-died-at-the-berlin-wall/).

## Fewer deaths in the later years, but no end to the shooting

The research project that established the figure of 140 victims found a clear fall in deaths over time. Between 1961 and 1975, 120 people died in connection with the border regime; the almost equally long period from 1976 to 1989 saw 20 deaths. The researchers attribute the fall mainly to the continued technical improvement of the border fortifications and closer guarding of the area in front of the Wall, and also to the Helsinki Accords of 1975, after which fewer people attempted to escape across the border and more applied to emigrate.

The study's year-by-year table records one death in 1984, none in 1985, four in 1986, one in 1987, none in 1988 and three in 1989. Behind each of those numbers is a person.

## 1984 to 1987

[Michael Schmidt](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidt-michael/), a 20-year-old carpenter born in Bernau, was shot while climbing the Wall on Schulzestrasse in Pankow on 1 December 1984. His biography records that almost an hour passed before he received medical care; he died in the People's Police Hospital that morning. The study names him among those whom, according to later expert reports, faster help could have saved.

In 1986 four people died. [Rainer Liebeke](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/liebeke-rainer/), a taxi driver and licensed motorcycle racer from Gotha, drowned in Sacrower Lake on 3 September 1986 while trying to swim to the West with a friend, shortly before his 35th birthday. His friend reached West Berlin.

In the early hours of 21 November 1986, [Manfred Mäder](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/maeder-manfred/) and [René Gross](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gross-rene/), two professional drivers who had both applied to leave East Germany, drove a stolen truck into the border strip between Treptow and Neukölln, breaking through a gate in the inner wall. Border guards opened automatic fire and both men were killed. The soldiers involved were decorated the same day. Almost 18 years later, the Berlin Regional Court convicted the guard who had shot Manfred Mäder of manslaughter, treating it as a less serious case, and gave him a suspended ten-month prison sentence; it could not be established who had shot René Gross.

Three days later, on 24 November 1986, [Michael Bittner](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/bittner-michael/), a 25-year-old mason from Pankow whose applications to leave had been turned down more than once, was shot as he reached the top of the Wall in Glienicke/Nordbahn. His body was collected by a Stasi vehicle on 28 November 1986, and according to his biography it has never been traced.

On 12 February 1987 [Lutz Schmidt](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidt-lutz/), who as a young racing cyclist had been regarded in his club as a great talent and who was raising two children with his wife Karin, tried to cross the Wall near Rheingoldstrasse with a colleague on a foggy night. His friend got over; Lutz Schmidt was shot in the death strip. His wife and father were told to say he had died in a traffic accident. In 1995 the Berlin Regional Court convicted the two guards of joint manslaughter and gave each of them a suspended two-year sentence.

## Ingolf Diederichs: 13 January 1989

Ingolf Diederichs was born in Wismar in 1964 and trained as a maintenance mechanic before studying at the Technical University of Dresden, where he was later exmatriculated. On the evening of 13 January 1989 he boarded an S-Bahn train from Pankow towards Schönhauser Allee, carrying a folding wooden ladder he had made himself. On this line, near Bornholmer Strasse, only just over 20 metres separated passengers from West Berlin. Near the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing he jumped from the moving train and was killed instantly. He was 24.

His biography notes that his reasons are not known. The Stasi presented his death as a mere accident, and his relatives were only to be told that he had died in a fall from a moving train. A preliminary investigation opened by the Berlin public prosecutor's office in 1994 was closed the following month for lack of evidence that anyone else was involved.

## Chris Gueffroy: the last person shot dead at the Berlin Wall

### Who he was

Chris Gueffroy was born in Pasewalk on 21 June 1968 and moved to Berlin with his mother at the age of five. Spotted as a gifted gymnast while he was still in the third grade, he was sent to the children's and youth sports school of Dynamo Berlin. Because he refused to commit himself to a career as an officer in the National People's Army after school, he was not allowed to take the Abitur, the school-leaving examination needed for university; with it went his hope of becoming an actor or a pilot. In September 1985 he started an apprenticeship at the restaurant of Schönefeld airport, and he then worked as a waiter in several restaurants.

In early 1989 he learned that he was to be called up to the National People's Army in May, and in mid-January he and his friend Christian G. decided to leave East Germany. They had heard from friends that the order to shoot at the border had been suspended, and they expected that no one would be shot during a state visit by the Swedish prime minister. Both assumptions were wrong: the order was still in force, and the prime minister had already left East Berlin.

### 5 February 1989

Late that night the two friends climbed the inner wall near the "Harmonie" garden colony in Treptow and set off an alarm as they crossed the signal fence. As they ran towards the last fence before the Britzer Zweigkanal, a pair of border guards opened fire on them; running along the fence to get away from the shots, they came into the line of fire of a second pair of guards, who also opened fire. Chris Gueffroy was hit and died within minutes. Christian G. was injured and arrested; in May 1989 he was sentenced to three years in prison, and in mid-October 1989 he was released to the West after the West German government paid for his release.

His mother was taken in for questioning by the Stasi two days later and learned only in the course of hours of questioning that her son was dead. The authorities tried to keep his death secret, but his brother managed to place a death notice in the *Berliner Zeitung*, and western media connected it with the shots heard at the border. Well over 100 people attended his funeral at Baumschulenweg Cemetery on 23 February 1989, under Stasi observation.

### What followed

According to his biography, the shooting threatened to isolate the East German leadership politically in the spring of 1989, as protests and diplomatic steps against the order to shoot continued. Erich Honecker's instruction that the order to shoot, whose existence had always been officially denied, was no longer to be applied was given orally: according to the Federal Archives, in a conversation with Egon Krenz, who passed it on to the deputy defence minister on 2 April 1989. A Stasi note records that from the evening of 3 April the border units were told not to use firearms to prevent people breaking through the border; guards could still fire if their own lives were threatened. His biography also records that no one was shot dead at the Berlin Wall after Chris Gueffroy. More on the orders themselves is in our article on the [shoot-to-kill order](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/shoot-to-kill-order-berlin-wall/).

After the Wall fell, his mother, Karin Gueffroy, filed a criminal complaint on 12 January 1990. The Berlin public prosecutor charged four former border guards on 27 May 1991, and their trial was the first of the many trials of guards who had fired at people escaping at the Wall. On 20 January 1992 the Berlin Regional Court convicted the soldier who fired the fatal shot of manslaughter and sentenced him to three and a half years; the others received suspended sentences or were acquitted. The Federal Court of Justice overturned the verdict on 25 March 1993, and on 14 March 1994, in the retrial, the Berlin Regional Court gave him a suspended two-year sentence. The wider story is told in our article on the [Berlin Wall shooting trials](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-shooting-trials/).

A memorial column was erected at the Britzer Zweigkanal in 2003, and on 13 August 2010 Britzer Allee was renamed Chris-Gueffroy-Allee.

## Winfried Freudenberg: the last death at the Wall

Winfried Freudenberg was born on 29 August 1956 in Osterwieck in the Harz and grew up in Lüttgenrode, close to the inner-German border. He trained as an electrician, studied in Ilmenau and qualified as an electronics engineer. In autumn 1988 he married Sabine, whom he had met at a student club while he was at university. But they saw no career prospects for themselves in East Germany.

To obtain gas for an escape by balloon, he took a job in the gas supply department of an energy combine, and the couple moved to Prenzlauer Berg. From January 1989 they built a balloon 13 metres high from strips of polyethylene sheeting in their flat. On the evening of 7 March a moderate north-east wind was blowing at last. They took the balloon by car to a gas regulating station near Blankenburg S-Bahn station, and at around midnight he began filling it.

A passer-by saw the balloon and alerted the police. When a police car slowed outside the station shortly after 2 a.m., the couple decided he should go alone, since they feared there was not yet enough gas in the balloon to lift two people. Carrying only one person, the balloon climbed far higher and faster than he had intended, and he drifted over West Berlin for hours. At around 7:30 in the morning, over Zehlendorf and only a few hundred metres from East German territory, he fell from a great height into the garden of a villa; the empty envelope of the balloon ended up in a tree a few hundred metres away. What exactly caused the fall has not been established. He died immediately. He was 32.

Sabine Freudenberg was arrested that morning, and proceedings were opened against her for attempting to breach the border. She was given a three-year suspended sentence and was granted amnesty on 27 October 1989. Winfried Freudenberg was buried in Lüttgenrode on 24 April 1989, under Stasi surveillance. His biography calls him "the last person to die in Berlin as a consequence of the Berlin Wall", which fell exactly eight months and one day later. Escapes under, over and through the Wall are documented at [Berlin Wall Escapes](https://berlinwallescapes.com).

In 2012 a memorial column was dedicated to him on Erdmann-Graeser-Weg in Zehlendorf, not far from where he fell.

## How families were told

In the late 1980s, as in earlier years, the East German state tried to keep shootings at the Wall as secret as possible. The research project found that in more than 30 cases relatives were told of the death but obliged to stay silent or lie about it, or were deceived about the cause; its examples of families obliged to describe the death as a traffic accident run up to the widow and parents of Lutz Schmidt. It also records that a Stasi report on Michael Bittner's death stated that the "political sensitivity" of the border to West Berlin made it necessary to conceal the incident. The fate of many of these families is described in their individual profiles, and the places where the victims are remembered today are covered in our guide to [Berlin Wall memorials](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-victims-memorials/).

## Questions and answers

**Who was the last person shot dead at the Berlin Wall?**

Chris Gueffroy, a 20-year-old waiter, was shot on the night of 5 February 1989 at the Britzer Zweigkanal. According to his biography, no one was shot dead at the Berlin Wall after him.

**Who was the last person to die at the Berlin Wall?**

Winfried Freudenberg, an electronics engineer, died on 8 March 1989 when he fell from his home-made gas balloon over the West Berlin district of Zehlendorf. According to his biography, he was the Wall's last victim in Berlin.

**How many people died at the Berlin Wall in 1989?**

Three: Ingolf Diederichs on 13 January, Chris Gueffroy on 5 February and Winfried Freudenberg on 8 March 1989.

**Was anyone convicted for the killing of Chris Gueffroy?**

Yes. In 1992 the Berlin Regional Court convicted the soldier who fired the fatal shot of manslaughter. After the Federal Court of Justice overturned the verdict in 1993, a retrial in 1994 ended in a suspended two-year sentence.

## Sources

1. Hertle/Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings (2017): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/
2. Chronik der Mauer: Chris Gueffroy: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180603/gueffroy-chris
3. Chronik der Mauer: Winfried Freudenberg: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180604/freudenberg-winfried
4. Chronik der Mauer: Ingolf Diederichs: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180602/diederichs-ingolf
5. Chronik der Mauer: Lutz Schmidt: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180601/schmidt-lutz
6. Chronik der Mauer: Michael Bittner: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180600/bittner-michael
7. Chronik der Mauer: René Gross: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180598/gross-rene
8. Chronik der Mauer: Manfred Mäder: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180599/maeder-manfred
9. Chronik der Mauer: Rainer Liebeke: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180597/liebeke-rainer
10. Chronik der Mauer: Michael Schmidt: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180596/schmidt-michael
11. Bundesarchiv: April 1989 – Aufhebung des Schießbefehls und Differenzen mit dem KGB: https://www.bundesarchiv.de/themen-entdecken/online-entdecken/storys/die-stasi-im-jahr-1989/april-1989/
12. Chronik der Mauer: Zur Aufhebung des Schießbefehls, 12. April 1989: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/material/180328/zur-aufhebung-des-schiessbefehls-12-april-1989

Cite as: “Who Was the Last Person Killed at the Berlin Wall?”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/last-victims-of-the-berlin-wall/

---

# Berlin Wall Victims Memorials: Where to Remember the Dead

> Where to remember the victims of the Berlin Wall: the Window of Remembrance, the White Crosses, memorial columns and the Fechter, Litfin and Gueffroy memorials.

Published 24 September 2026, updated 27 September 2026. Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-victims-memorials/

The central place to remember the people who died at the Berlin Wall is the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse, where the Window of Remembrance shows their names and dates and, where one could be found, a photograph. Beyond it, the victims are remembered across the city: by the White Crosses on the Spree near the Reichstag building, by memorial columns along the Berlin Wall Trail, and by individual memorials such as those for [Peter Fechter](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/fechter-peter/) on Zimmerstrasse, [Günter Litfin](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/litfin-guenter/) in a former watchtower on Kieler Strasse and [Chris Gueffroy](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gueffroy-chris/) on the Britzer Zweigkanal.

According to a 2009 exhibition by the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development, more than 100 sites along the Wall's 160-kilometre route commemorated the victims and particular events at the Wall at that time. This guide covers some of the best-known ones and what to know before visiting. Opening times change, so check the Berlin Wall Foundation's website before you go.

## The Berlin Wall Memorial and the Window of Remembrance

The Berlin Wall Memorial stretches along both sides of Bernauer Strasse. In the former border strip, on what was the East Berlin side, are the outdoor exhibition, the official monument to the divided city and the victims of communist tyranny, the Chapel of Reconciliation and the Window of Remembrance. The Visitor Center and the Documentation Center, with its observation tower and permanent exhibition, stand on the opposite side, which was once part of West Berlin.

The memorial grew out of local efforts to save a stretch of the Wall after 1989. Its monument, chosen in a 1994 design competition, was inaugurated on 13 August 1998; the Documentation Center opened on 9 November 1999 and the Chapel of Reconciliation was dedicated in 2000. In 2006 the Berlin Senate declared the site the central place of remembrance for the division of Berlin.

### The Window of Remembrance

The Window of Remembrance presents photographs of the people who died at the Wall, together with their names and dates of birth and death, so that each person is remembered individually. Relatives often bring flowers, stones or candles. Not every person could be shown with a photograph, and some niches have been kept free in case further victims are identified.

The eight East German border soldiers who were killed on duty are not shown in the Window. After intense discussion, the Foundation's committees decided to leave them out, on the argument that, as helpers of the dictatorship, albeit often unwilling conscripts, they should not be honoured alongside its victims. Their names are shown separately on a column near the Window. Their stories are told in [the article on the border soldiers killed at the Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/border-soldiers-killed-at-the-berlin-wall/).

Seven people lost their lives on Bernauer Strasse itself while trying to get through the border fortifications, all of them in the 1960s, and markers on the memorial grounds tell their stories where they happened. One of them was [Ida Siekmann](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/siekmann-ida/), who jumped from her window at Bernauer Strasse 48 on 22 August 1961; the Wedding district office later erected a monument for her at the site, where memorial services were held for decades.

In the Chapel of Reconciliation, short midday prayer services are held several days a week, and at each one the biography of one of the 140 victims is read aloud. They are open to the public without registration. Each year the memorial also hosts the central commemorations of the building of the Wall on 13 August and of its fall on 9 November.

### Visiting Bernauer Strasse

- **Where:** start at the Visitor Center, Bernauer Strasse 119. The Documentation Center is at Bernauer Strasse 111.
- **Getting there:** S-Bahn lines S1, S2, S25 and S26 to Nordbahnhof.
- **Admission:** free to all exhibitions on Bernauer Strasse.
- **Access:** the outdoor exhibition runs for 1.4 kilometres along the street and is barrier-free only in part, while the Visitor Center, the Documentation Center and all seminar rooms are barrier-free.
- **Opening times:** the outdoor exhibition can be visited every day; the Visitor Center and Documentation Center have shorter hours and are closed on Mondays. Times change, so check the [Foundation's visitor page](https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/berlin-wall-memorial/visit/information) before you go.

## The White Crosses by the Reichstag

Behind the east entrance of the Reichstag building, the south bank of the Spree was part of West Berlin, but the river itself was East Berlin territory. Where the border wall met the bank, a private Berlin citizens' association set up the "White Crosses" memorial in 1971, for the tenth anniversary of the building of the Wall.

The crosses had first stood at the places where people had died trying to reach West Berlin. Over the years the association could no longer care for crosses scattered across the city; according to the Berlin Wall Foundation, they were brought together on the Spree, while the Berlin Senate's 2006 memorial concept says they were gathered behind the Reichstag building and on Bernauer Strasse. After a temporary move during building work, the memorial returned to the riverbank on 17 June 2003 as an installation of seven white crosses. The names on them include [Günter Litfin](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/litfin-guenter/), [Udo Düllick](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/duellick-udo/), [Werner Probst](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/probst-werner/) and [Chris Gueffroy](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gueffroy-chris/), and the crosses also honour the unknown victims of the Wall. The 2006 concept also noted that the temporary site at the corner of Ebertstrasse and Scheidemannstrasse had not been removed, so at that time the same victims were remembered in two places.

One of the crosses remembers [Marienetta Jirkowsky](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/jirkowsky-marienetta/), shot on 22 November 1980. A memorial cross for her had been placed on the Wall near the Reichstag building in the 1980s; in 2003 it became part of the White Crosses memorial.

## Memorial columns along the Berlin Wall Trail

In 2001 the Berlin Senate began opening up the whole 160-kilometre route of the former Wall to cyclists and walkers as the Berlin Wall Trail (Berliner Mauerweg), with signs, maps and information columns at historic places. Along the trail, memorial columns mark places where people died.

In 2011, the year of the Wall's 50th anniversary, the Brandenburg state government announced that under a Berlin Wall Foundation project 29 columns were to be put up on Brandenburg territory along the trail to commemorate 50 people who died at the Wall, each as close as possible to where they were killed; Brandenburg and Berlin contributed to the cost. The first was unveiled in Teltow in August 2011, near the Teltow Canal where [Peter Mädler](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/maedler-peter/) was shot in 1963 and [Karl-Heinz Kube](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kube-karl-heinz/) in 1966. According to Peter Mädler's biography, city councillors, relatives and friends gather at the columns for the two men at the Knesebeck Bridge in Teltow every 13 August to lay wreaths and flowers.

Other columns mentioned in the victims' biographies include one for Marienetta Jirkowsky on Florastrasse, near the place of her escape attempt, erected in late 2006, and one for [Winfried Freudenberg](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/freudenberg-winfried/), whom his biography calls "the last person to die in Berlin as a consequence of the Berlin Wall", dedicated in 2012 on Erdmann-Graeser-Weg in Zehlendorf, not far from where he fell to his death.

## The Peter Fechter memorial on Zimmerstrasse

A 2.60-metre steel column on Zimmerstrasse in Berlin-Mitte, about 200 metres from the former Checkpoint Charlie, remembers [Peter Fechter](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/fechter-peter/). The 18-year-old was shot on 17 August 1962 while trying to climb the Wall with a work colleague, and lay wounded at its foot without help. The inscription reads "Peter Fechter 1944 – 1962 …er wollte nur die Freiheit" ("he only wanted freedom"), and a plate set into the ground in front of the column marks the spot where he lay.

A memorial had stood here since the day of his death, when it was set up during a spontaneous protest. An early wooden cross was set up as close to the Wall as possible by [Dieter Beilig](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/beilig-dieter/), a West Berlin activist against the Wall who was himself arrested and shot dead in East Berlin, near the Brandenburg Gate, in 1971. Beilig's cross was later replaced by another wooden cross. In 1998 the Axel Springer publishing house held a competition to redesign the site, and on 13 August 1999 that cross was replaced by the column designed by the Berlin sculptor Karl Biedermann. People still gather here every year to remember the victims of the Wall.

## The Günter Litfin Memorial on Kieler Strasse

[Günter Litfin](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/litfin-guenter/) was shot dead on 24 August 1961, the first person to be shot dead at the Berlin Wall. His memorial is inside a former border watchtower at Kieler Eck, by the Spandau shipping canal. His younger brother Jürgen Litfin (1940–2018) learned of the tower by chance in 2001. Thanks to his efforts it was preserved and listed as a protected landmark in 2003, and he created an exhibition inside called "From Günter Litfin to Chris Gueffroy". The memorial opened on 24 August 2003, the anniversary of Günter's death, and became part of the Berlin Wall Foundation in 2017.

A memorial stone first put up for him in 1962 by the Humboldt Harbor, which later stood by the Sandkrug Bridge, was moved in 2015 to the place where he was shot. A street in Weissensee, the district where he had lived, was named after him in 2000.

### Visiting the Litfin memorial

- **Where:** Kieler Strasse 2, 10115 Berlin.
- **Getting there:** U-Bahn U6 to Schwartzkopffstrasse, or tram M5, M8 or M10 to Invalidenpark.
- **Admission:** free.
- **Opening:** the tower opens regularly at weekends during a summer season (in 2026, from May to early October), plus occasional special openings (in 2026, for example, on 9 November). Check the [Foundation's visitor page](https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/guenter-litfin-memorial/visit/information) for the current dates and times before you go.
- **Access:** the tower is not barrier-free and has a steep staircase inside. Children under eight are not allowed in, and there are no toilets on site.

## The Chris Gueffroy memorial on the Britzer Zweigkanal

[Chris Gueffroy](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gueffroy-chris/) was shot dead on 5 February 1989 at the border fortifications in front of the Britzer Zweigkanal (Britz branch canal), the canal that formed the border between Treptow in the East and Neukölln in the West; according to his biography, the shots fired at him and his companion were the last fatal bullets fired at the Wall. On the day of his funeral, 23 February 1989, a memorial cross was put up for him on the West Berlin side in Neukölln.

On 21 June 2003, his 35th birthday, a memorial column was set up at the site of his escape attempt, on the route of the Berlin Wall Trail, in the presence of his family and friends. It was commissioned by the Senate Department for Science, Research and Culture and deliberately modelled on the Fechter memorial, also to a design by Karl Biedermann. Its inscription describes him as the last refugee to be shot while trying to overcome the East German border installations. The column stands on the canal bank at Chris-Gueffroy-Allee in Treptow. On 13 August 2010 Britzer Allee, between Treptow and Neukölln, was renamed Chris-Gueffroy-Allee. How the guards who shot him were later tried is explained in [the article on the Berlin Wall shooting trials](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-shooting-trials/), and his story is told alongside other late deaths in [the last victims of the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/last-victims-of-the-berlin-wall/).

## Other places of remembrance

Many victims are also remembered by smaller plaques, stones and crosses near where they died. According to their biographies, a plaque on Heidelberger Strasse recalls [Heinz Jercha](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/jercha-heinz/); a memorial stone to the unknown fugitive, unveiled on the West Berlin bank of the Teltow Canal in Lichterfelde on the first anniversary of the death of [Roland Hoff](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hoff-roland/), is still there; and a memorial cross has stood for decades for [Horst Kullack](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kullack-horst/) on Wittelsbacher Strasse in Lichtenrade. The Berlin Wall Foundation keeps an interactive map of places in the city that commemorate the victims, and all 140 are listed on the [victims page](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/).

If you want to see what survives of the Wall itself, [Where Is the Wall](https://whereisthewall.com) maps surviving segments around the world.

## Questions and answers

**Where is the main memorial to the victims of the Berlin Wall?**

The Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse is the central site of remembrance. Its Window of Remembrance shows the names and dates of the people who died at the Wall and, where one could be found, their photograph; the eight border soldiers killed on duty are named separately on a nearby column.

**What are the White Crosses in Berlin?**

A memorial on the bank of the Spree near the Reichstag building, first set up by a private citizens' association in 1971. Since 17 June 2003 it has consisted of seven white crosses bearing the names of people who died at the Wall, and it also honours the unknown victims.

**Where is the Peter Fechter memorial?**

On Zimmerstrasse in Berlin-Mitte, about 200 metres from the former Checkpoint Charlie. A steel column, unveiled on 13 August 1999, stands near the place where he was shot on 17 August 1962.

**Can you visit the Günter Litfin memorial?**

Yes. It is in a former border watchtower at Kieler Strasse 2 and is run by the Berlin Wall Foundation. Admission is free. It opens regularly at weekends in the summer season, plus occasional special openings, so check the Berlin Wall Foundation's visitor page for the current dates. The tower is not barrier-free and children under eight are not allowed in.

**Are the eight border soldiers remembered at the Window of Remembrance?**

No. The Berlin Wall Foundation decided not to include them in the Window of Remembrance; their names are shown separately on a column nearby.

## Sources

1. Berlin Wall Foundation: The Berlin Wall Memorial: https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/berlin-wall-memorial/historical-site/memorial
2. Berlin Wall Foundation: Information for your visit (Berlin Wall Memorial): https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/berlin-wall-memorial/visit/information
3. Berlin Wall Memorial digital tour guide: Window of Remembrance: https://www.tourguide-gbm.de/en/node/5
4. Berlin Wall Foundation: Victims at the Berlin Wall: https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/topics/victims-berlin-wall
5. Berlin Wall Foundation: Memorial "Weiße Kreuze": https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/node/1764
6. Chronik der Mauer: Der Gedenkort für Peter Fechter: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/grenze/184064/der-gedenkort-fuer-peter-fechter
7. Berlin Wall Foundation: The Günter Litfin Memorial: https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/guenter-litfin-memorial/historical-site/memorial
8. Berlin Wall Foundation: Information for your visit (Günter Litfin Memorial): https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/guenter-litfin-memorial/visit/information
9. Gesamtkonzept zur Erinnerung an die Berliner Mauer (Berlin Senate, 2006): https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/sites/default/files/media/standorte/sbm/allgemein/gesamtkonzept.pdf
10. Land Brandenburg press release, 8 August 2011: Platzeck und Wowereit enthüllen Erinnerungsstele: https://www.brandenburg.de/cms/detail.php/bb1.c.259711.de
11. Senate Department for Urban Development: Berliner Mauer – Orte der Erinnerung und des Gedenkens (exhibition, 2009): https://www.berlin.de/kunst-und-kultur-mitte/geschichte/erinnerungskultur/gedenktafel-datenbank/id-2519_die-mauer.pdf
12. Chronik der Mauer: Chris Gueffroy: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180603/gueffroy-chris
13. Chronik der Mauer: Günter Litfin: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180480/litfin-guenter
14. Chronik der Mauer: Marienetta Jirkowsky: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180590/jirkowsky-marienetta
15. Chronik der Mauer: Peter Mädler: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180513/maedler-peter
16. Chronik der Mauer: Dieter Beilig: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180571/beilig-dieter

Cite as: “Berlin Wall Victims Memorials: Where to Remember the Dead”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-victims-memorials/

---

# The Children Who Died at the Berlin Wall

> Five West Berlin boys drowned in the Spree, where the whole river belonged to East Berlin; three East Berlin boys were killed by gunfire. Who they were.

Published 24 September 2026, updated 27 September 2026. Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/children-who-died-at-the-berlin-wall/

Nine of the 140 people who died at the Berlin Wall were children. Five West Berlin boys, aged between five and eight, fell into the Spree in Kreuzberg between 1966 and 1975 and could not be rescued; two East Berlin boys, aged 10 and 13, were shot in 1966; a 13-year-old was killed by a border policeman's gun in 1962; and a 15-month-old died during his parents' escape in 1973. Where the five boys fell in, the whole width of the river belonged to East Berlin, and according to the researchers this border situation always played a part in why they could not be saved.

This article draws on the biographies from the joint research project of the Berlin Wall Foundation and the Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam. For the overall figures, see [how many people died at the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/how-many-people-died-at-the-berlin-wall/).

## The five boys of the Gröbenufer

The research project lists five children among the West Berliners who died in accidents at the border: [Andreas Senk](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/senk-andreas/), [Cengaver Katrancı](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/katranc-cengaver/), [Siegfried Kroboth](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kroboth-siegfried/), [Giuseppe Savoca](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/savoca-giuseppe/) and [Çetin Mert](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mert-cetin/). All five were playing by the Spree in Kreuzberg when they fell into the river, and none of them could be rescued.

The circumstances differed from case to case, but where the border ran always played a part. On this stretch of the Spree, the entire width of the river was part of East Berlin.

### Andreas Senk, 13 September 1966

Andreas Senk was six, the only son of his 25-year-old mother, Renate Senk. On the morning of 13 September 1966 he fell into the Spree while playing with another child. For hours nothing was done to rescue him. His biography adds that the border guards may not even have seen him fall, and that the late alert to the fire brigade was not political. According to an East German border boat report, West Berlin firefighters searched from the bank with long poles, and at 2:30 p.m. a child was pulled out of the water. Andreas was declared dead at the Bethanien Hospital. His biography notes that there would have been a chance of rescuing him alive only within at most eight minutes of his fall, and that at this spot the chance was particularly small, for political reasons.

### Cengaver Katrancı, 30 October 1972

Cengaver Katrancı was eight. He and his three siblings lived in Kreuzberg with their mother, who was from Turkey. Shortly after 1 p.m. on 30 October 1972 he was feeding the swans with a friend on the Gröbenufer when he lost his balance and fell in. A fisherman hurried over but, realising that the river there was East Berlin territory and that he could be shot, did not go in. West Berlin fire divers stood ready on the quay wall but were never given permission to go in. An East Berlin boat eventually recovered him. That evening his mother was allowed to travel to East Berlin to identify him, and she asked for him to be buried in Ankara.

### Siegfried Kroboth, 14 May 1973

Siegfried Kroboth was born in West Berlin on 23 April 1968 and lived in Kreuzberg with his parents and his 13-year-old brother. On 14 May 1973, aged five, he fell into the Spree near the Brommy Bridge while playing with a friend. A 12-year-old girl ran to a fire alarm box to raise the alarm. Siegfried kept himself above water for a time. According to his biography, there might still have been a chance to save him, but the West Berlin police were not allowed into East Berlin's water, and the fire brigade's divers could only wait on the bank for permission. East German divers recovered him about four hours after the accident. His body was handed to his parents at the Oberbaum Bridge crossing on 16 May 1973.

### Giuseppe Savoca, 15 June 1974

Giuseppe Savoca was born in West Berlin on 22 April 1968 and lived in Kreuzberg with his parents, who had come from Italy, and his two younger sisters. On Saturday 15 June 1974, aged six, he was playing on the Gröbenufer with a Turkish friend, who later said that they had only wanted to look at the fish. Reaching into the water with a stick, he leaned too far and fell in. An East German patrol boat stopped only briefly and went on; its crew returned only after an explicit order. Once again the West Berlin rescue teams were not allowed to take part. Giuseppe was brought out of the water about an hour after he fell in. His parents were allowed to identify him in East Berlin that evening, and his body was returned to West Berlin on 19 June 1974.

### Çetin Mert, 11 May 1975

Çetin Mert was born on 11 May 1970 and lived in Kreuzberg with his Turkish parents and two brothers. 11 May 1975 was his fifth birthday, a Sunday, and the family was about to go on a picnic. Before they set off, he played ball with other children on the Gröbenufer. When the ball rolled into the Spree he tried to reach it with a stick and fell in. A fire officer asked the East German authorities at the Oberbaum Bridge crossing in vain for permission to begin a rescue, and no West Berliner dared to enter the guarded water. An East German border boat did not arrive until 1:10 p.m., and an hour later border troop divers recovered him, barely five metres from the western bank. Stasi files later showed that two border troop scouts had seen him fall but, with no means of communication, reported it only much later.

Around 2,000 members of West Berlin's Turkish community protested against how the East German border guards had behaved, and his memorial service in West Berlin became a mass protest. Çetin Mert was buried in Düzce, his parents' home town, and, according to his biography, his family has marked the day of his death with a religious ceremony every year since.

## Why the children could not be rescued

West Berlin police and firefighters came to the bank, but because the water was East Berlin territory they could not go in without permission; in 1972 and in 1975 they asked the border troops at the Oberbaum Bridge for it in vain. East German crews were bound by their own rules: the East Berlin water police needed a special permit from the border guards to approach the western bank, and the coxswain of one border patrol boat later said that he had not been allowed to cross the red-and-white barrier line in the river without an explicit order from the commander of the border regiment. East German border guards were forbidden any contact with people on the western side.

Bystanders also feared for their own safety. The fisherman at the Gröbenufer in 1972 decided not to jump in because he feared being shot, and Giuseppe Savoca's mother later told the West Berlin press that a woman had told her a man who wanted to rescue her son had been threatened by border guards with their guns.

## The 1975 agreement and the rescue posts

After Cengaver Katrancı died in 1972, the West Berlin Senate announced that it would seek an agreement with East Germany on help in the event of accidents in the border waters. Siegfried Kroboth's death in May 1973 added to the pressure; eight days later, representatives of the Senate and the East German government met for preliminary talks, and official talks followed on 6 June 1973. The negotiations stalled: East Germany's draft was worded in a way that would have raised the sector border to the status of a state border, which the Senate and the Western Allies rejected.

After Çetin Mert's death the West Berlin Senate had the four passages to the embankment welded shut and a wire-mesh fence put up in front of the quay wall, together with large warning signs in German and Turkish. East German border troops were secretly ordered to keep a boat opposite the Gröbenufer from 8 a.m. until sundown, ready to go to the scene of any accident at once and help.

On 29 October 1975 the Senate and the East German government finally signed an agreement on rescues after accidents in Berlin's border waters. Under its terms, people who got into acute difficulty in the border waters from the West Berlin side could also be rescued from that side; this depended on rescue posts on the bank that would show the border guards an emergency was under way. In spring 1976 posts with a light visible on all sides, including from the East German watchtowers, were installed on the West Berlin bank along a total of just over six kilometres of the water border.

## Jörg Hartmann and Lothar Schleusener, 14 March 1966

[Jörg Hartmann](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hartmann-joerg/) was 10 and [Lothar Schleusener](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schleusener-lothar/) was 13. Both were born in East Berlin, grew up in Friedrichshain and had known each other since they were small. Jörg lived with his grandmother and two younger siblings; his teacher remembered a quiet, shy boy who was very pleased when he was praised. His classmates said Jörg had told them he wanted to go to his father in West Berlin; his grandmother said he had never met his father. Lothar loved animals and, his sister remembered, wanted to be big and strong; shortly before he disappeared he told her that he and a friend wanted to visit relatives in West Berlin.

On the evening of 14 March 1966 the two boys entered the border area in Treptow near the "Sorgenfrei" garden colony; the 2017 study describes this as a joint escape attempt. Border guards fired at them. Jörg died at once; Lothar died in the People's Police Hospital that night.

The GDR hid what had happened. Jörg's grandmother was told he had drowned; Lothar's mother was told he had died of an electric shock near Leipzig and was given a forged death certificate. The truth came to light in the 1990s. In November 1997 the Berlin Regional Court convicted a former border soldier of manslaughter and gave him a suspended sentence of 20 months. Jörg's former teacher supported the efforts to create a monument to him; the memorial on Kiefholzstrasse, unveiled on 9 November 1999, names both boys.

## Wolfgang Glöde, 11 June 1962

[Wolfgang Glöde](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gloede-wolfgang/), 13, grew up in the "Sorgenfrei" garden settlement in Treptow, where his family had lived since 1930. On Whit Monday, 11 June 1962, he and two friends asked two border policemen on patrol to show them how their machine pistols worked. A shot went off by accident and Wolfgang was fatally injured. He had not been trying to escape. When the Western prosecuting authorities established in the following year that he had died in a firearms accident, his name was taken off the official lists of Wall victims; the 2017 study counts him among the 140, as one of those shot in the border area with no intention of escaping. His family buried him quietly at Baumschulenweg Cemetery.

## Holger H., 22 January 1973

The youngest of the 140 victims was [Holger H.](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/h-holger/), who was 15 months old. His parents, a 20-year-old teacher and her 23-year-old husband, did not want him to grow up under the constraints they had known. On a January night in 1973 they hid in crates on a West Berlin acquaintance's lorry. The driver later told the West Berlin police that they were held at the Drewitz checkpoint for longer than normal. Holger was ill with a middle-ear infection and bronchitis. When he began to cry, his mother tried in vain to calm him and, in her panic, covered his mouth, not realising that he could not breathe through his nose, which the infection had probably also affected. The family crossed undetected, but when the crates were opened on the western side Holger was no longer breathing, and he could not be revived.

## Teenagers who died at the Wall

Teenagers also died at the Wall. Among the young people who died trying to escape are [Peter Fechter](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/fechter-peter/), 18, shot on 17 August 1962; [Axel Hannemann](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hannemann-axel/), 17, shot on 5 June 1962; [Otfried Reck](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/reck-otfried/), 17, shot on 27 November 1962; [Wolf-Olaf Muszynski](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/muszynski-wolf-olaf/), 16, who drowned in the Spree in February 1963, probably while trying to escape; [Hans-Joachim Wolf](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wolf-hans-joachim/), 17, shot on 26 November 1964; [Karl-Heinz Kube](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kube-karl-heinz/), 17, shot on 16 December 1966; and [Marienetta Jirkowsky](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/jirkowsky-marienetta/), 18, shot on 22 November 1980. Their stories are told in their profiles; see also our article on the [first victims of the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/first-victims-of-the-berlin-wall/).

## Questions and answers

**How many children drowned at the Berlin Wall?**

Five West Berlin boys, aged between five and eight, drowned in the Spree in Kreuzberg between 1966 and 1975: Andreas Senk, Cengaver Katrancı, Siegfried Kroboth, Giuseppe Savoca and Çetin Mert.

**Why could the children in the Spree not be rescued?**

The circumstances differed, but the border always played a part: on that stretch the whole width of the river belonged to East Berlin. West Berlin police, firefighters and divers were not allowed to enter the water, and a fisherman who wanted to help decided not to jump in because he feared being shot by East German border guards.

**What changed after the children drowned?**

On 29 October 1975 the West Berlin Senate and the East German government finally signed an agreement on rescues after accidents in Berlin's border waters. In spring 1976 rescue posts were installed on the West Berlin bank along a total of just over six kilometres of the water border.

**Who was the youngest person to die at the Berlin Wall?**

The youngest of the 140 victims was Holger H., a 15-month-old boy who died while hidden with his mother during his parents' escape in January 1973. Siegfried Kroboth and Çetin Mert were five.

**Were children shot at the Berlin Wall?**

Yes. On 14 March 1966 border guards shot Jörg Hartmann, aged 10, and Lothar Schleusener, aged 13, in Treptow. Their families were told false stories about how they died.

## Sources

1. Hertle/Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings (2017): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/
2. Chronik der Mauer: Andreas Senk: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180549/senk-andreas
3. Chronik der Mauer: Cengaver Katrancı: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180575/katranc-cengaver
4. Chronik der Mauer: Siegfried Kroboth: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180580/kroboth-siegfried
5. Chronik der Mauer: Giuseppe Savoca: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180583/savoca-giuseppe
6. Chronik der Mauer: Çetin Mert: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180585/mert-cetin
7. Chronik der Mauer: Jörg Hartmann: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180541/hartmann-joerg
8. Chronik der Mauer: Lothar Schleusener: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180542/schleusener-lothar
9. Chronik der Mauer: Wolfgang Glöde: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180500/gloede-wolfgang
10. Chronik der Mauer: Holger H.: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180576/h-holger

Cite as: “The Children Who Died at the Berlin Wall”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/children-who-died-at-the-berlin-wall/

---

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

> East Germany denied it, but from 1961 orders told Wall guards to use firearms against escapees. How the Schießbefehl worked, and how it ended in April 1989.

Published 24 September 2026, updated 27 September 2026. Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/shoot-to-kill-order-berlin-wall/

Officially, East Germany never had a shoot-to-kill order, and its leaders always publicly denied that one existed. But from August 1961 until April 1989, political instructions, military orders, service regulations and oral briefings before each shift told the guards at the Berlin Wall to stop escapes with firearms if other means failed, a 1982 law declared such shooting justified, and guards who killed escapees were as a rule decorated and rewarded. In German this is known as the *Schießbefehl*, the order to shoot.

At the Berlin Wall, 68 of the 101 escapees who died were shot dead. The first was [Günter Litfin](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/litfin-guenter/) on 24 August 1961; the last was [Chris Gueffroy](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gueffroy-chris/) on 5 February 1989. For the full toll, see [how many people died at the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/how-many-people-died-at-the-berlin-wall/).

## "Border violators are to be arrested or destroyed"

With the words "Grenzverletzer sind festzunehmen oder zu vernichten" – border violators are to be arrested or destroyed – East German border soldiers were sent to their posts in the death strip every day into the 1980s. The Chronik der Mauer (Berlin Wall chronicle) calls fatal shots at escapees a decisive cornerstone of the GDR border regime. The historian Hans-Hermann Hertle writes that from the start the SED leadership had no doubt that only the threat of death, and ultimately killing, could deter people from fleeing en masse.

## The first orders after the Wall was built, 1961–1962

On 22 August 1961 the SED Politburo instructed Albert Norden, the Central Committee secretary for propaganda, to have army and police units sign written declarations that anyone who broke the GDR's laws would be called to order, with a weapon if necessary. Hundreds of people still managed to escape in the first weeks after the Wall went up (many escapes are documented at [berlinwallescapes.com](https://berlinwallescapes.com)), and 85 people's police officers defected to the West. On 20 September 1961 Erich Honecker, the Politburo member in charge of the border closure, reaffirmed the instruction that firearms were to be used against traitors and border violators.

The Defence Minister's first order on the subject followed on 6 October 1961. Order No. 76/61, addressed to the army's Border Command, obliged its guards, posts and patrols on the GDR's western border and coast to use firearms in several situations, including to arrest people who did not stop at the call "Halt - stehenbleiben - Grenzposten!" (halt, stand still, border guard) or after a warning shot, who were evidently trying to violate the GDR's state border, and whom there was no other way to arrest. Shots were to be fired only towards GDR territory or parallel to the border, and not at children, members of foreign armies or diplomats. Hertle notes that this order reappeared, only slightly changed, in service regulations over the following years. (Berlin's own border units stayed under the Interior Ministry until August 1962.)

In 1962 the minister ordered that shooting practice be organised so that every border soldier would become an excellent marksman, able to destroy any stationary or moving target with the first shot (or burst) by day or night. Later regulations added that using a firearm was the most extreme measure of force against people, permitted only when all other measures had failed or the situation made other measures impossible.

When [Peter Göring](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/goering-peter/), a border guard, was killed by a ricochet at the Spandauer Schifffahrts Canal on 23 May 1962, he had been firing at a 14-year-old boy, in breach of the regulations that forbade firing at children or towards the West.

## Honecker in the National Defence Council, 3 May 1974

In 1971 Honecker had succeeded Walter Ulbricht as SED First Secretary and as chairman of the National Defence Council. The minutes of the council's 45th session on 3 May 1974 record his points on the situation at the border: there had to be a clear field of fire everywhere, firearms still had to be used "rücksichtslos" (ruthlessly) against attempts to break through the border, and comrades who had used their firearms successfully were to be commended. According to the minutes, he added that nothing about the existing rules on this would change, now or in the future.

## The 1982 Border Law and Section 27

On 25 March 1982 the GDR's parliament passed the Law on the State Border (Grenzgesetz). Its Section 27 on the use of firearms describes shooting as the most extreme measure of force against people, to be used only when physical force had failed or was clearly hopeless. It declared shooting justified to prevent the imminent commission or continuation of an offence that constituted a *Verbrechen* (a serious crime), and to apprehend people strongly suspected of one. Shooting was to be announced by a call or a warning shot unless an immediate danger could only be stopped by aimed fire. Guards were not to shoot if bystanders could be endangered or if people appeared to be children, and wherever possible not at young people or women. Life was to be spared where possible, and the injured given first aid.

Under the GDR's political criminal laws, escape attempts could be classed as a *Verbrechen* in certain circumstances. Hertle describes the Border Law as giving the practice of fatal shooting a legal facade; the Berlin Regional Court later found that it was meant to create the impression of legitimacy in line with the rule of law without changing the previous practice in any way.

## How the order worked in practice

Hertle writes that no case is known in which the GDR's political and military leadership opened an investigation into a guard who had killed someone, to check whether the shooting had been lawful. Instead, guards were as a rule decorated and rewarded for killings, with a medal for exemplary border service, with money and gifts, and with promotions. The border soldiers involved in the shooting of [Elke](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weckeiser-elke/) and [Dieter Weckeiser](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weckeiser-dieter/) on 18 February 1968 were commended and given the same medal, although most of the officers and soldiers stationed there later told police that, objectively, the use of firearms had not been necessary.

The Stasi was part of the system. According to the MfS-Lexikon, the Federal Archives' reference work on the Stasi, border soldiers who refused to shoot at escapees, or who might flee themselves, should on no account be deployed at the border, and a candidate could not even be examined for the border troops until the local Stasi office had secretly vetted him and given its approval. It also notes that a successful escape weighed more heavily than killing the escapee: even when guards clearly exceeded their orders, or escapees who had been stopped were in effect executed, there were no criminal consequences for the soldier concerned.

The pressure could reach the guards' own ranks. The biography of [Günter Seling](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/seling-guenter/), a border soldier shot in fog by a comrade who took him for an escapee on 29 September 1962, concludes that the pressure to prevent "border breaches" was so great that in doubtful cases guards even shot at their own comrades. See also [border soldiers killed at the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/border-soldiers-killed-at-the-berlin-wall/).

When shooting did not suit the leadership politically, for example around state visits, the order was suspended for short periods, as during West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's visit to the GDR in December 1981. Hertle quotes the Stasi minister, Erich Mielke, preparing security for the 1973 World Youth Festival in East Berlin: "Der Schießbefehl wird natürlich nicht aufgehoben" – the order to shoot will of course not be lifted.

## The 2007 document from the Stasi files

In August 2007 the Magdeburg branch of the Stasi records agency presented a seven-page document dated 1 October 1973 as the first proof of a written order to shoot at the inner-German border (not at the Berlin Wall). The BBC reported that it had been found among the papers of an East German border guard. In the BBC's translation it said: "Do not hesitate with the use of a firearm", even when women and children were involved in escapes. Marianne Birthler, head of the agency, told a newspaper that the document mattered because the former political leaders continued to deny there had been an order to shoot.

The picture soon became more complicated. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported that a researcher at the agency had published the identical wording in 1997, and that the next day Birthler had to acknowledge the find had long been known. The agency also clarified that the text was not an order to the border troops; according to the newspaper, it was an instruction to a Stasi unit that hunted border soldiers deserting to the West. The newspaper concluded that the document on its own was not proof of a general order to shoot, and argued that Section 27 of the 1982 Border Law already amounted to a de facto order to shoot in writing.

## How historians and courts have judged it

In the trials after 1990, members of the former political and military leadership denied that there had ever been an order to shoot; in an interview published in Die Zeit on 30 September 1988, Defence Minister Heinz Kessler had claimed there had never been one. Hertle and the Berlin Wall chronicle both accept that, in formal legal terms, the laws, regulations and orders only created a permission to shoot, not a duty to kill, as the criminal courts also found. Hertle argues, however, that political criminal laws, an ideology of hatred towards the enemy, and praise and bonuses for guards who killed moved that permission close to an obligation.

The courts did not accept the Border Law as a justification. As the Federal Constitutional Court's 1996 decision records, the Berlin Regional Court, following a ruling of the Federal Court of Justice of 3 November 1992, held that the state practice based on Section 27 could not justify the killings, because it had obviously and intolerably violated elementary requirements of justice and human rights protected under international law. The Constitutional Court ruled that the strict protection of trust under the ban on retroactive punishment must give way where those holding state power exclude criminal liability for the gravest criminal injustice through grounds of justification by calling for and encouraging such injustice beyond the written law, and so seriously disregarding internationally recognised human rights. More on the prosecutions is in [the Berlin Wall shooting trials](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-shooting-trials/).

## The end of the shooting in April 1989

On 19 December 1988 Honecker told West Germany's departing representative in East Berlin that the defence minister had recently stated there was no (longer an) order to shoot, and that any shots still fired were warning shots. Friends told Chris Gueffroy that the order to shoot had been suspended. It had not been. On 5 February 1989 he was shot dead at the Britzer Zweigkanal between Treptow and Neukölln, the last person killed by gunfire at the Wall.

The protests that followed put the SED leadership under severe pressure. In mid-January 1989 the GDR had signed the Vienna CSCE agreement, committing itself to respect everyone's right to leave any country, including their own. Honecker's instruction to stop shooting was given orally, through Egon Krenz, the Central Committee secretary for security, who informed Deputy Defence Minister Fritz Streletz on 2 April 1989. According to the minutes of a meeting on 3 April at which Streletz passed this on to the border troop leadership, the message was that people who were fleeing must not be shot at if there was no order to shoot. From about 7 p.m. that day, all border units were orally instructed not to use firearms to prevent border breakthroughs; guards could shoot only if their own lives were threatened. By 4 April the instruction had reached the border posts.

Five days after the order was lifted, on 8 April 1989, a passport controller stopped two people trying to rush the Chausseestrasse crossing with a warning shot. According to Hertle, the passport controllers wore border troop uniforms only as a disguise and were in fact members of the Stasi, which had not been informed that the order had been lifted. A Stasi note of 12 April 1989, however, records that the platoon leader of the passport control unit at the Chausseestrasse crossing had been briefed on the new order on the morning of 5 April. According to the German federal government's chronicle, these were the last known shots at the Berlin Wall, and the order to shoot was formally lifted only by the Modrow government on 21 December 1989. The last deaths at the Wall are covered in [the last victims of the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/last-victims-of-the-berlin-wall/).

Seven months after the order was lifted in April, the Wall fell, and, as Hertle puts it, no shot disturbed the celebrations.

## Questions and answers

**Was there a shoot-to-kill order at the Berlin Wall?**

Officially, no: the GDR leadership always publicly denied that one existed. But instructions from August and September 1961, the Defence Minister's order of October 1961 for the army's border units, later service regulations and oral briefings before each shift told guards to stop escapes with firearms if other means failed, the 1982 Border Law declared such shooting justified, and guards who killed escapees were as a rule decorated and rewarded.

**What did the Schießbefehl say?**

The Defence Minister's order of 6 October 1961 obliged the army's border guards on the GDR's western border and coast to use firearms to arrest people who ignored the call to halt or a warning shot and were evidently trying to violate the GDR's border, if there was no other way to arrest them. Into the 1980s, guards were sent on duty every day with the oral order that border violators were to be arrested or destroyed.

**What was found in the Stasi files in 2007?**

In August 2007 the Stasi records agency in Magdeburg presented a document dated 1 October 1973 as proof of a written order to shoot at the inner-German border; it told the reader not to hesitate to use firearms, even when women and children were involved. The agency soon had to acknowledge that the find had long been known (the same wording had been published in 1997), and it clarified that the text was not an order to the border troops; according to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, it was addressed to a Stasi unit pursuing deserting border soldiers.

**When did the shooting at the Berlin Wall stop?**

On 3 April 1989 border units were orally instructed not to use firearms to prevent border breakthroughs, after the killing of Chris Gueffroy on 5 February 1989. Firearms were to be used only if a guard's own life was threatened.

## Sources

1. Hans-Hermann Hertle, "Grenzverletzer sind festzunehmen oder zu vernichten", bpb (2012): https://www.bpb.de/themen/deutsche-einheit/deutsche-teilung-deutsche-einheit/52462/grenzverletzer-sind-festzunehmen-oder-zu-vernichten/
2. Chronik der Mauer: Das Grenzsystem: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/180123/das-grenzsystem
3. Chronik der Mauer: Order No. 76/61 on the use of firearms, 6 October 1961: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/material/179376/bestimmungen-ueber-den-schusswaffengebrauch-fuer-das-kommando-grenze-der-nationalen-volksarmee-der-ddr-6-oktober-1961
4. Chronik der Mauer: Minutes of the 45th session of the National Defence Council, 3 May 1974 (extract): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/chronicle/180385/protokoll-der-45-sitzung-des-nationalen-verteidigungsrates-der-ddr-3-mai-1974-auszug
5. Chronik der Mauer: Border Law of the GDR, 25 March 1982: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/material/180391/gesetz-ueber-die-staatsgrenze-der-ddr-grenzgesetz-25-maerz-1982
6. Chronik der Mauer: On the lifting of the order to shoot, 12 April 1989: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/material/180328/zur-aufhebung-des-schiessbefehls-12-april-1989
7. Stasi-Mediathek: Minutes of the meeting with the Minister of National Defence on lifting the order to shoot (1989): https://www.stasi-mediathek.de/medien/protokoll-ueber-die-ruecksprache-beim-minister-fuer-nationale-verteidigung-zur-aufhebung-des-schiessbefehls/
8. Bundesarchiv (Stasi Records Archive), MfS-Lexikon: Grenzsicherung: https://www.bundesarchiv.de/im-archiv-recherchieren/stasi-unterlagen-einsehen/hinweise-zum-mfs/mfs-lexikon/detail/grenzsicherung/
9. Bundesregierung: 3 April 1989 – Aufhebung des Schießbefehls: https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/schwerpunkte/deutsche-einheit/aufhebung-des-schiessbefehls-389974
10. BBC News: E German 'licence to kill' found (12 August 2007): http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6943093.stm
11. Neue Zürcher Zeitung: Die Stasi-Behörde kennt ihre Archive nicht (14 August 2007): https://www.nzz.ch/die_stasi-behoerde_kennt_ihre_archive_nicht-1.540760
12. Federal Constitutional Court, decision of 24 October 1996 (2 BvR 1851/94 and others): https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Entscheidungen/DE/1996/10/rs19961024_2bvr185194.html
13. LeMO (Haus der Geschichte): Erich Honecker: https://www.hdg.de/lemo/biografie/erich-honecker.html
14. Hertle/Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings (2017): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/

Cite as: “Was There a Shoot-to-Kill Order at the Berlin Wall?”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/shoot-to-kill-order-berlin-wall/

---

# Border Soldiers Killed at the Berlin Wall: The Eight Guards

> Eight East German border soldiers died on duty at the Berlin Wall between 1962 and 1980. Who they were, how they died, and how the GDR used their deaths.

Published 24 September 2026, updated 27 September 2026. Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/border-soldiers-killed-at-the-berlin-wall/

Eight East German border soldiers were killed while on duty at the Berlin Wall. They died between April 1962 and November 1980 and are counted among the at least 140 people who lost their lives at the Wall. According to the research project of the Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and the Berlin Wall Foundation, they were killed by military deserters, by fellow soldiers, by escapees and an escape helper, and in one case by a bullet from a West Berlin police officer's gun.

The researchers point out that these men served the very system that sealed the border against escapes, while also being exposed to the dangers it created. After their deaths, all but one of them were turned into heroes by East German propaganda, often in versions that the state's own internal files contradicted.

## Eight of the 140: how the border soldiers are counted

The research project's 2017 findings divide the 140 victims into three groups: 101 escapees; 30 people from East and West Germany who had no intention of escaping, together with one Soviet soldier; and eight GDR border soldiers killed in service. Four of the eight died on the outer ring between Berlin and Brandenburg, the other four at the sector border inside the city. For the full breakdown, see [how many people died at the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/how-many-people-died-at-the-berlin-wall/).

The eight soldiers were:

- [Jörgen Schmidtchen](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidtchen-joergen/), 20, shot on 18 April 1962 at Gleisdreieck Griebnitzsee, between Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- [Peter Göring](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/goering-peter/), 21, killed on 23 May 1962 at the Spandauer Schifffahrts Canal near the Sandkrug Bridge
- [Reinhold Huhn](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/huhn-reinhold/), 20, shot on 18 June 1962 on the corner of Jerusalemer Strasse and Zimmerstrasse
- [Günter Seling](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/seling-guenter/), 22, shot on 29 September 1962 in Teltow-Seehof; he died the next day
- [Siegfried Widera](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/widera-siegfried/), 22, knocked down on 23 August 1963 near the Massante Bridge; he died on 8 September 1963
- [Egon Schultz](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schultz-egon/), 21, shot on 5 October 1964 in the courtyard of Strelitzer Strasse 55
- [Rolf Henniger](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/henniger-rolf/), 26, shot on 15 November 1968 in the Babelsberg Palace Park
- [Ulrich Steinhauer](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/steinhauer-ulrich/), 24, shot on 4 November 1980 near Schönwalde, across from Eiskeller

## Killed by deserters: Schmidtchen, Henniger and Steinhauer

Three of the soldiers were killed by armed deserters from East German forces. Two of those deserters were themselves shot dead, and both are counted among the 140 victims.

**Jörgen Schmidtchen**, according to official records, was born and raised in Leipzig and began an apprenticeship as a galvaniser. He joined the German Border Police at 19. On the night of 18 April 1962 he was on guard at a post called "Gleisdreieck" in Potsdam-Babelsberg. Before the shift, the guards had been told that two armed members of the National People's Army were missing from an officers' school. At around 2:30 a.m. he and his fellow guard heard noises, went out to look and came upon two men in uniform. According to what the fellow guard later stated, Schmidtchen took them for a patrol, went up to them unsuspectingly and spoke to them, and then shots were suddenly fired. He was shot by one of them, a 19-year-old cadet trying to reach West Berlin, and presumably died at once. His fellow guard returned fire, and the cadet was fatally wounded in the exchange; he too is [remembered among the victims of the Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/boehme-peter/). The second deserter reached West Berlin unhurt. According to Schmidtchen's biography, he was the first border policeman killed on duty on the border with West Berlin after the Wall went up.

**Rolf Henniger** was born on 30 November 1941 in Saalfeld and trained as a train driver. He had just married when he was drafted into the border troops in November 1967. On the evening of 15 November 1968 he was driving his platoon leader through the Babelsberg Palace Park when a 21-year-old East German police constable, fleeing to West Berlin with a loaded machine pistol, opened fire on the vehicle. According to the Stasi's investigation report, whose account Berlin prosecutors later did not question, Henniger was killed at the wheel, while the platoon leader let himself drop out of the vehicle and shot the constable dead. The young policeman is also [remembered among the victims of the Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/koerner-horst/). None of these details were made public at the time. Only when investigations opened in the 1990s did the background come to light. According to his biography, he had apparently told his immediate family that he meant to flee, and his closest relatives kept from the state the secret that he had probably been waiting for his own chance to escape.

**Ulrich Steinhauer** was born on 13 March 1956 in Behrenshagen near the Baltic coast, the third of six children, and worked as a carpenter. He was called up in November 1979. His sister later recalled that he wanted to finish his 18 months of service without ever having to shoot at anyone. On 4 November 1980 he was on duty as guard leader across from Eiskeller in Spandau. His junior guard, who was planning to flee, shot him; the fatal bullet struck him in the back and went through his heart. A letter he had written home on 2 November, ending with the words "Noch 172 Tage" (172 more days), reached the family three days after his death. In 1981 the youth chamber of the Berlin Regional Court convicted the deserter of manslaughter, stating that where freedom and life are in conflict, life comes first.

## Shot by comrades: Seling and Schultz

**Günter Seling**, born on 28 April 1940, came from Stahnsdorf and had served in the National People's Army since April 1959. At about 5 a.m. on 29 September 1962, in thick fog, he approached a 19-year-old guard to carry out an unannounced check. Apparently taking him for an escapee, the guard loaded his machine pistol, and a burst of four shots severely injured Seling in the head. East German documents describe what happened differently: one report treated the shots as accidental, another suggested they were fired deliberately without a warning. He died in the early hours of 30 September. His biography concludes that the pressure on guards to prevent escapes, with their weapons if necessary, was so great that in doubtful cases they even shot at their own comrades.

**Egon Schultz** was born in 1943 in Pomerania. At the age of seven he came with his family from Poland to East Germany, and he grew up near Rostock and then in the city itself, where he trained to become a primary school teacher and began teaching a first-year class on 1 September 1963. Soon afterwards he was conscripted. Around midnight on 4 October 1964 he was sent with other soldiers to Strelitzer Strasse 55, where West Berlin students had dug a 145-metre tunnel, later known as "Tunnel 57" after the 57 people who escaped through it. An escape helper fired first and wounded Schultz with a shot that lodged in his lung, but it did not kill him. The fatal shots came from the Kalashnikov of a fellow border soldier who, on the instruction of a Stasi officer, fired into the dark courtyard and hit Schultz by mistake. The East Berlin investigators established this, but the result was classified as top secret, and the Stasi made the autopsy files disappear from the Charité.

## Killed during escapes: Huhn, Widera and Göring

**Reinhold Huhn** was the youngest child of a farming family from Braunsberg in East Prussia; after the war the family found a new home in Adorf in the Vogtland, and he later trained as a cattle breeder. On 18 June 1962 he was guarding the corner of Jerusalemer Strasse and Zimmerstrasse when he tried to check the papers of a small group. They were on their way to a tunnel to the West, and the man leading them, a West Berliner bringing his family out, shot Huhn in the chest. In 1999 the Berlin Regional Court convicted the man of manslaughter; in 2000 the Federal Court of Justice found him guilty of murder but left the sentence unchanged. His biography notes that the decision remains controversial.

**Siegfried Widera**, born in 1941 in Silesia, had worked as a lathe operator. On the evening of 23 August 1963 he and a fellow guard were posted on the Massante Bridge between Treptow and Neukölln. Three construction workers who had access to the border area knocked both guards down and escaped to West Berlin. Widera suffered a fracture to the base of his skull and died on 8 September. He had married just weeks before, and his widow was expecting a child. One of the escapees later said it was a great misfortune for him to hear that a young man was said to have died through his actions. The West German investigation against them was discontinued in April 1969.

**Peter Göring** was born in December 1940. According to the official East German account of his life, which his biography describes as vague, he came from Dresden, lost his father in the war and grew up in a children's home. On 23 May 1962 border guards opened fire on a 14-year-old boy from Erfurt who was trying to reach the western bank of the Spandauer Schifffahrts Canal, and West Berlin police gave the boy covering fire. Göring was killed by a ricochet. East Germany called it murder, but its own military and judicial files showed that he had left his watchtower against his post leader's orders and was firing at the boy when he was hit. West Berlin's mayor, Willy Brandt, expressed regret over his death and said that the blame for his fate lay with those who had built the Wall.

## How the GDR used their deaths

With the exception of Günter Seling, the eight were made into propaganda heroes. Seling was buried with military honours, but unlike the others he was not publicly mourned; his biography suggests the circumstances of his death made that seem inopportune to the leadership.

The others were given funerals, most of them with military honours. Those of Reinhold Huhn and Egon Schultz were staged as political demonstrations, and Rolf Henniger was buried with great propaganda effort. Schmidtchen was promoted to sergeant the day after he died, and Göring, Widera, Henniger and Steinhauer were posthumously promoted to sergeant. Streets, schools and other institutions were named after several of them; Egon Schultz alone gave his name to more than a hundred collectives, schools and institutions, and Strelitzer Strasse was renamed Egon-Schultz-Strasse in 1966. Schützenstrasse, near where Reinhold Huhn died, became Reinhold-Huhn-Strasse, and in the 1970s the site of his death was expanded into a central memorial for border soldiers killed at the Wall.

Behind the public story, the internal verdicts were often different. The commander of Schmidtchen's brigade concluded that he had acted imprudently. A border troop report said Widera and his fellow guard had acted against their orders and been overly trusting. The truth about Schultz's death was concealed, and Henniger's family was not told that he had been shot by an East German policeman. Some families had no say: Henniger's relatives were not allowed to take part in the funeral arrangements, and Steinhauer's funeral was organised by the authorities. Göring's mother, by contrast, was drawn into the official commemoration and took an active part in it for the rest of her life. Steinhauer's sister Ilona said the state had taken him from the family a second time when it turned him into a hero.

## What later research found

The opening of the East German archives and the investigations of the 1990s brought many of these facts to light. After the GDR ended, the memorial on Jerusalemer Strasse was removed and Reinhold-Huhn-Strasse became Schützenstrasse again. At Strelitzer Strasse 55, a new plaque placed by some of the escape helpers and a friend now honours Egon Schultz as a victim of the Wall. Photographs in their biographies show commemorative columns for Jörgen Schmidtchen at the Griebnitz Lake and for Günter Seling and Rolf Henniger on the Teltow Canal; see [memorials to the victims of the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-victims-memorials/).

The researchers note that opinion in the West was split: some held that escapees were entitled to defend themselves against the guards, others that a guard's life came first, as the Berlin court decided in Ulrich Steinhauer's case. Their stated aim was to give the victims a face and a story, and in the case of the border soldiers to free them from the regime's attempts to co-opt them after their deaths.

For the rules the guards themselves served under, see [was there a shoot-to-kill order at the Berlin Wall?](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/shoot-to-kill-order-berlin-wall/), and for the court cases after 1990, [the Berlin Wall shooting trials](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-shooting-trials/).

## Questions and answers

**How many border soldiers were killed at the Berlin Wall?**

Eight East German border soldiers were killed in service at the Berlin Wall. They are counted among the at least 140 people who died at the Wall between 1961 and 1989.

**Who was the first border guard killed at the Berlin Wall?**

Jörgen Schmidtchen was shot on 18 April 1962 near Griebnitzsee by an army cadet who was deserting to West Berlin. According to his biography, he was the first border policeman killed on duty on the border with West Berlin after the Wall went up.

**Who was the last border soldier killed at the Berlin Wall?**

Ulrich Steinhauer was shot on 4 November 1980 near Schönwalde by the junior guard on his patrol, who was deserting to the West. He was 24.

**Were border soldiers at the Berlin Wall killed by their own side?**

Yes. Günter Seling was shot by a fellow soldier who mistook him for an escapee in thick fog, and the fatal shots that killed Egon Schultz came from a comrade's Kalashnikov and hit him by mistake. Three others were killed by deserters from East German forces.

**How did East Germany use the deaths of its border soldiers?**

With the exception of Günter Seling, the GDR turned them into propaganda heroes, naming streets, schools and other institutions after several of them, while in several cases keeping internal findings about how they died secret.

## Sources

1. Hertle/Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings (2017): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/
2. Chronik der Mauer: Jörgen Schmidtchen: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180605/schmidtchen-joergen
3. Chronik der Mauer: Peter Göring: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180606/goering-peter
4. Chronik der Mauer: Reinhold Huhn: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180607/huhn-reinhold
5. Chronik der Mauer: Günter Seling: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180608/seling-guenter
6. Chronik der Mauer: Siegfried Widera: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180609/widera-siegfried
7. Chronik der Mauer: Egon Schultz: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180610/schultz-egon
8. Chronik der Mauer: Rolf Henniger: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180611/henniger-rolf
9. Chronik der Mauer: Ulrich Steinhauer: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180612/steinhauer-ulrich

Cite as: “Border Soldiers Killed at the Berlin Wall: The Eight Guards”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/border-soldiers-killed-at-the-berlin-wall/

---

# Berlin Wall Shooting Trials: Guards, Generals and the Politburo

> After 1990, Berlin prosecutors charged 246 people over violence at the Berlin Wall and 132 were convicted. Guards, generals, the Politburo and the ECHR.

Published 24 September 2026, updated 27 September 2026. Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-shooting-trials/

After German unification, prosecutors put on trial both the border guards who had fired at people at the Berlin Wall and the military and political leaders who had given the orders. The Berlin public prosecutor brought 112 indictments against 246 people; 132 of them were finally convicted, while almost half of those charged were acquitted. Sentences rose with rank: the guards who fired usually received terms suspended on probation, while members of the East German leadership were given several years in prison.

These proceedings are often called the Border Guard Trials; in German the guards were known as "Mauerschützen", the Wall shooters. This article sets out what happened in the courts, which legal questions they had to answer, and how some of the individual cases ended. For the orders behind the shootings, see [the article on the shoot-to-kill order](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/shoot-to-kill-order-berlin-wall/).

## How the cases came to court

The research project on the victims notes that the East German leadership knew from the start that the West Berlin police recorded acts of violence at the border and that West Berlin's public prosecution service dealt with them, and that a central registry in Salzgitter investigated and documented, for criminal-law purposes, every case it learned of.

In several cases, relatives set the proceedings in motion. The mother of [Chris Gueffroy](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gueffroy-chris/), who was shot on 5 February 1989, filed a criminal complaint against "persons unknown" on 12 January 1990, and after reunification the Central Investigation Office for Government and Unification Criminality (ZERV) took over the investigation. In July 1990 the sisters of [Peter Fechter](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/fechter-peter/) filed a criminal complaint that eventually led to the conviction of two guards. The father of [Michael Schmidt](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidt-michael/) had asked the East German state prosecutor about his son's death by mid-December 1989, although the Berlin public prosecutor did not open an intensive investigation until after unification.

## The first trial: the killing of Chris Gueffroy

The first of the many trials against guards who had shot at people at the Wall concerned Chris Gueffroy, the last person shot dead there. Amid great public interest, the Berlin public prosecutor charged four former border guards on 27 May 1991. On 20 January 1992 the Berlin Regional Court (Landgericht Berlin, which the victims' biographies call the Berlin district court) found the guard who had fired the fatal shot guilty of manslaughter and sentenced him to three and a half years in prison; of the other defendants, some received suspended sentences and the rest were acquitted.

The Federal Court of Justice overturned that verdict on 25 March 1993 and sent the case back to another chamber of the Berlin Regional Court. It found that the first court had given too little weight to the gunman's position at the lowest level of the military hierarchy. In the retrial, on 14 March 1994, he was sentenced to two years, suspended on probation, and his guard leader was acquitted. According to Gueffroy's biography, the case set a precedent: almost all later trials followed this line of rulings, which weighed in the gunmen's favour.

On 5 February 1992, the Berlin Regional Court convicted the two guards who had shot Michael Schmidt in 1984 of joint manslaughter. They were given suspended sentences of 18 and 21 months.

## What sentences did the guards receive?

The historian Hans-Hermann Hertle, summarising the outcome of all the Berlin proceedings, lists 132 defendants convicted with final effect of various forms of manslaughter: ten members of the SED leadership, 42 members of the military leadership and 80 border soldiers. Sentences were graded by rank; in his overview, guards who had fired the shots generally received between six and 24 months, as a rule suspended on probation, although some were given considerably longer terms, as the cases below show. Hertle describes the penalties overall as surprisingly low.

According to Hertle, the courts took into account in the defendants' favour, among other things, their place in the hierarchy of a totalitarian system, constant political indoctrination, the time that had passed since the shooting, and the defendants' youth at the time. In the case of [Werner Probst](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/probst-werner/), who was shot as he reached the West Berlin bank of the Spree in October 1961, the court assumed in the guards' favour that, although the order they acted on was "obviously unlawful", they had themselves been at the bottom of the hierarchy that gave it.

Typical outcomes, as recorded in the victims' biographies:

- **[Günter Litfin](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/litfin-guenter/)**, the first person shot dead at the Wall: in 1997 two men who had fired at him were found guilty of joint manslaughter and sentenced to one year and to one year and six months, suspended on probation. The court itself remarked how little such sentences did justice to the unlawfulness of the acts.
- **Peter Fechter**: two guards were found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 20 and 21 months in prison, suspended on probation.
- **[Manfred Weylandt](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weylandt-manfred/)**, who was hit by a bullet in the Spree in February 1972 and drowned: two guards were given youth sentences of a year and ten months for joint manslaughter, suspended on probation.

A small number of cases ended differently. The Neuruppin public prosecutor brought a further 31 cases over shootings on the outer ring around West Berlin, which are not included in the Berlin figures. Among them was the case of [Walter Kittel](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kittel-walter/), who was shot in Kleinmachnow in 1965 after the guards had already stopped him: the Potsdam district court (Bezirksgericht) in December 1992 sentenced a former border guard to six years for manslaughter, and the following year, on appeal, the Federal Court of Justice increased the penalty to ten years in prison for murder. The guard who shot [Hermann Döbler](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/doebler-hermann/), a West Berliner killed on a boat trip on the Teltow Canal in 1965, was convicted by the Berlin Regional Court of murder in conjunction with attempted murder and sentenced to six years, which his biography calls one of the harshest punishments ever given to a border guard. In the case of [Willi Block](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/block-willi/), the court could not establish who had fired the fatal shots, but assumed with a high degree of probability that it was the regiment commander; after an appeal by the prosecution and a ruling of the Federal Court of Justice, he was finally convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three years in prison without probation. The man who shot [Dr. Johannes Muschol](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/muschol-dr-johannes/) in 1981 was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to three years in prison.

## Acquittals and dropped cases

Almost half of those charged were acquitted. Hertle explains that in some cases the person who fired the fatal shot could no longer be identified, and in others an intention to kill could not be proven. After 1990 the father of [Herbert Mende](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mende-herbert/) set off an investigation into the guard who had shot his son. It was discontinued in the autumn of 1996 because the public prosecutor could not prove beyond doubt that the gunman had intended to kill; reopened after a complaint by Mende's father, it was closed again in February 1997, and in 1998 the Attorney General of Brandenburg, responding to a further complaint, declined to bring charges because a conviction was not likely.

Shots at armed deserters were treated differently. The guard presumed responsible for the death of [Michael Kollender](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kollender-michael/), a National People's Army soldier who was shot in 1966 while deserting with a loaded machine pistol, was acquitted by the Berlin Regional Court in the autumn of 1995, while another guard was convicted of attempted manslaughter and given a nine-month sentence, suspended on probation. On the appeals of the prosecution and of the convicted guard, the Federal Court of Justice acquitted him too: it reasoned that East Germany's military criminal law of 1962 made desertion a crime, so in this special case ("Spezialfall") the guards could not have recognised that shooting a deserter was unlawful, and the killing was excused.

## The commanders and the Politburo

Erich Honecker, the former chairman of the GDR's National Defence Council, was charged in Berlin in 1992 with multiple counts of manslaughter (Totschlag) over the killings at the border, as a principal rather than as an instigator. When he was brought back to Berlin in July 1992, he was ill with liver cancer. His trial before the Berlin Regional Court began on 12 November 1992, but on 12 January 1993 the proceedings were discontinued after the Berlin Constitutional Court ruled that continuing the trial and his detention violated his human dignity. He left for Chile the next day and died in Santiago de Chile on 29 May 1994.

Other members of the leadership were convicted. On 16 September 1993 the Berlin Regional Court sentenced Fritz Streletz and Heinz Kessler, both members of the National Defence Council, to five years and six months and to seven years and six months respectively for Anstiftung zum Totschlag, which the European Court of Human Rights translates as incitement to commit intentional homicide. The deaths in their case included those of Michael Schmidt and Chris Gueffroy. On 26 July 1994 the Federal Court of Justice reclassified the offence as intentional homicide as indirect principals, leaving the length of the sentences unchanged.

On 25 August 1997, almost two years after the trial began, the Berlin Regional Court in Moabit gave its verdict against three Politburo members: Egon Krenz, Günther Kleiber and Günter Schabowski. Krenz was sentenced to six years and six months, in the European Court's words for intentional homicide as an indirect principal. The court held him jointly responsible for the deaths of four young people between 1984 and 1989: Michael Schmidt, [Michael Bittner](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/bittner-michael/), [Lutz Schmidt](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidt-lutz/) and Chris Gueffroy. Hertle's overview gives sentences of 36 to 78 months for members of the SED leadership and 60 to 90 months for members of the National Defence Council.

## Were the trials lawful?

Defendants argued that the shootings had been legal under East German law at the time, and that punishing them afterwards broke the ban on retroactive criminal law. Two of the highest courts rejected that argument.

On 24 October 1996 the Federal Constitutional Court rejected the constitutional complaints of three former members of the National Defence Council and of a former border guard. The court held that the ban on retroactive punishment in Article 103 of the Basic Law is absolute, but that the special trust it protects is missing where a state has excluded punishment for the gravest criminal wrongs, encouraged such wrongs beyond its written laws and seriously disregarded internationally recognised human rights. In that situation, the court ruled, the strict protection of trust must give way. Hertle notes that the courts followed the Federal Court of Justice, which held that the intentional killing of unarmed refugees could not be justified because it was an obvious and intolerable violation of elementary principles of justice and of human rights protected by international law. Orders, regulations and laws that allowed firearms to be used to stop escapes were therefore not accepted as a justification.

Several of those convicted then turned to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. On 22 March 2001 its Grand Chamber ruled in two judgments. In Streletz, Kessler and Krenz v. Germany it found unanimously that there had been no violation of Article 7 § 1 of the Convention (no punishment without law). In K.-H. W. v. Germany, brought by a former border guard, it reached the same conclusion by fourteen votes to three. That guard had been sentenced by the Berlin Regional Court on 17 June 1993 to one year and ten months' juvenile detention, suspended on probation, for the killing of Manfred Weylandt.

## What the trials meant for the families

The victims project notes that for many families the truth about how their relatives died came out only in the 1990s, when the East German archives were opened and the crimes at the border were prosecuted. Peter Fechter's youngest sister, Ruth, took part in the trial as a joint plaintiff and spoke through her lawyer about the pressure and exclusion her family had lived with for decades.

The trials also produced records. The research project on the victims used the findings of the Border Guard Trials of the 1990s, alongside border troop and Stasi files, to reconstruct the circumstances of the deaths. Hertle records that to many people the number of acquittals seems too high and the sentences too low, but that the investigations and trials documented the human rights violations in East Germany comprehensively.

Not every trial concerned a guard who had fired. [Reinhold Huhn](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/huhn-reinhold/), a border soldier, was shot dead in 1962 by a West Berliner helping his family to escape. In 1999 the Berlin Regional Court convicted the man of manslaughter and gave him a one-year sentence, suspended on probation; in 2000 the Federal Court of Justice found him guilty of murder but did not change the sentence. More about Huhn and the other soldiers who died on duty is in [the article on the border soldiers killed at the Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/border-soldiers-killed-at-the-berlin-wall/). For how the victims are remembered today, see [where to remember the victims in Berlin](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-victims-memorials/).

## Questions and answers

**How many people were convicted over the killings at the Berlin Wall?**

After 1990 the Berlin public prosecutor brought 112 indictments against 246 people. According to the historian Hans-Hermann Hertle, 132 defendants were finally convicted, among them ten members of the SED leadership, 42 members of the military leadership and 80 border soldiers. Almost half of those charged were acquitted.

**What sentences did the border guards receive?**

Most were mild. According to an overview by the historian Hans-Hermann Hertle, guards who fired the shots generally received six to 24 months, as a rule suspended on probation, although some received longer terms. In the separate proceedings brought by the Neuruppin public prosecutor over shootings on the outer ring around West Berlin, one guard was sentenced to ten years for the murder of Walter Kittel.

**What was the first Berlin Wall shooting trial?**

The trial of four former border guards over the killing of Chris Gueffroy, the last person shot dead at the Wall. The Berlin public prosecutor charged them on 27 May 1991, and the Berlin Regional Court gave its verdict on 20 January 1992.

**Was Erich Honecker convicted?**

No. He was charged in 1992, but the proceedings were halted on 12 January 1993 after the Berlin Constitutional Court ruled that continuing the trial and his detention, when he was terminally ill, violated his human dignity. He left for Chile and died there in 1994.

**Did the European Court of Human Rights uphold the convictions?**

Yes. On 22 March 2001 the Grand Chamber found no violation of the ban on retroactive punishment, unanimously in the case of Fritz Streletz, Heinz Kessler and Egon Krenz, and by fourteen votes to three in the case of a former border guard, K.-H. W.

## Sources

1. Hans-Hermann Hertle, Die strafrechtliche Aufarbeitung der Todesschüsse an der Berliner Mauer (Chronik der Mauer, from Die Berliner Mauer. Biografie eines Bauwerks, 2015): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/HHH_Bilanz_strafrechtliche_Aufarbeitung_Todesschuesse_2015.pdf
2. Federal Constitutional Court, decision of 24 October 1996, 2 BvR 1851/94 and others: https://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/SharedDocs/Entscheidungen/DE/1996/10/rs19961024_2bvr185194.html
3. European Court of Human Rights (Grand Chamber), Streletz, Kessler and Krenz v. Germany, 22 March 2001: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-59353
4. European Court of Human Rights (Grand Chamber), K.-H. W. v. Germany, 22 March 2001: https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-59352
5. LeMO (Stiftung Haus der Geschichte): Erich Honecker: https://www.hdg.de/lemo/biografie/erich-honecker.html
6. Tagesspiegel: Was der Richter 1997 sagte: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/was-der-richter-1997-sagte-627478.html
7. Hertle/Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings (2017): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/
8. Berlin Wall Foundation: Victims at the Berlin Wall: https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/topics/victims-berlin-wall
9. Chronik der Mauer: Chris Gueffroy: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180603/gueffroy-chris
10. Chronik der Mauer: Michael Schmidt: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180596/schmidt-michael
11. Chronik der Mauer: Peter Fechter: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180502/fechter-peter
12. Chronik der Mauer: Günter Litfin: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180480/litfin-guenter
13. Chronik der Mauer: Walter Kittel: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180534/kittel-walter
14. Chronik der Mauer: Willi Block: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180540/block-willi
15. Chronik der Mauer: Michael Kollender: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180545/kollender-michael
16. Chronik der Mauer: Manfred Weylandt: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180573/weylandt-manfred

Cite as: “Berlin Wall Shooting Trials: Guards, Generals and the Politburo”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-shooting-trials/

---

# Who Was Peter Fechter? The 18-Year-Old Shot at the Berlin Wall

> Peter Fechter, an 18-year-old bricklayer from East Berlin, was shot at the Wall near Checkpoint Charlie on 17 August 1962 and lay there wounded for 50 minutes.

Published 27 September 2026. Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/who-was-peter-fechter/

[Peter Fechter](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/fechter-peter/) was an 18-year-old bricklayer from East Berlin who was shot while trying to climb the Berlin Wall on Zimmerstrasse, close to Checkpoint Charlie, on 17 August 1962. Hit by border guards' bullets, he lay badly wounded at the foot of the Wall for 50 minutes, watched by many people on both sides. His calls for help had fallen silent by the time East German border troops carried him away, and he was declared dead shortly afterwards.

He was not the first person to die at the Wall: that was [Ida Siekmann](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/siekmann-ida/), on 22 August 1961, and the first to be shot dead was [Günter Litfin](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/litfin-guenter/), two days later (see [the first victims of the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/first-victims-of-the-berlin-wall/)). But photographers and a television crew were present that afternoon, and the pictures of his death went around the world. Christoph Hamann, writing in the journal *Zeithistorische Forschungen* in 2005, observes that many people even think of him as the first person to die at the Wall. He connects that perception with the memorial on Zimmerstrasse, the wreaths laid there every year and the television documentaries shown in 1997, the year two of the guards who had fired on him were tried.

## A quiet teenager from Weissensee

Peter Fechter was born in Berlin on 14 January 1944, during the war, the third of four children. He was his parents' only son and grew up in a family of modest means in Weissensee; his father was a machine builder by trade, his mother a sales assistant. At 14 he left school and started training as a bricklayer. Bricklaying was a sought-after trade at the time, with the post-war rebuilding still under way. His eldest sister had married and lived in the western part of the city; before the Wall was built, the family reportedly visited her regularly. His biography describes him as a quiet, inconspicuous young man.

While he was still working towards his journeyman's examination, he met Helmut K., who was training at the same firm. From the start of 1962 the two were part of the team rebuilding the former Kaiser-Wilhelm-Palais on Unter den Linden. Stasi files show that the firm's personnel department had turned down his request to travel to West Germany; his biography suggests this may have been one of his reasons for wanting to leave. His work assessment was nevertheless faultless; it called him "a willing and hard-working skilled worker". Helmut K. told the West Berlin police that Peter Fechter had been "a good colleague, sincere and honest", although, he added, the two were not really friends.

## The escape attempt on 17 August 1962

In the same statement, Helmut K. said that escape had been on both their minds for some time and that they had scouted the border for a good opportunity, though without a concrete plan or any particular preparations. A Stasi investigation after the shooting likewise found "no evidence of a prepared border breach". The place they used was one they had come across while roaming the area, he said: a ruined building on Schützenstrasse with a carpentry workshop inside, whose rear windows gave onto Zimmerstrasse, almost at the Wall. Two days after finding it, they skipped the return to the building site after their lunch break and, without having planned it, went to look round the building instead.

Helmut K. described how they got through the workshop unnoticed to a storeroom at the back with a window that had not yet been bricked up, how voices heard after a while made them fear discovery, and how they jumped out and, having already taken off their shoes, ran the few metres to the Wall in their socks. They reached it on Zimmerstrasse between Charlottenstrasse and Markgrafenstrasse. The first report of shots reached the West Berlin police at 2.12 p.m.

Helmut K. said that Peter Fechter froze when the first shots were fired. He himself jumped up, squeezed through the barbed wire on top of the Wall and reached West Berlin. Peter Fechter did not follow him. Border troop files show that the guards opened fire without warning: four border guards fired 35 shots in all. According to the border troops' report, Peter Fechter was hit as he jumped at the Wall, slid back and then stood behind a reinforcement of the Wall. The Chronik der Mauer concludes from this that he had already given up trying to escape by then. Although he was defenceless, it continues, the guards did not arrest him. They moved to a different position, and their fire stopped only when he collapsed.

## Fifty minutes at the foot of the Wall

Badly wounded, he called loudly for help. The guards who had shot him took cover, ostensibly because they felt threatened by West Berlin police officers, who by then were aiming rifles at them from across the Wall, and for a long time there was no movement at all on the East Berlin side. In the West, police officers climbed a ladder, asked him his name over the top of the Wall and threw him bandages; none of them dared to climb over and help him. The American military police at nearby Checkpoint Charlie would not risk setting foot on East Berlin ground either, fearing a military conflict at a time when responsibilities in the divided city were still in political dispute. One of them is said to have remarked: "It's not our problem."

The Chronik der Mauer's page on the memorial site adds context for both sides. For the West Berlin police and the Allied guards, it points to the tank standoff of ten months before and their fear of starting a military conflict. On the East German side, no guard could enter the border strip unless an officer on duty ordered it, and the officer responsible arrived only half an hour after the shooting.

Fifty minutes had passed, and he had fallen silent, when members of the East German border troops finally took him away under cover of an artificial smokescreen. East German radio announced his death that same evening, after it had been officially recorded at the People's Police Hospital in East Berlin.

## The photographs

Photographers and camera crews on the western side had recorded his dying, and their pictures were soon seen around the world. According to Hamann, a television team was filming a report on the border that day and several press photographers were present. In Hamann's account, one photograph above all fixed his death in the minds of the western public. Taken by the photojournalist Wolfgang Bera, it shows East German border guards carrying Peter Fechter away; it appeared large on the front page of the *Berliner Morgenpost* on 18 August 1962. Pictures were also taken from the East Berlin side, but the Stasi confiscated them, and they became public only after 1989.

Hamann contrasts his case with that of the student [Dieter Wohlfahrt](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wohlfahrt-dieter/), who was shot at Staaken in December 1961 while helping people escape. There were no photographs or film of that failed escape attempt, Hamann points out, and nothing like the reaction to Peter Fechter's death followed. Peter Fechter's own Chronik der Mauer biography says that the pictures made his death a symbol of the inhumanity of the East German border regime, and notes that no chronicle of the 20th century or history of the Cold War leaves out his name.

## Protests in West Berlin

His death caused outrage in West Berlin, and protests began within hours. The Chronik der Mauer records rallies and riots through the night and on the days that followed, directed both at the Wall and at the American protecting power for doing nothing. According to Hamann, around 5,000 demonstrators tried to push through to Checkpoint Charlie and the Wall; he describes these as the first anti-American demonstrations since the Second World War. On 18 August the American city commandant, Major General Albert E. Watson, called what had happened "an act of barbaric inhumanity". From 21 August an Allied ambulance was stationed at Checkpoint Charlie.

Some West Berliners laid flowers and wreaths at the Wall. [Dieter Beilig](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/beilig-dieter/), a young West Berliner who protested against the Wall, set up a wooden cross as close to the Wall as he could, its inscription "Wir klagen an" ("We accuse") facing East Berlin. Beilig himself was later taken into custody in East Berlin and shot there, in 1971. A few days after Peter Fechter's death, on 23 August 1962, the transport policeman [Hans-Dieter Wesa](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wesa-hans-dieter/) was shot dead by a fellow transport policeman at Bornholmer Strasse, although he had already climbed the border fence into West Berlin, and in West Berlin there was concern that mass protests might break out again.

## How East Germany responded

Mistakes were later conceded. A Stasi report dated 18 August 1962 called for ways of getting injured people out of the border area quickly in such cases, not least to deny the adversary arguments for its "agitation". Official reports, however, went on blaming the West Berlin police, photographers and camera crews for delaying the recovery. The regime's chief propagandist used the television programme *Der schwarze Kanal* to disparage the dead teenager, declaring that the life of each of the state's young men in uniform mattered more than "the life of a lawbreaker". That broadcast went out on the day Peter Fechter was buried in Weissensee, in the cemetery of the Resurrection congregation.

His death also had practical consequences at the border. Order 56/62, a response to his death, was meant to ensure that fugitives shot or injured at the Wall were taken out of sight of the western public as fast as possible. When [Ernst Mundt](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mundt-ernst/) was shot at the Sophien Cemetery on 4 September 1962, the border troop leadership counted it a success that he had been taken away before West Berlin police officers, reporters or cameramen got there. And when [Anton Walzer](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/walzer-anton/) was killed in the Spree in October 1962, boats were placed in front of the divers recovering his body to block the view from West Berlin.

## The family and the trial

Beyond the loss itself, his relatives suffered reprisals from the East German authorities for decades. His gravestone was inscribed "Allen unvergessen" ("unforgotten by all").

In July 1990 Peter Fechter's sisters filed a criminal complaint. The investigation it started ended with two of the guards who had fired being convicted: on 5 March 1997 the Berlin Regional Court found them guilty of manslaughter and sentenced them to 20 and 21 months in prison; both sentences were suspended. His youngest sister, Ruth Fechter, took part in the trial as a joint plaintiff and spoke through her lawyer about how her brother's death, the family's helplessness as he was publicly defamed, and the silence imposed on them had shaped their lives. The researchers of the victims project quote her calling the experience of exclusion, and of living every day with images of an enemy forced on the family from outside, "a fundamental experience for the Fechter family". She added that the legal view sometimes overlooked how, in this case, world history had fatally crossed the fate of one individual. The trials of this period are described in [the Berlin Wall shooting trials](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-shooting-trials/).

## The memorial on Zimmerstrasse

According to the Berlin Senate's 2006 memorial concept, the memorial goes back to the spontaneous protest on the day he died, and it was tended and altered several times after that. A second wooden cross later took the place of Beilig's; politicians from Germany and abroad came to see it, as did tourists and representatives of civic initiatives. The Axel Springer publishing house, which acquired the land in 1996, held a competition in 1998 to redesign the site, and the jury chose the design of the Berlin sculptor Karl Biedermann. His 2.60-metre steel column replaced the wooden cross on 13 August 1999. It stands on Zimmerstrasse in Berlin-Mitte, about 200 metres from the former Checkpoint Charlie, and bears the words "Peter Fechter 1944 – 1962 …er wollte nur die Freiheit" ("he only wanted freedom"). A granite slab in front of it marks the exact spot where he lay. Citizens and politicians gather there every year to remember the victims of the Wall.

According to the Chronik der Mauer, Biedermann's hope that the column-and-slab form would be reused to remember other Wall victims around the city was not fulfilled. The Senate's memorial concept does record one related design: the memorial column for [Chris Gueffroy](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gueffroy-chris/), the last refugee to be shot while trying to get across the border installations, was set up in 2003, its design deliberately modelled on the Fechter memorial and also by Biedermann. Other places of remembrance are described in [Berlin Wall victims memorials](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-victims-memorials/), and the surviving pieces of the Wall itself are mapped at [Where Is the Wall](https://whereisthewall.com).

## Questions and answers

**Who was Peter Fechter?**

Peter Fechter was an 18-year-old bricklayer from the East Berlin district of Weissensee. On 17 August 1962 he tried to climb the Wall on Zimmerstrasse, near Checkpoint Charlie, with a colleague from work. Border guards shot him, and he died after lying wounded at the foot of the Wall for 50 minutes.

**How long did Peter Fechter lie at the Wall before he was taken away?**

Fifty minutes. By the time East German border troops carried him away, his cries for help had stopped. He was declared dead shortly afterwards in the East Berlin People's Police Hospital.

**Why was Peter Fechter left lying at the Wall for so long?**

On the East German side, guards could only enter the border strip if an officer on duty ordered it, and the officer in charge arrived half an hour after the shooting. On the western side, neither the West Berlin police nor the American military police crossed the Wall, for fear of starting a military conflict.

**Were the guards who shot Peter Fechter ever punished?**

In July 1990 his sisters filed a criminal complaint. In 1997 the Berlin Regional Court found two of the guards who had fired guilty of manslaughter and sentenced them to 20 and 21 months in prison, suspended.

**Where is the Peter Fechter memorial?**

On Zimmerstrasse in Berlin-Mitte, about 200 metres from the former Checkpoint Charlie. A 2.60-metre steel column by the sculptor Karl Biedermann was unveiled there on 13 August 1999, and a granite slab in front of it marks the place where he lay.

## Sources

1. Chronik der Mauer: Peter Fechter (English): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180502/fechter-peter
2. Chronik der Mauer: Peter Fechter (German): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171420/fechter-peter
3. Hertle/Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project (2017): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/
4. Chronik der Mauer: The Memorial Site for Peter Fechter: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/sites/184082/the-memorial-site-for-peter-fechter
5. Chronik der Mauer: Der Gedenkort für Peter Fechter: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/grenze/184064/der-gedenkort-fuer-peter-fechter
6. Chronik der Mauer: Chronik August 1962: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/chronik/_year1962/_month8/?month=8&year=1962&opennid=172439&moc=1
7. Christoph Hamann, Schnappschuss und Ikone. Das Foto von Peter Fechters Fluchtversuch 1962, Zeithistorische Forschungen 2 (2005): https://zeithistorische-forschungen.de/2-2005/4512
8. bpb, Deutschland-Chronik: 17. August 1962: https://www.bpb.de/themen/zeit-kulturgeschichte/deutschland-chronik/131650/17-august-1962/
9. Gesamtkonzept zur Erinnerung an die Berliner Mauer (Berlin Senate, 2006): https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/sites/default/files/media/standorte/sbm/allgemein/gesamtkonzept.pdf
10. Berlin Wall Foundation: Memorial Site for Peter Fechter: https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/node/1804
11. Chronik der Mauer: Ernst Mundt: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180504/mundt-ernst
12. Chronik der Mauer: Anton Walzer: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180505/walzer-anton
13. Chronik der Mauer: Hans-Dieter Wesa: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180503/wesa-hans-dieter
14. Chronik der Mauer: Dieter Beilig: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180571/beilig-dieter

Cite as: “Who Was Peter Fechter? The 18-Year-Old Shot at the Berlin Wall”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/who-was-peter-fechter/

---

# Who Drowned at the Berlin Wall?

> 24 of the 140 Berlin Wall victims drowned: 18 escapees in the Spree, Havel, Teltow Canal and lakes, and six with no intent to escape, five of them children.

Published 27 September 2026. Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-drownings/

Twenty-four of the 140 people who died at the Berlin Wall drowned. Eighteen of them are counted as escapees, who died in the Spree, the Teltow Canal, the Havel or the lakes on the city's edge; the other six had no intention of escaping, and five of those were West Berlin boys who went into the Spree from the Kreuzberg bank while playing.

The first of these deaths came on 5 October 1961 and the last on 3 September 1986. This article lists all 24 and explains what the research says about deaths in the water. For the overall figures, see [how many people died at the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/how-many-people-died-at-the-berlin-wall/).

## How we counted

Our data file records a cause of death for each of the 140 people, taken from the heading of their biography in the *Chronik der Mauer* ("drowned on …", "shot dead on …"). We selected everyone whose cause is recorded as drowned: 24 people. Where a heading says someone was both shot and drowned, the file counts the death as a shooting. That applies to four people who are not included here: [Klaus Schröter](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schroeter-klaus/) (1963), [Max Sahmland](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/sahmland-max/) (1967), [Manfred Weylandt](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weylandt-manfred/) (1972) and [Manfred Gertzki](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gertzki-manfred/) (1973). Only one death among the 140 is flagged as uncertain in cause, that of [Willi Marzahn](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/marzahn-willi/), and he is not among the 24.

Of the 24, 18 were escapees and six had no intent to escape. Sixteen died on the sector border inside the city and eight on the outer ring. By the place named in their headings, 15 drowned in the Spree, five in the Havel, three in lakes and one in the Teltow Canal. Eight died in 1961 and 1962. For six of the 24, the date of death is known only approximately.

## What the study says about deaths in the water

The 2017 study by Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke does not treat drowning as a category of its own. It counts escapees who drowned in the border waterways among the 30 people who died in accidents during escape attempts, and names eight who drowned in 1961 and 1962 alone.

Water also runs through the cases the study could not resolve. In 16 cases the records were not enough to decide either way; all of them involved unidentified bodies taken from the water, and in none was an escape attempt or a connection to the border regime clearly established. The study left out suicides in the city's waterways where it could be proved there was no link to an escape attempt. The study also quotes the Stasi's rules for handling death cases, which listed "drowned in a border waterway" among the messages to relatives that had "proved useful". It notes that the mothers of [Hans Räwel](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/raewel-hans/) and [Walter Hayn](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hayn-walter/) were told their sons had drowned, when both had in fact been shot trying to escape.

## Deaths in 1961 and 1962

[Udo Düllick](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/duellick-udo/), a 25-year-old engineer with the East German railway, had quarrelled with a superior at a works party. Close to midnight on 5 October 1961 he entered the Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge. Guards fired at him and the water police followed by boat; he kept diving under to escape the shots. People watching from the West Berlin side wanted to help but could not go into the river, which was East Berlin territory from one bank to the other. He went under when he was close to the other side. An East Berlin report claimed he was "fatally wounded by the shots fired", but his body showed no bullet wounds, and the post-mortem found he had drowned from exhaustion. His identity was not known at first; at least 2,500 people gathered for a memorial service on the Gröbenufer on 7 October 1961.

[Lothar Lehmann](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/lehmann-lothar/), 19, was doing his military service in a police unit at Gross Glienicke, one of the units guarding the border between the Potsdam district and West Berlin. He had asked his mother for the address of relatives in West Germany, adding: "Won't they be surprised when I get there." On 26 November 1961 he went into the Havel at Sacrow in a life jacket. The cold water appears to have sent him into shock and he lost consciousness; guards pulled him out, and he died that evening on the way to hospital in Potsdam. At his funeral, his death could be spoken of only as an accident.

[Ingo Krüger](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/krueger-ingo/), 21, a cook and sport diver whose fiancée lived in West Berlin, entered the Spree in a diving suit on the night of 10 December 1961. According to East Berlin border police reports, he was already dead when he was pulled from the water at the Marschall Bridge. The exact circumstances of his death were never established: Stasi inquiries are said to have blamed a failure of his breathing apparatus, while investigations in the 1990s concluded that he died of cold shock.

[Georg Feldhahn](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/feldhahn-georg/), a 20-year-old border policeman, left his post on the Teltow Canal near the Massante Bridge on 19 December 1961. East Berlin investigators at first assumed he had got across. A West Berlin customs officer found his body in the canal in March 1962. His sister learned of his death only in the 1990s.

[Philipp Held](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/held-philipp/), 19, had moved from Worms in West Germany to the East with his girlfriend in September 1961 and then found he could not go back. He disappeared on 8 April 1962. East German border police found his body in the Spree on 22 April; it had become caught in the wire of an underwater barrier. His mother was told he had died in an accident, and his remains were cremated without her permission.

[Erna Kelm](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kelm-erna/), 53, from Sacrow, the only woman among the 24, drowned in the Havel on 11 June 1962. An angler saw her body from the West Berlin bank that morning. She was wearing a swimming belt under her clothes, and her identity card was hidden in her sock.

[Horst Plischke](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/plischke-horst/), 23, went into the Havel north of the Glienicker Bridge in the early hours of 19 November 1962. According to West Berlin press reports, shots were fired, but he could not be found. His body surfaced in the Jungfernsee when the water thawed in March 1963. Because he had drowned and had not been shot, Berlin prosecutors ended their investigation on 3 May 1995.

[Günter Wiedenhöft](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wiedenhoeft-guenter/), 20, had been arrested in October 1962 while scouting the border in Treptow and sentenced to eight months in prison for attempting to leave the GDR illegally. He was not taken into custody straight away, and he made a second attempt before his sentence began. He appears to have gone out onto the ice of Griebnitz Lake around midnight on the night of 5 to 6 December 1962; the lake had frozen near the shore, but the border troops kept a channel open. Guards heard the ice crack and fired. He must have fallen through the ice; his body, found in March 1963, bore no bullet wound.

## Divers with home-made equipment

[Norbert Wolscht](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wolscht-norbert/) and [Rainer Gneiser](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gneiser-rainer/), both 20 and friends since their schooldays in Freiberg, Saxony, are said to have joined forces in the summer of 1963. They prepared by training for long-distance swims and working out how to build their own diving gear. In the night of 27 to 28 July 1964 they went into the Havel with oxygen tanks and diving suits, probably from the stretch between Potsdam and Babelsberg where their bodies were later found. Both drowned in circumstances never explained. The autopsy attributed Norbert Wolscht's death to the failure of his breathing apparatus; Rainer Gneiser's body was found on 5 August. According to his brother, Rainer Gneiser's gravestone was not allowed to show his first name or dates.

## Later deaths in the water, 1963–1986

[Wolf-Olaf Muszynski](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/muszynski-wolf-olaf/), 16, had been missing from Friedrichshain since 6 February 1963. Residents found his body on the West Berlin bank of the Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge on 1 April 1963.

On 19 January 1965 two workers on the Kreuzberg bank heard cries for help and saw a man of about 30 swimming towards them. About ten metres from the West Berlin bank he went under, probably from hypothermia, according to a West Berlin police report. His identity remained unknown, and Berlin prosecutors closed their preliminary inquiry into the case of the [unidentified fugitive](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/unidentified-fugitive/) in 1995 without new findings.

[Franciszek Piesik](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/piesik-franciszek/), 24, a Polish citizen, crossed the Oder into East Germany and made his way to Hennigsdorf. On 17 October 1967 he stole a motorboat; after guards spotted it, he took to the water and tried to swim across the Nieder Neuendorfer Lake, in water of little more than ten degrees. His body was recovered from the West Berlin side on 28 October. He was buried in Heiligensee, the district he had hoped to reach.

[Bernd Lehmann](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/lehmann-bernd/), 18, left home late at night and swam from Treptow Park towards the Osthafen; his clothes were found in bushes near the Soviet memorial in Treptow early in the evening of 28 May 1968, the date given for his death. Barbed wire had been strung in the water there, which he did not know; about 20 metres short of the Flutgraben channel, in the Osthafen basin, he was caught in the underwater barriers and drowned.

[Hans-Joachim Zock](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/zock-hans-joachim/), 30, from Halle-Neustadt, had been questioned by the Stasi for hours at a time over incidents at his factory; the Stasi itself recorded that none of this questioning ever established an offence. He died in the Spree between 14 and 17 November 1970, most probably by drowning according to the post-mortem. He was carrying a letter to his aunt in West Germany that set out his reasons for leaving.

[Henri Weise](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weise-henri/), 22, from Ranis in Thuringia, had seen his applications to leave the GDR refused. On 17 May 1977 he left his father's flat in East Berlin, saying he would be back in half an hour. In July border soldiers found his body in the water barrier at the Marschall Bridge. Investigators in the 1990s could not establish how he died and closed the case in 1995.

[Peter Grohganz](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/grohganz-peter/), 32, born in Premnitz, had written to Erich Honecker in April 1980 asking to leave the GDR, and later withdrew the request. He last worked on 10 December 1980 and never went back. On 9 February 1981 a border boat crew found his body caught in a water barrier east of the Oberbaum Bridge.

[Rainer Liebeke](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/liebeke-rainer/), a taxi driver and licensed motorcycle racer from Gotha, set out with a younger friend to swim the roughly 500 metres across Sacrower Lake in September 1986. He had broken his collarbone in a racing crash earlier in 1986, and the injury probably hindered him more and more as he swam. His friend reached the far bank and got through to West Berlin; Rainer Liebeke did not. He drowned on 3 September 1986, shortly before his 35th birthday, the last of the 24.

## Six who were not trying to escape

[Ulrich Krzemien](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/krzemien-ulrich/), 24, lived in West Berlin. On 25 March 1965 a swimmer entered the Spree from the western bank and swam east. Near the East Berlin bank he asked a guard for help and was merely shown where he might climb out; he tried to get up the bank in front of a watchtower, fell back into the water and went under. A body found on 13 April carried Ulrich Krzemien's identity card; the Stasi took him to be the swimmer, and Berlin investigators in the 1990s agreed. His sister later said that a man who introduced himself as an East German state prosecutor (the biography notes that Stasi officers usually presented themselves this way to relatives) had admitted to her that her brother was shot; questioned in October 1991, however, she said she still did not know whether he had drowned or been shot. Berlin prosecutors soon dropped the case for lack of sufficient suspicion of a crime, accepting the original post-mortem and blood-alcohol findings that he had drowned, helped by a very high intake of alcohol.

The other five were boys aged five to eight who went into the Spree from the Kreuzberg bank while playing, between 1966 and 1975 (one was pushed by a playmate; the others fell): [Andreas Senk](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/senk-andreas/), [Cengaver Katrancı](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/katranc-cengaver/), [Siegfried Kroboth](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kroboth-siegfried/), [Giuseppe Savoca](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/savoca-giuseppe/) and [Çetin Mert](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mert-cetin/). The whole width of the river there belonged to East Berlin. West Berlin police and firefighters were not free to go into the water. Only Andreas Senk was recovered from the West Berlin bank, by firemen searching with long poles; the other four were recovered by East German crews and taken to East Berlin. After an agreement in 1975, rescue posts were installed on the West Berlin side along a little over six kilometres of the water border in spring 1976. Their stories are told in [the children who died at the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/children-who-died-at-the-berlin-wall/).

## What the cases have in common

Cold is given as the cause or probable cause in three cases: cold shock for Lothar Lehmann and, according to the 1990s investigations, Ingo Krüger, and probable hypothermia for the unidentified swimmer. Günter Wiedenhöft is thought to have fallen through ice, and Franciszek Piesik swam in water of little more than ten degrees. Barriers in the water appear in four cases: Bernd Lehmann drowned caught in underwater barriers, and the bodies of Philipp Held, Henri Weise and Peter Grohganz had become caught in barriers. Several bodies were found only weeks or months after death, among them those of Georg Feldhahn, Horst Plischke, Günter Wiedenhöft, Wolf-Olaf Muszynski, Hans-Joachim Zock and Henri Weise. Udo Düllick, Horst Plischke and Günter Wiedenhöft were fired on, but none of them was hit.

Families were told little, pressed into silence or left in the dark for decades. Philipp Held's mother was told only that he had died in an accident; Lothar Lehmann's parents were told not to speak about the escape; Georg Feldhahn's sister learned of his death only in the 1990s.

Places where the victims are remembered today are described in [where to remember the victims](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-victims-memorials/). For escapes that succeeded, [berlinwallescapes.com](https://berlinwallescapes.com) documents escapes under, over and through the Wall.

## Questions and answers

**How many people drowned at the Berlin Wall?**

Twenty-four of the 140 people counted as victims of the Berlin Wall drowned, according to the cause of death given in their biographies. Eighteen are counted as escapees; six had no intention of escaping, and five of those were West Berlin children.

**Where did people drown at the Berlin Wall?**

Sixteen drowned on the sector border inside the city: fifteen in the Spree and one in the Teltow Canal. Eight drowned on the outer ring: five in the Havel and three in lakes (Griebnitz Lake, the Nieder Neuendorfer Lake and Sacrower Lake).

**Who was the first person to drown at the Berlin Wall?**

Udo Düllick, a 25-year-old engineer with the East German railway, drowned in the Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge on 5 October 1961 while border guards fired at him. His body had no bullet wounds; the post-mortem found he had drowned from exhaustion.

**Who was the last person to drown at the Berlin Wall?**

Rainer Liebeke, a taxi driver and motorcycle racer from Gotha, drowned in Sacrower Lake on 3 September 1986, shortly before his 35th birthday. The friend he was escaping with reached West Berlin.

**Were the people who drowned at the Berlin Wall shot at?**

Three of them were. Guards fired when Udo Düllick, Horst Plischke and Günter Wiedenhöft tried to cross, but none of the three was hit. Four other people whose biography headings say they were both shot and drowned are counted as shot, not drowned.

## Sources

1. Hertle/Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings (2017): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/
2. Chronik der Mauer: Udo Düllick: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180485/duellick-udo
3. Chronik der Mauer: Lothar Lehmann: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180487/lehmann-lothar
4. Chronik der Mauer: Ingo Krüger: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180489/krueger-ingo
5. Chronik der Mauer: Georg Feldhahn: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180490/feldhahn-georg
6. Chronik der Mauer: Philipp Held: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180493/held-philipp
7. Chronik der Mauer: Erna Kelm: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180499/kelm-erna
8. Chronik der Mauer: Horst Plischke: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180506/plischke-horst
9. Chronik der Mauer: Günter Wiedenhöft: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180508/wiedenhoeft-guenter
10. Chronik der Mauer: Wolf-Olaf Muszynski: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180512/muszynski-wolf-olaf
11. Chronik der Mauer: Norbert Wolscht: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180521/wolscht-norbert
12. Chronik der Mauer: Rainer Gneiser: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180522/gneiser-rainer
13. Chronik der Mauer: Unidentified fugitive: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180527/unidentified-fugitive
14. Chronik der Mauer: Ulrich Krzemien: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180529/krzemien-ulrich
15. Chronik der Mauer: Franciszek Piesik: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180552/piesik-franciszek
16. Chronik der Mauer: Bernd Lehmann: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180555/lehmann-bernd
17. Chronik der Mauer: Hans-Joachim Zock: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/183186/zock-hans-joachim
18. Chronik der Mauer: Henri Weise: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180589/weise-henri
19. Chronik der Mauer: Peter Grohganz: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/183188/grohganz-peter
20. Chronik der Mauer: Rainer Liebeke: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180597/liebeke-rainer
21. Chronik der Mauer: Erna Kelm (German): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171422/kelm-erna
22. Chronik der Mauer: Horst Plischke (German): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171436/plischke-horst
23. Chronik der Mauer: Ulrich Krzemien (German): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171394/krzemien-ulrich
24. Chronik der Mauer: Bernd Lehmann (German): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171368/lehmann-bernd
25. Chronik der Mauer: Lothar Lehmann (German): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171443/lehmann-lothar
26. Chronik der Mauer: Franciszek Piesik (German): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171370/piesik-franciszek
27. Chronik der Mauer: Rainer Liebeke (German): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171318/liebeke-rainer

Cite as: “Who Drowned at the Berlin Wall?”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-drownings/

---

# Who Died at the Berlin Wall on Bernauer Strasse?

> Five people died after escape attempts on Bernauer Strasse in 1961–62; a border soldier was fatally shot nearby in 1964. Their stories and the memorial today.

Published 27 September 2026. Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/bernauer-strasse-berlin-wall-deaths/

Five people died as a result of escape attempts on Bernauer Strasse: [Ida Siekmann](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/siekmann-ida/), [Rudolf Urban](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/urban-rudolf/), [Olga Segler](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/segler-olga/) and [Bernd Lünser](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/luenser-bernd/) in 1961, after jumping or falling from the border houses, and [Ernst Mundt](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mundt-ernst/), shot on the wall of the Sophien Cemetery in 1962. A sixth man, the East German border soldier [Egon Schultz](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schultz-egon/), was fatally shot in 1964 in a courtyard on Strelitzer Strasse, very close to the barriers that ran along Bernauer Strasse.

Today the street is home to the Berlin Wall Memorial, which Berlin has made its main place for remembering the city's division.

## A street divided at the front door

The houses on the south side of Bernauer Strasse stood in Mitte, in East Berlin, but from the pavement at their front doors outwards the street was part of Wedding, in West Berlin. The only way into those houses was from the western pavement.

After the sector border was closed on 13 August 1961, residents who wanted to flee could at first simply walk out of their front doors. From 18 August, doors opening onto the western pavement were nailed up or bricked in and replaced by new ways in from the back courtyards. Members of factory militia groups and police units checked anyone entering in the hallways and on the landings. In their desperation many residents leapt from windows or let themselves down on ropes, and on the pavement below the West Berlin fire brigade tried to catch them in rescue nets.

According to Olga Segler's biography, more than 150 people reached Wedding this way in the Wall's first three months. Within that period a large-scale clearance of the border houses also began: from the morning of 24 September, two thousand residents were to be moved out of their homes, most of them unwillingly.

## How the people in this article were identified

We searched the place-of-death lines of all 140 biographies in this site's data for the word "Bernauer". Five people matched: Ida Siekmann, Rudolf Urban, Olga Segler, Bernd Lünser and Ernst Mundt. A search of the full biography texts added Egon Schultz, who was shot very close to the barriers along the street. Four other biographies mention the street only in passing, in captions to photographs of memorials there or in a letter; those people died elsewhere.

The Berlin Wall Foundation's digital guide gives a different figure. It counts seven deaths in escape attempts on Bernauer Strasse, all of them in the 1960s: people shot by border guards or killed jumping from the border houses. The guide names only Ida Siekmann, and we could not establish who the others in its count are, so this article keeps to the people found by the search.

## 1961: the border houses

### Ida Siekmann

Ida Siekmann lived alone at Bernauer Strasse 48; her sister's home was only a few blocks away, in West Berlin. On 21 August the door of her building was barricaded. Early the next morning, 22 August 1961, she dropped bedding and other possessions from the window of her third-floor flat and jumped after them, before the West Berlin fire brigade could come to her aid with a rescue net. The fall left her gravely injured, and she did not live to reach the nearby Lazarus Hospital. Her 59th birthday would have been the following day. She was the [first person to die at the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/first-victims-of-the-berlin-wall/).

At the place where she fell, the Wedding district office set up a memorial made of three wooden logs bound with barbed wire. According to her biography, memorial services were held there for decades, and Robert Kennedy and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer were among those who laid wreaths.

### Rudolf Urban

Rudolf Urban, a 47-year-old driver, and his wife had their home at Bernauer Strasse 1, near the Reconciliation Church; he had been born in that building. In a 1980 interview his wife said he had at first been reluctant to leave. According to her, what finally decided him was the evening of 18 August, when the couple heard the front door being nailed shut; then, she recalled, he said: "Now we are going."

On 19 August 1961 the couple tried to climb down to Bernauer Strasse, one after the other, on a rope tied to the window frame of their first-floor flat. Both lost their grip and were hurt, and they were taken to the Lazarus Hospital. His heel bone was shattered, and in hospital he developed pneumonia, from which he did not recover; he died there on 17 September 1961. The Wedding district dedicated a memorial of wood and barbed wire to him, which from then on marked the spot in front of Bernauer Strasse 1 where he had fallen. Newspapers of the time reported that East Berlin police hurled insults and stones at the men putting it up.

### Olga Segler

Olga Segler, born in 1881, was 80. Her home was at Bernauer Strasse 34, close to Brunnenstrasse, and her daughter lived not far off, across the sector border in West Berlin.

On the evening of 25 September 1961, the day after the clearance began, she jumped from her second-floor window as her daughter waited on the pavement below. She landed in the firemen's net but injured her back, and an ambulance took her to the Lazarus Hospital. She died there the next day, 26 September, of a heart condition that the agitation of the escape had made fatal. East German officials recorded her escape attempt as a "border breach", and official reports said she had succeeded in fleeing the republic; as a result, an investigation was opened against her in East Berlin. In November 1961 a memorial to her was set up where she had fallen, of wood and barbed wire like those for Ida Siekmann and Rudolf Urban.

### Bernd Lünser

Bernd Lünser, 22, had grown up with his mother in Friedrichshain and studied at an engineering school in West Berlin. According to his father, he was set on finishing his studies there.

Towards evening on 4 October 1961 he climbed onto a roof on neighbouring Swinemünder Strasse, meaning to make his way across the rooftops to the corner house on Bernauer Strasse and let himself down to the street on a clothes line. Two border guards spotted him. As they chased him, he called down to West Berlin passers-by: "Help me. I want to jump!" The passers-by alerted a West Berlin police patrol; on the eastern side the first shots were fired, and soon afterwards firemen stood ready with a rescue net. On the roof of Bernauer Strasse 44 one of his pursuers grappled with him. He tore himself loose and jumped; he landed a few metres from the net and died instantly. Bullets struck on the West Berlin side and West Berlin police returned fire, the first time they had done so since the Wall went up. In the exchange, the People's Police officer who had been struggling with him on the roof was wounded in the thigh.

The investigations into the border guards that began in 1990 ended with the acquittal of the only defendant, and they could not clarify exactly how this first exchange of fire at the Wall had unfolded. The East Berlin authorities refused to let his mother attend his funeral in West Berlin; a telegram from her was read out at the grave.

## 1962: Ernst Mundt at the Sophien Cemetery

The Sophien Parish cemetery in East Berlin ran along Bernauer Strasse, and after the Wall was built border guards patrolled among its graves. Ernst Mundt, born in 1921, was a carpenter who had given up his trade because of poor health and, drawing a disability pension, lived in a one-room flat in Prenzlauer Berg. The Wall had separated him from his family in West Berlin.

He rode his bicycle to the cemetery on the afternoon of 4 September 1962 and left it on Bergstrasse, where barbed wire blocked the way. From there he got up onto the cemetery wall, which was topped with broken glass, and ran along it towards the border. According to eyewitness reports, when cemetery visitors and border guards told him to come down, he replied: "I won't get down. I am on duty." He had nearly reached the border when two members of the transport police, posted on the Nordbahnhof railway site some hundred metres away, became aware of the escape attempt. In quick succession one of the two fired a warning shot and then a shot aimed at him. It hit Ernst Mundt in the head, and the 40-year-old was killed instantly. He was the third escapee shot dead at the Wall in less than three weeks, after [Peter Fechter](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/fechter-peter/) on 17 August and [Hans-Dieter Wesa](https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wesa-hans-dieter/) on 23 August.

The border troop leadership rated the quick removal of his body a military success, in line with Order 56/62, issued in response to Peter Fechter's death to keep killed or wounded escapees out of sight of the western public. When his brother travelled from Krefeld to East Berlin in early November, an East Berlin state prosecutor told him curtly that Ernst had been injured in a "border provocation" and had died of his injuries. By then the Stasi had already arranged his cremation and an anonymous burial. In 1994 the Berlin Regional Court convicted the man who fired of manslaughter and gave him a two-year suspended sentence.

Passers-by laid flowers and wreaths at a cross set up where Bergstrasse meets Bernauer Strasse; the Wedding district office later put a memorial of logs and barbed wire in its place. When his biography was written, a pavement plate inscribed "Dem unbekannten Opfer der Schandmauer" ("to the unknown victim of the wall of shame") and the date 4 September 1962 still marked the place.

## 1964: Egon Schultz and Tunnel 57

Egon Schultz, born in 1943, had taken on a first-year class in Rostock on 1 September 1963, and soon afterwards received his call-up to the National People's Army. He committed himself to three years' service and in November joined the border troops.

Working in secret for months, a group of West Berlin students had driven a 145-metre tunnel under the border. Its western entrance was in a disused bakery on Bernauer Strasse; it came up in an outhouse in the courtyard of Strelitzer Strasse 55. It became known as "Tunnel 57", after the number of people who escaped through it. The Stasi learned of the operation from informants. Around midnight on 4 October 1964 a Stasi officer called in border soldiers, among them Egon Schultz, who were not told the real purpose. At about half past midnight, now 5 October, two Stasi men who had earlier met two of the escape helpers in the building's hallway, and taken them for refugees, returned to Strelitzer Strasse 55 with the soldiers. Shots rang out in the dark. The escape helpers got back to the West. Egon Schultz had been hit ten times; he was 21, and he died before reaching the People's Police Hospital.

East Germany blamed "West Berlin agents", gave him a state funeral and renamed Strelitzer Strasse after him in 1966. The results of its own investigations, by the East Berlin city command and the Stasi, were kept top secret, because the fatal shots had come from a comrade's Kalashnikov. Investigations opened in 1992 established the sequence beyond doubt. An escape helper had fired first, and his bullet lodged in Egon Schultz's lung. The shots that killed him were fired by a fellow border soldier, who had shot into the dark courtyard as a Stasi officer instructed and hit him by accident. Prosecutors accepted that he had acted in self-defence and in 1994 discontinued the proceedings against him, noting that he had moreover fired on orders. At the initiative of some of the escape helpers and a friend, a new plaque was later put up at Strelitzer Strasse 55 honouring him as a victim of the Wall.

## The Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse today

The Foundation gives several reasons why the Berlin Wall Memorial was built on this street, among them how much had happened there while the Wall stood and the local people who saved a long stretch of it. Its monument to the victims of the Wall and the division of the city, the result of a design competition launched in 1994, was inaugurated on 13 August 1998. The overall concept for remembering the Berlin Wall, adopted by the Berlin Senate in 2006, made the memorial the city's central place of remembrance for its division.

The details that follow are as described on the Berlin Wall Foundation's website and digital guide when we checked them in September 2026. The memorial takes in both sides of the street. On the old East Berlin side, in the former border strip, are the outdoor exhibition, the monument, the Chapel of Reconciliation and the Window of Remembrance. In the Window the people it commemorates are remembered one by one, with name and dates of birth and death, and a photograph where one could be found; some niches have been left empty in case further victims are identified. According to the Foundation's guide, markers on the memorial grounds tell the stories of the people who died on Bernauer Strasse where they tried to escape.

Egon Schultz is not shown in the Window. The Foundation's committees chose to leave out the [eight border soldiers killed on duty](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/border-soldiers-killed-at-the-berlin-wall/), whose names appear instead on a separate column nearby. The core of the outdoor exhibition is the stretch of roughly 500 metres from Gartenstrasse to Strelitzer Strasse, the street where he was shot.

In the Chapel of Reconciliation, short prayer services are held from Tuesday to Friday at midday, and at each one the biography of one of the 140 victims is read aloud. For getting there, admission and access, see [where to remember the victims of the Berlin Wall](https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/berlin-wall-victims-memorials/). Stretches of the Wall that survive elsewhere, in Berlin and around the world, are mapped at [Where Is The Wall](https://whereisthewall.com).

## Questions and answers

**Who died at the Berlin Wall on Bernauer Strasse?**

Ida Siekmann, Rudolf Urban, Olga Segler and Bernd Lünser died after jumping or falling from the border houses in 1961, and Ernst Mundt was shot on the wall of the Sophien Cemetery in 1962. The border soldier Egon Schultz was fatally shot in 1964 in a courtyard on Strelitzer Strasse, very close to the barriers along Bernauer Strasse.

**Why did people jump from windows on Bernauer Strasse?**

The houses on the south side of the street stood in East Berlin, but the pavement in front of them belonged to West Berlin. After the border was sealed on 13 August 1961, and the front doors were nailed or walled shut from 18 August, many residents leapt from windows or let themselves down on ropes, while the West Berlin fire brigade tried to catch them in rescue nets.

**Who was the first person to die on Bernauer Strasse?**

Ida Siekmann, who jumped from her third-floor flat at Bernauer Strasse 48 on 22 August 1961. She did not live to reach the hospital; her 59th birthday would have been the next day. She was also the first person to die at the Berlin Wall.

**Is Egon Schultz shown in the Window of Remembrance?**

No. The Berlin Wall Foundation chose to leave the eight border soldiers killed on duty out of the Window of Remembrance. According to its digital guide, checked in September 2026, their names, including his, appear on a separate column nearby.

## Sources

1. Hertle/Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project (2017): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/
2. Chronik der Mauer: Ida Siekmann: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180479/siekmann-ida
3. Chronik der Mauer: Rudolf Urban: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180482/urban-rudolf
4. Chronik der Mauer: Rudolf Urban (German): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171437/urban-rudolf
5. Chronik der Mauer: Olga Segler: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180483/segler-olga
6. Chronik der Mauer: Bernd Lünser: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180484/luenser-bernd
7. Chronik der Mauer: Bernd Lünser (German): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171442/luenser-bernd
8. Chronik der Mauer: Ernst Mundt: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180504/mundt-ernst
9. Chronik der Mauer: Ernst Mundt (German): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171417/mundt-ernst
10. Chronik der Mauer: Egon Schultz: https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180610/schultz-egon
11. Chronik der Mauer: Egon Schultz (German): https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171403/schultz-egon
12. Berlin Wall Foundation: The Berlin Wall Memorial: https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/berlin-wall-memorial/historical-site/memorial
13. Berlin Wall Foundation: Victims at the Berlin Wall: https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/topics/victims-berlin-wall
14. Berlin Wall Foundation, Digital Guide: Window of Remembrance: https://www.tourguide-gbm.de/en/node/5
15. Berlin Wall Foundation: Information for your visit: https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/berlin-wall-memorial/visit/information

Cite as: “Who Died at the Berlin Wall on Bernauer Strasse?”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/articles/bernauer-strasse-berlin-wall-deaths/

---

# Ida Siekmann (1902–1961)

> Ida Siekmann, a 58-year-old woman living alone at Bernauer Strasse 48, jumped from her third-floor window towards the West Berlin pavement on 22 August 1961, nine days after the border was sealed, and died of her injuries on the way to hospital.

- Born: 23 August 1902
- Died: 22 August 1961
- Age at death: 58
- Cause of death: Fatal fall or accident
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: After jumping out of her apartment window at Bernauer Strasse 48; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (exact): 52.54019, 13.40359
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/siekmann-ida/

## Story

Ida Siekmann was born on 23 August 1902 in Gorken, a small village then in the West Prussian district of Marienwerder and today part of Poland. It is not known when she moved to Berlin. By 1961 she was living alone at Bernauer Strasse 48. Her building stood in Mitte, in East Berlin, but the street and the pavement outside her front door belonged to Wedding, in West Berlin, so she regularly crossed the border to enter her building. She probably also visited her sister regularly, who lived a few streets away in the West.

When the sector border was sealed on 13 August 1961, she was cut off overnight from family and friends in the West, and because she lived on the border itself, the new controls affected her even more directly. From 18 August the front doors onto the western pavement were nailed shut or bricked up, new entrances were made through the back courtyards, and militia and police checked everyone in the corridors and stairwells. Frightened, many residents jumped from their windows or climbed down ropes, while West Berlin firemen tried to catch them in rescue nets.

On 21 August Ida Siekmann watched the door of her building being barricaded. Early the next morning she threw her bedding and some belongings out of her third-floor window, and then jumped after them, perhaps afraid of being discovered, before the West Berlin fire brigade could arrive with a rescue net. She hit the pavement and was badly hurt. She died while being taken to the Lazarus Hospital close by, a day short of her 59th birthday. In East Berlin a daily police report meticulously recorded the circumstances, giving the time as about ten to seven in the morning and noting that the pool of blood had been covered with sand.

Her death caused widespread indignation in West Berlin, and newspapers held the East German leadership responsible. Newspaper articles also noted widespread frustration at the restrained response of the western Allies and the federal government; Chancellor Konrad Adenauer arrived in West Berlin only on the day she died.

An official funeral was held on 29 August at the Municipal Cemetery on Seestrasse in Wedding, attended by many West Berliners; her coffin was decorated with red roses and white carnations. Afterwards the federal minister for all-German affairs and the mayor of Wedding laid a wreath outside Bernauer Strasse 48 inscribed "Dem Opfer der Unfreiheit" ("to the victim of unfreedom"), and in September the Wedding district office put up a memorial of three wooden logs wrapped in barbed wire where she died. Memorial services were held there for decades, and visitors including Robert Kennedy and Konrad Adenauer laid wreaths and stood in silence.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Ida Siekmann”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180479/siekmann-ida
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171438/siekmann-ida
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Ida Siekmann”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/siekmann-ida/

---

# Günter Litfin (1937–1961)

> A 24-year-old tailor from Berlin-Weissensee who worked in West Berlin, Günter Litfin was shot by transport police on 24 August 1961 after jumping into the Humboldt Harbor, just short of the West Berlin bank.

- Born: 19 January 1937
- Died: 24 August 1961
- Age at death: 24
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Humboldt Harbor near Charité Hospital; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Tiergarten
- Map position (approximate): 52.52477, 13.37167
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/litfin-guenter/

## Story

Günter Litfin was born in Berlin on 19 January 1937 and lived in the Weissensee district; he was one of four sons. His father Albert, a butcher, had helped found the local CDU chapter in 1945, and his mother Margarete also joined. The boys were baptised Catholic and attended the St. Joseph School in Weissensee. In 1957 Günter and his younger brother Jürgen became members of the West Berlin CDU, which, in contrast to the East German bloc party of the same name, was still active illegally in the eastern half of the city.

After training as a tailor he found work in a West Berlin tailoring workshop near Bahnhof Zoo. He dressed with care and hoped one day to make costumes for the theatre. As pressure grew on so-called border-crossers, he found a flat in Charlottenburg but did not register it, since that would have made him a 'republic fugitive' and cut him off from his family in the East. His brother remembered him as the calm one in the family, the person everyone confided in. When their father died in May 1961, Günter felt he should stay near his mother, and he put off moving west for good.

On Saturday 12 August 1961 he spent the day with his mother and brother visiting relatives in the West, returning to Weissensee late that evening. The next morning the radio reported that the sector border had been sealed overnight. Unable to accept it, Günter began looking for a way out.

Shortly after 4 p.m. on 24 August 1961 he tried to get from East to West Berlin between the Friedrichstrasse and Lehrter stations. According to East Berlin police reports, he made his way from the grounds of Charité Hospital over a boundary wall to the bank of the Spree, where transport police spotted him. From a railway bridge they ordered him to stop and fired warning shots, then shot at him as he jumped into the Humboldt Harbor. He was only a short distance from the western bank when a bullet hit him in the back of the head and fatally wounded him. East Berlin firemen recovered his body three hours later. It was the first time the deadly consequences of the new border regime had been seen.

Hundreds of West Berliners watched from their side of the harbour as his body was taken away, and his death prompted outrage and protests in the West; a year later a memorial stone was placed there. The East Berlin press portrayed him as a criminal. Stasi staff harassed and intimidated the family. His brother, who did not know what had happened, was arrested on 25 August and questioned all night, and on the same day his mother's flat was searched without explanation. Neither was told what had happened; they learned of his death from the West Berlin programme 'Abendschau' on 26 August.

The family was ordered to keep silent, and so in the death notice they wrote, ambiguously, that he had died suddenly and unexpectedly in an accident. He was buried on 31 August at the St. Hedwig Cemetery in Weissensee, with Stasi personnel present. According to his brother Jürgen, the funeral became a farce because most of the mourners knew it had not been an accident.

In 1997 two of the men who had fired at him were convicted of joint manslaughter by the Berlin Regional Court and sentenced to one year and to one year and six months respectively, both suspended on probation. At his brother's initiative, a former border command post on the Spandau shipping canal became a memorial to Günter Litfin; the watchtower passed to the Berlin Wall Foundation in 2017. In 2000 a street in Weissensee was named after him, and a memorial stone on Kapelle-Ufer in Mitte, near the escape site, commemorates him as the first person in Berlin to be killed under the order to shoot.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Günter Litfin”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180480/litfin-guenter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171441/litfin-guenter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Günter Litfin”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/litfin-guenter/

---

# Roland Hoff (1934–1961)

> Roland Hoff, a 27-year-old pipe-layer from Hanover who had moved to East Germany shortly before the Wall was built, was shot dead on 29 August 1961 while swimming across the Teltow Canal from Teltow towards Berlin-Lichterfelde.

- Born: 19 March 1934
- Died: 29 August 1961
- Age at death: 27
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Teltow Canal; On the outer ring between Teltow (Teltow district) and Berlin-Steglitz
- Map position (area): 52.4042, 13.269
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hoff-roland/

## Story

Roland Hoff was born in Hanover on 19 March 1934 and grew up there with three sisters. One of them remembered that, as the only son, he was their mother's favourite. He trained as a pipe-layer and went on living at home until June 1961, when at 27 he moved to East Germany. Like many West Germans who moved east, he was not driven by political conviction; his mother believed that, fearing punishment for drink-driving, he rode his moped to the inner-German border one night and asked to be admitted to East Germany.

After passing through the reception camp at Barby near Magdeburg, he was given a flat and a job in Lusatia. Soon he wrote to his mother that he was already thinking of returning west, but the building of the Wall put an abrupt end to these thoughts. Ten days later he is said to have spoken out openly against the border closure at work, and he was dismissed. Instead of answering a summons to an arbitration hearing, he posted his belongings from Forst to his mother in Hanover and on 29 August set off for Berlin.

That day in Teltow, a group of forty construction workers were clearing the canal bank under guard; the border with Lichterfelde ran down the middle of the canal. According to a Potsdam police report, he must have managed to mingle with the workers and so reach the bank. At around 2 p.m. he jumped into the water with a briefcase under his arm and swam towards the West Berlin side. When the first shots came he cried out, "Nicht schießen! Bitte nicht schießen!" ("Don't shoot! Please don't shoot!") Four border guards kept firing until he was hit in the head and went under.

The workers who saw it were outraged and spontaneously downed tools; one who called the guards murderers was briefly detained and questioned. East German propaganda denounced the dead man as a criminal. In West Berlin the shooting was condemned, and the authorities opened an investigation, offering a reward of 10,000 German marks and posting a wanted poster of one of the gunmen along the Wall. After the Wall fell, three former guards were tried, but the court could not establish who had fired the fatal shot.

The East German authorities knew who he was but never revealed his name, not even to his family. His mother, following reports in the Western media, was convinced the dead man was her son and informed the West German authorities, but her lifelong efforts to learn more from the East came to nothing. Only after the East German archives were opened was his identity confirmed. A year after his death, a stone commemorating the then unnamed fugitive was dedicated on the West Berlin bank he had tried to reach, and it remains there today.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Roland Hoff”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180481/hoff-roland
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171444/hoff-roland
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Roland Hoff”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hoff-roland/

---

# Rudolf Urban (1914–1961)

> Rudolf Urban, a 47-year-old driver, was injured on 19 August 1961 escaping by rope from his home at Bernauer Strasse 1; he caught pneumonia in a West Berlin hospital and died there on 17 September 1961.

- Born: 6 June 1914
- Died: 17 September 1961
- Age at death: 47
- Cause of death: Fatal fall or accident
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: While fleeing from his apartment on Bernauer Strasse; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (approximate): 52.53612, 13.39138
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/urban-rudolf/

## Story

Rudolf Urban was born on 6 June 1914 in the four-storey apartment building at Bernauer Strasse 1, near the Reconciliation Church, and was living there with his wife when the Wall was built. He worked as a driver. The buildings on the southern side of the street belonged to the East Berlin district of Mitte, yet their front doors opened onto a pavement that was part of West Berlin.

After the border was sealed on 13 August 1961, many people tried to flee to West Berlin from these houses, and the authorities responded by sealing entrances and windows and posting armed guards in the stairwells. His wife recalled in a 1980 interview that she had wanted to leave from the first day, but he hesitated: he did not want to give up what he had worked for over many years, and he insisted he had done nothing wrong. On the evening of 18 August the couple heard the building's front door onto the West Berlin pavement being nailed shut. According to his wife, that changed his mind, and he said that now they would go.

The next day, Saturday 19 August 1961, they fixed a rope to their window frame and let themselves down one after the other to Bernauer Strasse. His wife later said that, out of consideration for their neighbours, they could not take the safer route through a ground-floor window: with guards checking the stairwell, anyone climbing out that way would have exposed the residents to suspicion of helping an escape. Both slipped and injured their hands and feet, and they were taken to the nearby Lazarus Hospital. Two former nurses later recalled that both were in a state of severe shock; he was wearing several suits, one over another, evidently because he did not want to leave them behind in his East Berlin flat.

He had crushed his heel bone and remained in hospital. There he developed pneumonia, and he died at the Lazarus Hospital on 17 September 1961, aged 47. He was buried in the Dorotheen Cemetery on Liesenstrasse in Wedding. At first the West Berlin public knew nothing of his escape and his weeks in hospital; only after his death did the authorities and press draw attention to his fate.

In his memory, the borough of Wedding later put up a wooden memorial with barbed wire at the site of the accident at Bernauer Strasse 1; according to newspaper reports, East Berlin police insulted the workers putting it up and threw stones at them. Every year on the anniversary of the Wall's construction, memorial services were held for him and other victims of the Wall. When East Berlin crews began tearing the border houses down to the ground-floor façade in October 1965, the memorial was covered to protect it, and in 1980 the building he had fled from finally gave way to the expanded border installations.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Rudolf Urban”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180482/urban-rudolf
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171437/urban-rudolf
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Rudolf Urban”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/urban-rudolf/

---

# Olga Segler (1881–1961)

> Olga Segler, an 80-year-old resident of Bernauer Strasse 34, jumped from her window into a rescue net held by firemen on 25 September 1961, with her daughter waiting below; she injured her back and died the next day.

- Born: 31 July 1881
- Died: 26 September 1961
- Age at death: 80
- Cause of death: Fatal fall or accident
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: While fleeing from her apartment at Bernauer Strasse 34; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (exact): 52.53872, 13.39834
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/segler-olga/

## Story

Olga Segler was born on 31 July 1881, to parents of German descent, in a town called Prischt that later became part of Ukraine. No official records of the rest of her life appear to have survived. By 1961 she was 80 years old and had her home at Bernauer Strasse 34 in Mitte, on the eastern side, near Brunnenstrasse. The buildings on her side of the street themselves formed the border with the western half of the city.

When the border was sealed, she was cut off from her daughter, who lived only a short distance away on the West Berlin side. For almost six weeks she lived in a barricaded building, with guards in the corridors and stairwells watching the residents around the clock to prevent escapes. In the first three months after the Wall went up, more than 150 people reached Wedding by jumping from the border houses into fire brigade nets or climbing down the façades; many were hurt, and on 22 August Ida Siekmann died after jumping from her flat.

On the morning of 24 September the East German authorities began clearing the buildings on Bernauer Strasse; two thousand people were to be moved out, most against their will. On the evening of the following day, 25 September 1961, Olga Segler jumped from the window of her second-floor flat, with her daughter waiting below on the pavement and urging her on. Firemen caught her in their rescue net, but she injured her back as she landed and was taken by ambulance to the nearby Lazarus Hospital. She died there the next day of a heart condition that the agitation of the escape had made fatal.

The East German authorities registered her escape as a "Grenzdurchbruch" (border breach), and official reports accordingly stated that her "Republikflucht" (flight from the republic) had succeeded. As a result, an investigation was opened in East Berlin against the old woman who had died.

In the West she was mourned publicly. Her funeral took place at the municipal cemetery in Reinickendorf, and in November 1961 a memorial was dedicated where she fell, resembling the wood and barbed-wire monuments to Ida Siekmann and Rudolf Urban, who had also lived on Bernauer Strasse and died trying to escape. For decades, wreaths and flowers were laid there on days of remembrance. Her building was torn down in 1966 except for its ground-floor façade, which, with its windows bricked up, served as the border wall until 1980.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Olga Segler”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180483/segler-olga
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171439/segler-olga
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Olga Segler”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/segler-olga/

---

# Bernd Lünser (1939–1961)

> Bernd Lünser, a 22-year-old engineering student from East Berlin, died on 4 October 1961 after jumping from the roof of Bernauer Strasse 44 while fleeing border guards; he missed the firemen's rescue net.

- Born: 11 March 1939
- Died: 4 October 1961
- Age at death: 22
- Cause of death: Fatal fall or accident
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: While jumping from the roof of the building at Bernauer Strasse 44; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (exact): 52.53944, 13.40149
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/luenser-bernd/

## Story

Bernd Lünser was born in Berlin on 11 March 1939. After his parents divorced he grew up with his mother in Friedrichshain, while his father lived in West Berlin. He finished secondary school at 18, trained as a bricklayer with an East Berlin firm, and in the winter semester of 1959/60 began studying at the State Engineering School for Building in Berlin-Neukölln. He hoped to become a civil engineer, and his teachers and fellow students regarded him as unusually gifted and well liked. Police and press reports say nothing about why he chose to study in the West; it seems likely that, as for many young people who commuted from the East to western colleges, rejection of the East German education system played a part.

When the Wall went up, he was on semester break and suddenly cut off from his college, along with hundreds of other students from the East. According to his father, he was determined to finish his studies and searched hard for a way to the West before the new semester began in October. His hopes of obtaining a pass or help with an escape came to nothing.

The whole width of Bernauer Strasse belonged to the western district of Wedding, but the houses on its south side stood on East Berlin territory. On the evening of 4 October 1961 he climbed onto a roof on Swinemünder Strasse, planning to cross the rooftops to the corner building on Bernauer Strasse and lower himself down its front on a clothes line. Two border guards discovered him. As they chased him he shouted down to passers-by in the West, calling for help and saying that he wanted to jump. The passers-by alerted a West Berlin police patrol.

Meanwhile the first shots were fired on the East Berlin side, and a short time later firemen had a rescue net ready below. On the roof of Bernauer Strasse 44 he struggled with one of his pursuers, and both slid towards the edge. He broke free and jumped, but landed a few metres from the net and died immediately. During the incident bullets reached the western side and West Berlin police fired back, the first time this had happened since the Wall was built; the East German policeman who had grappled with him was hit in the thigh.

East Berlin police and Stasi reports accused the West Berlin police of opening fire although no shots had been fired westwards from the East, and the East German interior minister, in protest notes to the western city commandant and the Senate, called the young man a criminal. The West Berlin police said they had fired only once people on their side were endangered, and a spokesman for the U.S. State Department backed their view that they had been forced to defend themselves. Proceedings opened in 1990 against the border guards involved could not establish exactly how the exchange of fire had unfolded, and the only defendant was acquitted. The investigations did, however, finally disprove the long-held belief, based on West Berlin eyewitness accounts, that a second fugitive had been on the roof and had also died.

Only in West Berlin was his death publicly remembered. Many people brought flowers to the spot, and students who had known him put up a wooden cross. He was buried on 11 October 1961 in the cemetery on Bergstrasse in Steglitz. The East Berlin authorities refused to let his mother attend; a telegram from her was read aloud at the graveside.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Bernd Lünser”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180484/luenser-bernd
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171442/luenser-bernd
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Bernd Lünser”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/luenser-bernd/

---

# Udo Düllick (1936–1961)

> Udo Düllick, a 25-year-old railway engineer, tried to swim across the Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge on the night of 5 October 1961. Under fire and pursued by a police boat, he sank from exhaustion just short of the other bank and drowned.

- Born: 3 August 1936
- Died: 5 October 1961
- Age at death: 25
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree River near the Oberbaum Bridge; At the sector border between Berlin-Friedrichshain and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (approximate): 52.50076, 13.44796
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/duellick-udo/

## Story

Udo Düllick was born on 3 August 1936 in Werder near Strausberg, east of Berlin, and grew up there in a Catholic family. He was a lively child, truthful and rebellious. He had a brother six years older. After his mother's early death his father remarried, and a younger half-sister was born. He trained first as a bricklayer and then studied engineering in Dresden.

His brother left for the West in 1959, but he remained in East Germany, living with his parents. He was in West Berlin with his girlfriend over the weekend of 12 and 13 August 1961, and when they returned on 13 August they most likely did not realise that the newly sealed border would be permanent. He later told his stepmother he could always find a way to the West if he needed to. Working as an engineer for the Deutsche Reichsbahn in Lichtenberg, he had long been weary of the political pressure around him; his sister recalled how hard he found it to keep his critical thoughts to himself.

On the evening of 5 October 1961 he attended a compulsory works party ahead of the state anniversary. There he quarrelled with a superior and is said to have torn the epaulettes from the man's railway uniform. This was probably what finally made him decide to leave. That same night he took a taxi to Warschauer Strasse. Being a good swimmer may have encouraged him to risk crossing the Spree, a border waterway, near the Oberbaum Bridge. Shortly before midnight, on the grounds of the Osthafenmühle, he took off his jacket, trousers and shoes and went into the water.

Guards on the bridge saw him at once. After flares and warning shots they fired at him, and finally a water police boat set off after him. He dived again and again to avoid the bullets. West Berliners on the far bank wanted to help but could not go beyond the embankment wall, because the whole width of the river there belonged to East Berlin. He had almost reached the other side when he suddenly went under. His body was recovered from the West Berlin side an hour later.

His pursuers believed they had shot him, but his body bore no bullet wounds, and the post-mortem found that the chase had left him so exhausted that he drowned. Yet mistaken assumptions also found their way into West Berlin police and press reports: according to eyewitnesses, two or even three fugitives had been involved, and so it was claimed in the West for decades that a second fugitive had died that night. Only when the East German archives were opened was it established beyond doubt that he had been alone.

At first no one in West Berlin knew who he was. On 7 October 1961 at least 2,500 people gathered for a service on the Gröbenufer in Kreuzberg, and in the following days hundreds laid flowers and wreaths there, where a few weeks later a memorial stone inscribed "Dem unbekannten Flüchtling" (To the unknown fugitive) was set up. On 18 October a large crowd attended his burial in the Jerusalem Cemetery, Kreuzberg, with a Catholic and a Protestant clergyman leading the ceremony because his faith was not known.

His parents learned from Western media reports that a man had died at the Oberbaum Bridge and anxiously contacted the West Berlin authorities; it took weeks before they knew for certain that it was their son. Out of consideration for his relatives, who feared reprisals, the West Berlin authorities nevertheless did not make his name public. In November 1961 the Catholic parish in Rehfelde, the village next to his home village, held a requiem for him, while the Stasi insisted that the circumstances of his death not be mentioned.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Udo Düllick”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180485/duellick-udo
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171446/duellick-udo
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Udo Düllick”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/duellick-udo/

---

# Werner Probst (1936–1961)

> Werner Probst, a 25-year-old driver from Friedrichshain, was shot on 14 October 1961 while swimming across the Spree near the Schilling Bridge; he reached the ladder on the West Berlin quay wall before collapsing, fatally wounded.

- Born: 18 June 1936
- Died: 14 October 1961
- Age at death: 25
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree River near the Schilling Bridge; At the sector border between Berlin-Friedrichshain and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (approximate): 52.50925, 13.42953
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/probst-werner/

## Story

Werner Probst was born in Berlin on 18 June 1936 and grew up there. He shared his parents' home in Friedrichshain and drove for a state-owned enterprise, having previously been employed by a transport firm in West Berlin before the Wall went up. He is said to have left school early and to have come to the notice of the authorities for theft as a youth.

From February 1959 the Stasi kept him as a secret informant under the code name 'Harry', apparently using his criminal record as one of the grounds for recruiting him. At the time he agreed to work with the Stasi, he had no vocational training and could barely write. He was tasked with reporting on people in the shadier circles of both halves of the city, where he was said to have many contacts, and spent time with cross-border commuters and in West Berlin bars. His motives appear to have been personal advantage rather than conviction: besides his informing, he earned much-coveted western currency and enjoyed a certain freedom of movement.

The Wall ended all this, and he could not or would not accept it. Three days after the border was sealed he was briefly arrested, drunk, trying to get into West Berlin at Friedrichstrasse station. A plan to place him as an informant in the West was dropped, and after that he apparently saw no reason to stay. The Stasi believed he mainly wanted to reach his savings in a West Berlin bank, but he left no explanation, and his real motives are not known.

On the evening of 14 October 1961 he went into the Spree beneath the Schilling Bridge, not far from his parents' flat, to swim to the western bank. At about 10:30 p.m. border guards watching the river from the bridge spotted him. While one of them lit up the water with a searchlight, two others fired signal and warning shots and then opened fire on him. He reached the exit ladder on the West Berlin quay wall and, already wounded in the thigh and temple, was pulling himself up its rungs when he was fatally hit and collapsed. According to one of the surviving reports, aimed shots were fired once he reached the ladder, and he fell right at the bank on West Berlin territory; the water police then pulled him from the bank and took him by boat to the Oberbaum Bridge; he was already dead when they arrived.

West Berlin police registered the shots on the Kreuzberg bank, and over the following days the evidence grew that they had been aimed at a fugitive. According to what his half-sister in West Berlin passed on to the authorities, his parents were told on 16 October that their son had been shot while fleeing, without being told where or when, and were refused permission to see him before burial. Statements by border guards who later deserted to the West linked his death to the shooting at the Schilling Bridge. Thirty years later three former guards were identified as the suspected perpetrators; in May 1995 the Berlin Regional Court convicted them of joint manslaughter, though it could not establish who fired the fatal shot.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Werner Probst”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180486/probst-werner
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171440/probst-werner
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Werner Probst”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/probst-werner/

---

# Lothar Lehmann (1942–1961)

> Lothar Lehmann, a 19-year-old from Falkensee serving in a police unit guarding the border, died on 26 November 1961 after trying to swim across the Havel from Sacrow to West Berlin, suffering a cold shock in the water.

- Born: 28 January 1942
- Died: 26 November 1961
- Age at death: 19
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Havel River; On the outer ring between Sacrow (Potsdam city district) and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (area): 52.43217, 13.10204
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/lehmann-lothar/

## Story

Only fragments of Lothar Lehmann's life are known. Official records disagree on whether he was born on the 28th or the 29th of January 1942, and it is unclear whether he was born in East Prussia or in Falkensee, the community bordering Spandau where he grew up with foster parents and went to school. After eighth grade he trained as a metalworker at an agricultural machinery works in Falkensee. In his free time he bred pigeons and went cycling with a works sports group.

In September 1961, weeks after the Wall was built, he began military service. It was formally voluntary, but young men were under heavy pressure to enlist. He was assigned to the standby police (Bereitschaftspolizei) in Gross Glienicke, not far from his home; his unit was one of the so-called border readiness units guarding the border between Potsdam district and West Berlin.

Why he decided to flee is not known, but it does not seem to have been sudden. In early November he let his mother know that he wanted to go to the West. While on leave he casually asked her for the address of relatives in West Germany, remarking that they would be surprised when he turned up. When she warned him that people were being shot at the border, he told her it would be fine.

On 26 November 1961 he was repairing boats on the bank of the Havel at Sacrow, an area he knew from his cycling. The border with Zehlendorf ran down the middle of the river. Towards evening, unobserved, he entered the water in a life jacket to swim across. The cold seems to have sent him into shock and he lost consciousness. Border guards found him in this state, pulled him out and set off with him to the Potsdam District Hospital. According to a report by the East Berlin city command, he died on the way, at around 9 p.m., despite attempts to revive him. The autopsy found indirect drowning due to cold shock and circulatory collapse, which investigations in the 1990s confirmed.

According to his mother's statement in 1992, border police told his parents that same evening that he had drowned while trying to desert; in the questioning that followed they had to hear their son portrayed as a criminal. Afraid of being treated as an accomplice, his mother did not admit she had known of his plans. The authorities demanded that they keep the escape attempt secret from outsiders, and at his funeral in Falkensee his death could be spoken of only as an accident. His friend Wolfgang S. doubted the official story; by his own account he questioned two border police officers and people in Sacrow and found out where it had happened, and after escaping to West Berlin in January 1962 told the authorities. Since then Lothar Lehmann has been officially recorded in the West as a victim of the Wall. A photograph in the biography shows a commemorative column for him at the ferry dock in Sacrow.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Lothar Lehmann”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180487/lehmann-lothar
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171443/lehmann-lothar
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Lothar Lehmann”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/lehmann-lothar/

---

# Dieter Wohlfahrt (1941–1961)

> Dieter Wohlfahrt, a 20-year-old chemistry student and escape helper from West Berlin, was shot dead by East German border police on 9 December 1961 at the corner of Bergstrasse and Hauptstrasse in Staaken while helping a woman flee.

- Born: 27 May 1941
- Died: 9 December 1961
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the corner of Bergstrasse/Hauptstrasse; On the outer ring between Staaken (Nauen district) and Berlin-Spandau
- Map position (exact): 52.52855, 13.14466
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wohlfahrt-dieter/

## Story

Dieter Wohlfahrt was born on 27 May 1941 in Berlin-Schöneberg and grew up, the eldest of three children in an educated Catholic family, in Hohen Neuendorf, just north of Berlin. Like his late father and his siblings he held Austrian citizenship, which allowed him to cross freely into West Berlin and West Germany. Refused a place at secondary school in East Germany at 14, he moved in with an aunt in West Berlin and attended the Bertha-von-Suttner School, whose special classes for pupils from the East brought together a close circle of friends.

When the border was sealed in August 1961, he was studying chemistry at the Technical University. He did not hesitate to help former classmates and their families to escape, joining a group of students that devised ways around the barriers. In the first weeks they brought people out through the sewers; with his Austrian passport, Dieter could go into East Berlin and discreetly open and close the manhole covers. Friends who reached the West this way remembered him as a quiet, unassuming young man who showed unexpected courage and determination and became completely absorbed in this work.

He readily offered his help to a 17-year-old girl who had recently fled from Staaken and wanted to bring her mother across at the same spot. On 9 December 1961 Dieter and friends drove to the corner of Bergstrasse and Hauptstrasse on the edge of Spandau. At around 7 p.m. he and a friend stepped over the rope marking the border and set to work with bolt cutters and pliers on the three-row barbed-wire fence. His friend later recalled that the mother suddenly came towards them from the other side, calling anxiously for her daughter; moments later someone shouted an order to halt in the name of the border police, and the first shots were fired almost at once. His friend crawled back to the West unhurt; Dieter lay motionless in East German territory, five or six metres from the border.

West Berlin police officers, who arrived soon afterwards, as did British military police, tried to reach him but were stopped by East German guards threatening to use their weapons, and no help came from the eastern side. He lay between the barbed wire for more than an hour, showing no sign of life, before he was taken away. East German authorities claimed that the young escape helpers had been armed and had opened fire, a claim western investigators rejected as propaganda because his friends credibly assured them that none of them had been armed. Confidential East German military and Stasi reports, which show that the border police lured him into an ambush that evening, nonetheless presented him as armed and as having fired first; there is good reason to suspect that these documents were falsified or manipulated for propaganda, but it cannot be proven. The criminal investigation of the former border policemen 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.

His mother and siblings were questioned by the Stasi, and only his family was allowed to attend the funeral in Nauen on 14 December. In West Berlin, at the initiative of the Catholic student community, a requiem was held in St Matthias Church in Schöneberg, and professors remembered him in lectures. Student representatives wrote an open letter to the Allied city commanders, the Governing Mayor and the interior senator, saying they could not understand why neither the police nor the British protecting power had found a way to help the wounded man. A wooden cross marked the spot, and a commemorative column was added in 2011. On the 50th anniversary of his death, a plaque was placed at his former school.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Dieter Wohlfahrt”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180488/wohlfahrt-dieter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171445/wohlfahrt-dieter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Dieter Wohlfahrt”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wohlfahrt-dieter/

---

# Ingo Krüger (1940–1961)

> Ingo Krüger, a 21-year-old cook from East Berlin separated from his fiancée by the Wall, died in the Spree near the Marschall Bridge on the night of 10 to 11 December 1961 while trying to dive across to West Berlin.

- Born: 31 January 1940
- Died: 11 December 1961
- Age at death: 21
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree River near the Marschall Bridge; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Tiergarten
- Map position (approximate): 52.51923, 13.38023
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/krueger-ingo/

## Story

Ingo Krüger was born in Berlin-Dahlem on 31 January 1940. His father died as a soldier in the Second World War, and when his mother remarried the family moved to the east of the city. He grew up in Niederschöneweide in Treptow. After school he trained as a cook and then worked for the state company that catered for the East German government's guest houses.

His fiancée Ingrid had been at school with him in Johannisthal. They began going out in 1958, although she and her mother had moved to West Berlin, and colleagues who informed for the Stasi recorded his contacts with the West. On Saturday 12 August 1961 the couple spent the day with friends in East Berlin and then stayed the night at her flat in the West; early the next morning, unaware of what was happening at the border, he drove back east for his Sunday shift. From then on they were divided.

At first they met at quiet spots on the edge of the city, passing letters and gifts across the barbed wire, but these meetings grew harder to arrange, and during one attempt to make contact he was briefly detained and warned to keep away from the border. Ingrid then registered her address with relatives in West Germany, which allowed her to visit him in East Berlin. When it became clear that the border would stay closed, Ingo, a sport diver, began in early November to plan an escape underwater, across the Spree towards the Reichstag. Stasi observers were watching him closely.

At around 11 p.m. on 10 December 1961 he took a taxi with two friends to the Spree at Schiffbauerdamm, wearing his diving suit under his coat. A woman friend who kept watch on boat traffic on the Spree advised him to enter the water beneath Friedrichstrasse station, out of sight of the East German customs boats. He put on his breathing apparatus and went in. His friends soon realised something had gone wrong. On the West Berlin bank Ingrid watched East German customs officers in a boat search the water with hooks and spotlights and finally pull a body out; despite the poor visibility, she had no doubt that it was him.

Border police reports say the 21-year-old was already dead when he was recovered near the Marschall Bridge, which would place his death on 10 December; the forensic institute recorded 12.10 a.m. on 11 December. The autopsy gave the cause as presumably drowning. Stasi investigations are said to have blamed a failed breathing apparatus, while investigations in the 1990s concluded that he died of cold shock. Theories of a violent death could not be confirmed.

The authorities told his parents and colleagues that his fiancée and friends were to blame. One friend was arrested for helping him, and another was blackmailed into working with the Stasi. He was buried on 23 December in the cemetery on Baumschulenweg in East Berlin, while Ingrid still did not know what had become of him. Her letters to his mother went unanswered for weeks, and she learned the truth only in January. A photograph from 2005 shows a memorial cross for him at Checkpoint Charlie.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Ingo Krüger”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180489/krueger-ingo
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171447/krueger-ingo
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Ingo Krüger”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/krueger-ingo/

---

# Georg Feldhahn (1941–1961)

> Georg Feldhahn, a 20-year-old East German border policeman from the Havelland, left his post near the Massante Bridge on the Teltow Canal on 19 December 1961 in an attempt to desert, and drowned in the canal. His body was found in March 1962.

- Born: 12 August 1941
- Died: 19 December 1961
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Teltow Canal, near the Massante Bridge; At the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.4336, 13.49766
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/feldhahn-georg/

## Story

Georg Feldhahn was born on 12 August 1941 in Friesack in the Havelland, west of Berlin, and grew up in that rural area. He never knew his parents; according to what he himself wrote, his father had died in 1942 in the Buchenwald concentration camp. As far as is known, he was separated from his mother when he was four months old and placed in a children's home with his older sister. When the war ended, foster parents living in the small village of Buschow took the two children in.

After school he trained as a tractor driver on a state farm, and at 18 he was recruited into the border police, signing on for three years. He had asked to serve in Thuringia, but from September 1959 he served with the Gross-Glienicke border unit, stationed in Seeburg on the edge of West Berlin's Spandau district. In October 1961, as the Wall was being built, he was moved to the 1st Border Brigade on the inner-city border, in a unit deployed between Treptow and Neukölln.

In the first months after the Wall went up, many border guards deserted, and loudspeaker announcements and leaflets from West Berlin openly urged them to do so. What led Georg Feldhahn to try is not recorded, nor whether it was a sudden decision, as the Stasi assumed, or long planned. He had apparently attracted no attention; at least the two Stasi informers in his unit had noticed no escape preparations or contacts with the West. The files record only that he had been in the city with two comrades before his shift and is said to have been drinking.

He went on duty at 9 p.m. by the Massante Bridge, beside the Teltow Canal. According to the Stasi report, at about 10 p.m. he was sent by the leader of his guard post to check a signal device on the wire fence but did not return, and instead made his way towards the bridge leading to West Berlin. When he realised he was being watched and followed, he fired a number of shots with his machine pistol, hitting no one, and disappeared before anyone could fire back.

East Berlin investigators assumed he had crossed the canal successfully. Then, on Sunday 11 March 1962, a West Berlin customs officer found a body in a border police uniform in the canal near the Späth Bridge in Neukölln. It had been in the water for weeks. West Berlin newspapers, citing the police, reported that he had drowned and showed no signs of external violence, and the West Berlin authorities identified him as Georg Feldhahn. The Stasi concluded that he had probably fallen into the freezing canal and drowned.

With contact between the two halves of the city frozen, West Berlin officials could not reach his family, and in the West the circumstances of his death remained uncertain until after the end of East Germany. The East German authorities kept what they knew locked away in their files, and his fate was forgotten for decades. His sister learned of his death only in the 1990s; whether his foster parents ever knew what had happened to him is not known.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Georg Feldhahn”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180490/feldhahn-georg
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171448/feldhahn-georg
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Georg Feldhahn”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/feldhahn-georg/

---

# Dorit Schmiel (1941–1962)

> Dorit Schmiel, a 20-year-old seamstress from Pankow, was shot in the stomach by border guards on 19 February 1962 while crawling with four friends towards the border at Rosenthal, and died shortly afterwards in hospital.

- Born: 25 April 1941
- Died: 19 February 1962
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At Wilhelmsruher Damm; At the sector border between Berlin-Pankow and Berlin-Reinickendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.59404, 13.36414
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmiel-dorit/

## Story

Dorit Schmiel was born in Berlin on 25 April 1941, during the war. Her father lost his life as a soldier in the Second World War, and she and her older brother grew up with their mother and stepfather in Pankow, in East Berlin. As a girl she often went to the western part of the city to see relatives, shop, go to the cinema or go dancing, and she felt the closing of the sector border as a painful break in her life.

Known as Dorle, she was 20 when the Wall went up. She worked as a seamstress in a state-run factory and had recently moved in with her fiancé, Detlef T. Neither she nor her fiancé nor three friends in their circle could identify with the political conditions and ideological demands of the East German state, and the building of the Wall made their situation unbearable. Once it became clear early in 1962 that the division would last, they decided to leave. One of Dorit's cousins had got through the barbed wire in the north of the city, and they planned to try at the same spot on the night of 18 to 19 February 1962.

After midnight, on a misty, overcast night, the five approached the border with Reinickendorf from Rosenthal, watched the guards for a while from a safe distance, and then moved along the edge of a cemetery towards the barriers. They cut a hole in the first fence, crawled through one by one and edged forward, flat on the snow and slush. They were close to the last two fences when three guards saw them and fired, without any call or warning shot, whatever the official reports later claimed. A bullet struck Dorit in the stomach. Her friends got up on the guards' order, 16-year-old Eberhard B. despite a wound to his shoulder, but she could not. Her fiancé recalled that she was finally seized by her arms and legs and carried away.

She was laid on the ground on the nearest street, Wilhelmsruher Damm, and it was at least 30 minutes before an ambulance came. On the way to the People's Police Hospital in Mitte she kept asking whether she had to die, Eberhard B. remembered; by the time they arrived she made no sound and was breathing only weakly. She died of internal bleeding a short time later.

Her friends were questioned for hours that night and tried a month later; the Pankow district court sentenced them to between ten months and two years in prison. Thirty years later they appeared as witnesses and joint plaintiffs when the three guards were tried. It could not be established whose bullets had struck, but the court found that all three had accepted that the fugitives might die, convicted them of joint manslaughter together with attempted manslaughter, and sentenced each of them to 18 months in prison, suspended on probation.

Everyone who knew her was deeply shaken. For the rest of her life her mother wrongly blamed Dorit's cousin in part, believing he had persuaded the young people to try. Through relatives, news of her death reached West Berlin, where, while the Wall still stood, several memorials kept her memory alive.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Dorit Schmiel”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180491/schmiel-dorit
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171434/schmiel-dorit
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Dorit Schmiel”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmiel-dorit/

---

# Heinz Jercha (1934–1962)

> Heinz Jercha, a 27-year-old butcher and father from West Berlin who helped people escape through a tunnel under Heidelberger Strasse, was shot by Stasi agents at the tunnel's East Berlin end on 27 March 1962 and died after crawling back to the West.

- Born: 1 July 1934
- Died: 27 March 1962
- Age at death: 27
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At Heidelberger Strasse 75; At the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (exact): 52.4865, 13.45334
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/jercha-heinz/

## Story

Heinz Jercha was born in Berlin on 1 July 1934. A butcher by trade, he had fled East Germany himself two or three years before the Wall and, when the Wall was built, was living in West Berlin with his wife and their young daughter. In the spring of 1962 he joined an escape group started by a former colleague. Its members dug a tunnel under the border at Heidelberger Strasse, which divided Neukölln from Treptow; it ran from the cellar of number 35 on the West Berlin side to number 75 in the East.

From 21 March 1962 the group brought dozens of people to the West. Heinz Jercha had helped with the digging, and each evening he and Harry Seidel went to the East Berlin end to collect those waiting and lead them back. They carried pistols for their own protection. On one of these trips he got talking to two East Berlin students he had helped to escape; when they asked him to help friends who were also desperate to leave, he agreed.

An informant had betrayed the tunnel, and from 25 March Stasi agents lay in wait in the East Berlin building in whose cellar the tunnel ended. On the evening of 27 March, after the two men had brought an elderly couple through, they went back for the escape Heinz Jercha had arranged. According to Harry Seidel's later statement, he waited on the cellar stairs while Heinz went up to meet the fugitives, but the Stasi squad was waiting instead. According to Stasi files, when one of the men ordered him to surrender, he switched on his torch and immediately ran, without resisting. The agents opened fire. Both men got back through the tunnel, but, as the post-mortem showed, a ricochet had struck Heinz Jercha in the chest. Badly wounded, he crawled back to West Berlin, where he died shortly afterwards, aged 27.

His death brought an outpouring of sympathy in West Berlin. After public calls for his widow and five-year-old daughter to be provided for, the authorities gave his family the same status as war dependants, which from then on entitled them to a modest pension. Representatives of the federal government, the Senate and the districts attended his funeral at the Wald Cemetery in Zehlendorf on 5 April.

For a long time the circumstances remained unclear: the East German leadership denied responsibility and kept the files locked away. In the 1990s an investigation was opened against four Stasi agents identified as having fired, but because it was accepted in their favour that they had been trying to arrest an armed West Berliner who had entered East German territory illegally, the shooting could not be prosecuted as manslaughter, and the proceedings were discontinued without charges being brought. A memorial plaque on Heidelberger Strasse remembers Heinz Jercha.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Heinz Jercha”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180492/jercha-heinz
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171429/jercha-heinz
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Heinz Jercha”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/jercha-heinz/

---

# Philipp Held (1942–1962)

> Philipp Held, a 19-year-old from Worms in West Germany who had moved to East Germany with his girlfriend, drowned in the Spree in April 1962, probably while trying to swim from the Osthafen in Friedrichshain to the West Berlin bank.

- Born: 2 May 1942
- Died: April 1962
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Drowned in April 1962; In the Spree River; Probably at the sector border between Berlin-Friedrichshain and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (area): 52.50076, 13.44796
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/held-philipp/

## Story

Philipp Held was born on 2 May 1942 in Worms am Rhein in West Germany. His childhood was a sheltered one, though clouded by the death of his father in a car accident in 1955. He trained as an electrician and then began to study engineering. He was his mother's only son, and she was proud of him.

At 19 he met Bärbel W., then 16. His mother disapproved of the friendship, and the young couple felt misunderstood and treated like children. In September 1961, without telling their parents, they crossed the inner-German border into East Germany near Helmstedt and asked to settle there; Bärbel had grown up in East Germany before fleeing west with her mother in 1956. After passing through the reception camp at Barby near Magdeburg, they were allowed to move to Eberswalde, near Berlin, where Bärbel's father and other relatives lived.

Life there proved hard. They struggled with living and working conditions, were not warmly received and felt watched and scolded. Their letters home soon suggested regret, and they seemed to realise that, with the Wall built, the way back was closed. Bärbel, still a minor, applied to leave; for Philipp, an adult with vocational training who had come from the West, an application seemed hopeless. When conscription was introduced in January 1962, he expected to be called up soon and feared that, as a soldier bearing arms and holding secrets, he would never get out of the country. In the end he felt he had no choice but to try to escape. His last letter to his mother hinted at this, and his girlfriend and his landlady knew of his intention, though not the details.

He disappeared on 8 April 1962. At first his girlfriend and landlady believed he had got away; only after days without news did they begin to worry. On 22 April 1962 border police noticed his body in the Spree, and water police recovered it at the Schilling Bridge. He had his identity papers with him in a cellophane bag. His body had become caught in the wire of an underwater barrier and had been in the water for about ten days. There were no bullet wounds. Everything indicates that he drowned attempting to swim across from the Osthafen harbour in Friedrichshain to the West Berlin side, but exactly how, when and where he died has never been established.

A letter dated 26 April 1962 informed his mother briefly that her son had died in an accident. With help from the authorities in Worms she tried to have his body brought home, only to learn to her dismay that he had been cremated without her consent. Distrusting the East German account, she went to the West German press, and rumours spread that he had been shot. When the Berlin public prosecutor reopened the case in 1990, this could not be confirmed; all available records indicate that he drowned while trying to escape.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Philipp Held”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180493/held-philipp
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171415/held-philipp
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Philipp Held”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/held-philipp/

---

# Jörgen Schmidtchen (1941–1962)

> Jörgen Schmidtchen, a 20-year-old border policeman from Leipzig, was shot dead on 18 April 1962 by a fleeing cadet at the Gleisdreieck post near Griebnitzsee, the first border policeman killed on duty at the West Berlin border after the Wall was built.

- Born: 28 June 1941
- Died: 18 April 1962
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: East German border soldier killed on duty
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At Gleisdreieck Griebnitzsee; On the outer ring between Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.39615, 13.1357
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidtchen-joergen/

## Story

Jörgen Schmidtchen was born on 28 June 1941. According to official East German accounts, he was born and raised in Leipzig and trained as a galvanizer after leaving school; he then worked as a skilled labourer at the state-owned industrial plant in Ludwigsfelde, where he was recognised as a young activist. At 19 he joined the German Border Police and was posted to the "Grenzbereitschaft Blankenfelde", a unit stationed in the south of Berlin that guarded the border between West Berlin and the district of Potsdam.

On the night leading into 18 April 1962, by now promoted to lance corporal, he was on guard with another soldier at a post called "Gleisdreieck" in Potsdam-Babelsberg, on disused S-Bahn land next to the West Berlin housing settlement of Kohlhasenbrück. Their shift began at one o'clock in the morning. They had been told that a search was under way in and around Potsdam for two armed members of the National People's Army who had disappeared from an officers' school.

At around 2:30 a.m. the two guards heard a noise, apparently without linking it to the warning, and left the old railway gatehouse to look. They met two men in uniform. According to the statement his fellow guard later gave, Jörgen Schmidtchen, the guard leader, believed them to be a patrol, walked up to them unsuspectingly and spoke to them, and then shots were suddenly fired. They came, as was later established, from the weapon of a 19-year-old cadet who was trying to flee to West Berlin with a comrade. Jörgen Schmidtchen fell and presumably died at once. His fellow guard returned fire; in the exchange the cadet was also fatally wounded, while his comrade reached West Berlin unhurt.

Internally, the commander of the 2nd Border Brigade concluded that he had acted imprudently in approaching the men unguarded despite the warnings he had received. Nothing of this was said publicly. The day after his death he was promoted to the NCO rank of Unteroffizier, and his parents received a one-off payment of 500 marks. He was buried with full military honours at the Leipzig-Schönefeld Cemetery.

East Germany's official account claimed he had been murdered by agents while trying to prevent an armed border breach, and he was held up as a martyr. Streets and schools were named after him, among them the 33rd Polytechnic secondary school in Potsdam, and a memorial room and commemorative grove kept his name before later generations of border soldiers. Behind this use of his death for propaganda, the young man himself largely disappeared from view.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Jörgen Schmidtchen”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180605/schmidtchen-joergen
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171423/schmidtchen-joergen
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Jörgen Schmidtchen”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidtchen-joergen/

---

# Klaus Brueske (1938–1962)

> Klaus Brueske, a 23-year-old driver from Friedrichshain, drove a truck carrying two friends through the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse border crossing in the early hours of 18 April 1962. Shot while driving, he died after the truck came to rest in West Berlin.

- Born: 14 September 1938
- Died: 18 April 1962
- Age at death: 23
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse border crossing; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (exact): 52.50516, 13.41209
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/brueske-klaus/

## Story

Klaus Brueske was born in Berlin on 14 September 1938, the fifth of eight children, and lived until his death in Friedrichshain, part of the Soviet sector since 1945. He left a masonry apprenticeship to become a driver, and from January 1961 worked for AEG in West Berlin, where his father also worked, crossing between the two halves of the city each day.

When the border was closed on 13 August 1961, his father stayed in West Berlin, but Klaus Brueske was reluctant to leave the surroundings he knew. He took a driving job in the East at the company where his older brother worked. In the months that followed, his friends grew more and more unhappy with life in East Germany. They explored the border area and made a plan to break through the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse crossing in a truck; in the end no fewer than seven young men wanted to take part.

On 17 April 1962 he borrowed a truck from his employer, saying he needed it for a move, and loaded it with sand and gravel so that it would break through the barriers more easily. That evening the friends met in a bar and spent the last of their East German money. When a policeman spoke to them outside, they separated to meet again later at the truck, but only three came back. Klaus Brueske took the wheel, Lothar M. sat beside him and Peter G. lay on the loaded platform behind.

After midnight they drove through the crossing at 70 km/h. A border guard fired two aimed bursts, 14 shots in all, as the truck broke through the first and second barriers. The vehicle was hit many times but kept going across the border line until it struck a wall on the West Berlin side. All three, with gunshot wounds and bruises, were taken to the nearby Urban Hospital, but for Klaus Brueske it was too late. According to the autopsy report, two shots through the back of his neck had not killed him at once but had made him lose control; in the collision he was buried in sand and suffocated. His two passengers survived with injuries.

A West Berlin newspaper's headline the next day said that, dying, he had driven his friends to freedom; the East German press said he had endangered the lives of the border guards. East German investigators expressly declared the shooting justified by the orders in force, criticised the layout of the barriers and decided that a slalom course should stop vehicles breaking through in future, with repair and conversion work in the following days and weeks; Stasi officers searched his flat, and his colleagues and siblings were interrogated. When it emerged that his older brother had known of the plan, he was held in pre-trial detention for four months on suspicion of having known about it. His mother and siblings were not allowed to attend his funeral at the municipal cemetery in Lübars, West Berlin.

In April 1994 the border guard who had fired was convicted of manslaughter together with attempted manslaughter and given a suspended sentence of one year and two months. In March 1966, after Heinz Schöneberger was also killed at Heinrich-Heine-Strasse, the West Berlin "Working Group 13th of August" put up a wooden cross there with photographs of both men, and memorial services are held there every year on the anniversary of the building of the Wall.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Klaus Brueske”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180494/brueske-klaus
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171419/brueske-klaus
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Klaus Brueske”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/brueske-klaus/

---

# Peter Böhme (1942–1962)

> Peter Böhme, a 19-year-old officer cadet from Karl-Marx-Stadt, deserted with a friend and was killed on 18 April 1962 in an exchange of fire at Gleisdreieck Griebnitzsee, in which the border guard Jörgen Schmidtchen also died.

- Born: 17 August 1942
- Died: 18 April 1962
- Age at death: 19
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At Gleisdreieck Griebnitzsee; On the outer ring between Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.39615, 13.1357
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/boehme-peter/

## Story

Peter Böhme was born on 17 August 1942 and grew up in Chemnitz, then called Karl-Marx-Stadt. Already at secondary school he came into conflict with the socialist authorities; at 16 he was threatened with expulsion because he and a friend had bought jeans, officially frowned upon, in West Berlin. He began training as a motor mechanic but had to give it up after crossing into West Berlin, still open at that time, from where his father brought him back. The authorities evidently chose not to punish him and instead required him to sign up with the National People's Army for several years. Joining under compulsion, he went, after a fashion, through basic training and the non-commissioned officers' course and on to applying as an officer cadet.

At the end of December 1961 he started at the army's Flak and Artillery Officer's School in Geltow near Potsdam, but soon regretted it. Within days he wrote to the school's leadership asking to be sent back to his old unit, saying he had no interest in becoming an officer. Called to account by his battery commander, he said he would rather study to become a sports teacher in Leipzig, but was pressed to reconsider and outwardly agreed to continue. Privately, he resolved not to give in this time and to leave for the West as soon as he could.

At the school he became friends with Wolfgang G., a cadet of the same age who also did not want to be an officer. Both were tired of being ordered about and apparently soon agreed that desertion was their only way out, beginning preparations in early April 1962.

On the night of 16 to 17 April 1962 the two took two pistols and ammunition from the school's weapons cabinet; Wolfgang G. later told West Berlin police that the weapons were meant for self-defence if it came to the worst. When, against their expectations, the missing weapons were noticed, they left the barracks and hid in Potsdam through the day. That evening they took a taxi to Babelsberg and, coming from Griebnitzsee station, followed the disused S-Bahn line towards the border with Kohlhasenbrück in West Berlin.

That night the border guard Jörgen Schmidtchen and a second guard were on duty; according to military files they were in a former railway keeper's hut when, at about 2:30 a.m., they heard noises and went out to look. According to Wolfgang G.'s later statement, Jörgen Schmidtchen, the leader of the two-man post, took the uniformed pair for an inspection patrol, went towards them and asked for the password; a heavy exchange of fire then followed, in which Peter Böhme and Jörgen Schmidtchen were both fatally wounded. Wolfgang G. was unhurt and reached West Berlin.

The two deaths became a political issue. The West Berlin press sided with the escapees, while East Germany labelled them common criminals and enemies of the state, and demanded Wolfgang G.'s extradition, which West Germany refused; the Stasi went on watching him for decades. In both East and West, Peter Böhme himself was largely forgotten.

In the 1990s his death was examined in preliminary proceedings that never reached trial. Investigators established that Peter Böhme had fired the shot that killed Jörgen Schmidtchen before he himself was fatally hit by the other guard. The proceedings against that guard were discontinued in August 1992 on the grounds of self-defence, and the public prosecutor concluded that Peter Böhme was guilty of the manslaughter of Jörgen Schmidtchen, since he had opened fire without being directly threatened.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Peter Böhme”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180495/boehme-peter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171421/boehme-peter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Peter Böhme”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/boehme-peter/

---

# Horst Frank (1942–1962)

> Horst Frank, a 19-year-old gardener from Saxony, was shot in the Schönholz garden settlement on 29 April 1962 while caught in the last barbed wire fence before West Berlin. His friend escaped; he died of his wounds that same night.

- Born: 7 May 1942
- Died: 29 April 1962
- Age at death: 19
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the "Schönholz" garden settlement; At the sector border between Berlin-Pankow and Berlin-Reinickendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.57501, 13.37681
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/frank-horst/

## Story

Horst Frank was born on 7 May 1942 in Lommatzsch in Saxony. After an apprenticeship as a gardener he moved to East Berlin a few months before the Wall was built, working for a state-owned horticultural firm in Weissensee and sharing a company dormitory with other workers.

Visiting his parents over Easter 1962, he got talking with Detlev W., two years younger, whom he had known since childhood, and they found that both wanted to leave East Germany. Detlev W. hoped to meet his natural father in the West; he did not say what his friend's reasons were. Conscription had been introduced in January 1962, and Horst Frank's impending call-up to the National People's Army probably played a part. His conscription medical notice, dated 23 March 1962, was among the few things he carried when he was shot.

The two met in East Berlin on 28 April 1962. Horst Frank had chosen the spot: the Schönholz garden settlement, bordering Reinickendorf in the north of the city. After dark, equipped with wire cutters, they approached the border installations from there, cut through the inner fence and entered the border strip, an open field about 80 metres wide. They moved slowly, crawling and ducking to avoid the guards and carefully passing a trip wire, and after four hours both reached the last barrier, a three-layered barbed wire fence, unseen.

At around half past midnight on 29 April, guards spotted Horst Frank, but not his friend, who got through to West Berlin. From 20 metres the two guards opened fire on him as he lay on the ground; alerted by the shots, a third guard also fired at him, by then hopelessly caught in the barbed wire. He was hit three times; a bullet passed through his stomach and lung. Residents, police and French military police on the western side watched as he was carried away showing no sign of life, and the next day residents put up a wooden cross.

He lived only a short time after being freed from the wire. Even so, the East German authorities opened an investigation against him for an attempted border breach; according to Stasi records, an arrest warrant was requested at once, his transfer to the prison ward of the People's Police Hospital was arranged, and he was even to be questioned soon. He died that same night without regaining consciousness; according to a border police report, he died in the People's Police Hospital at about 4 a.m. Four or five days passed before Stasi officers informed his family and released his body. He was buried in Lommatzsch on 12 May 1962.

Decades later the three guards were tried. The court could not establish who fired the fatal shot, but convicted all three of joint manslaughter and gave them suspended sentences of between one year and three months and one and a half years. In August 2013 a bridge on Klemkestrasse was given his name at the suggestion of the Reinickendorf district council, and a plaque close by tells his story.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Horst Frank”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180496/frank-horst
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171416/frank-horst
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Horst Frank”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/frank-horst/

---

# Peter Göring (1940–1962)

> Peter Göring, a 21-year-old East German border policeman, was killed by a ricochet bullet on 23 May 1962 during an exchange of fire at the Spandauer Schifffahrts Canal near the Sandkrug Bridge, as guards shot at a 14-year-old fugitive.

- Born: 28 December 1940
- Died: 23 May 1962
- Age at death: 21
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: East German border soldier killed on duty
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Spandauer Schifffahrts Canal near the Sandkrug Bridge; On the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Tiergarten
- Map position (approximate): 52.52783, 13.37385
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/goering-peter/

## Story

The official East German version of Peter Göring's life, publicised after his death, was vague and portentous. According to it, he was born in December 1940 into a working-class family in Dresden. His father died in the war, and Peter grew up in the children's home at Weisser Hirsch in Dresden. After school he trained as a cast fettler and then took up agricultural work, following the party's call for young workers to go to the land. In April 1960 he apparently volunteered for service with the country's armed forces, and in June of the following year he was posted to the border in Berlin.

On 23 May 1962 members of the 1st Border Brigade opened fire at the Spandauer Schifffahrts Canal on Wilfried Tews, a 14-year-old boy from Erfurt who was trying to escape. The boy was badly wounded before he could be pulled onto the western bank. Because the guards' bullets were striking West Berlin territory, police officers there gave the boy covering fire. Files later opened show that Peter Göring, against the clear orders of his post leader, had left his watchtower to find a better firing position and was himself firing aimed shots at the boy, in breach of rules forbidding fire at children or towards the West. According to West Berlin investigation files, a police officer on the other bank noticed him at that moment; the officer later stated that he had felt threatened and had returned fire.

When the shooting stopped, Peter Göring was found dead between two walls that closed off the riverbank. The forensic examination in East Berlin found that he had not been hit directly: the fatal bullet had ricocheted off one of the walls. He was 21 years old.

His death was politically explosive. The East German leadership blamed the West Berlin Senate, published a photograph of his body and called him a murder victim, while presenting him as a model soldier who had loved life. He was promoted posthumously from lance corporal to sergeant and given a state funeral in Luchau in Saxony, where his gravestone accused the West Berlin police of shooting him. His mother was drawn into the official remembrance of her son and took an active part in it for the rest of her life. In West Berlin, the mayor of Berlin, Willy Brandt, in a radio address backed the police officers who had come to the aid of the defenceless fugitive, but also expressed regret at the border policeman's death, calling him a new victim of the Wall and saying that the blame for his fate lay with those who had built the Wall.

Official records from both East and West later showed that the murder accusation was a myth. After the case was reopened in the 1990s, proceedings against the West Berlin policeman believed to have fired the fatal shot were discontinued in July 1991, on the grounds that he had acted in self-defence and to protect the fugitive. In June 1996 three former East German guards were charged with the attempted manslaughter of Wilfried Tews, but the trial could not establish whether the hits had come from them or from other guards involved at the time, and they were acquitted. The court noted in its judgment that the shots which injured the boy, who lived with the consequences for the rest of his life, might also have come from Peter Göring, though this could not be proven.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Peter Göring”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180606/goering-peter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171430/goering-peter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Peter Göring”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/goering-peter/

---

# Lutz Haberlandt (1938–1962)

> Lutz Haberlandt, a 24-year-old mason from Prenzlauer Berg, was fatally shot on 27 May 1962 after climbing from the grounds of Charité Hospital into the border strip on the Alexander embankment, trying to reach West Berlin.

- Born: 29 April 1938
- Died: 27 May 1962
- Age at death: 24
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the Alexander embankment near Charité Hospital; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte und Berlin-Tiergarten
- Map position (approximate): 52.52574, 13.37344
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/haberlandt-lutz/

## Story

Lutz Haberlandt was born in Berlin in 1938, the second of three children, and grew up in Prenzlauer Berg. After eight years of school he trained as a bricklayer and worked as a mason. His father, until the Wall went up, worked as a fabric tracer at a West Berlin textile firm (the family had many relatives in the western half of the city). As a cross-border commuter he lost that job when the Wall was built and had to take work at the East Berlin post office. His sister Lieselott remembered that the Wall made their father, and her brother above all, feel hemmed in.

At 24 he still lived with his parents on what was then Dimitroffstrasse, today's Danziger Strasse. Sunday 27 May 1962 was a warm, sunny day. Around noon Lutz fetched his sister and her daughter Andrea for the family's Sunday meal, cooked as so often by his mother. After his sister had gone home, he left his parents' flat without a word. He had never told his family that he meant to flee. He stopped at a local bar for a beer and talked with a friend, who later told investigators he knew nothing of any escape plan. His parents also told the Stasi they had had no idea of his intentions or reasons.

Probably not entirely sober, he went into the city centre and onto the grounds of Charité Hospital, which lay right on the border. At about 4 p.m. two transport policemen watching from a nearby railway bridge noticed him; they later recorded that they saw him climb onto a shed roof, take off his jacket and shoes and lie in the sun. After a while, by their account, he suddenly jumped down and climbed the property wall into the border strip. From the tower of the Supreme Court building on Invalidenstrasse, about a hundred metres away, a guard fired a warning shot and then two aimed shots; one struck Lutz Haberlandt in the head. Doctors, nurses and patients at the neighbouring Charité psychiatric clinic saw him left lying in the bushes for about forty minutes. By the time he was finally taken away, he was probably already dead.

Other guards had fired too, and some bullets crossed into West Berlin. A West Berlin policeman returned fire, and East German propaganda denounced this as a serious provocation. Only four days earlier an exchange of fire had killed the border policeman Peter Göring, and on 27 May itself the Governing Mayor, Willy Brandt, had appealed to West Berliners in a radio address to remain calm.

A few days after his death, anonymous tips, probably from relatives in the West, reached the West Berlin police and pointed to who he was. According to this information, People's Police officers and an East German prosecutor had come to his parents' home at about four o'clock on the morning after his death to tell them; when his mother asked whether her son had been shot, they confirmed it. They then searched the flat, pressed the parents to agree to cremation and told them the funeral would be on 8 July at the Weissensee Cemetery. His close family gathered there. According to his sister, it took the family months to take in his death, and his grave and headstone later disappeared from the cemetery without their knowledge.

Investigations of the guards involved began in the 1990s. It was established beyond doubt which guard had fired the fatal shot, and in March 1996 he was convicted of manslaughter and given a youth sentence of a year and a half, suspended on probation.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Lutz Haberlandt”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180497/haberlandt-lutz
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171428/haberlandt-lutz
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Lutz Haberlandt”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/haberlandt-lutz/

---

# Axel Hannemann (1945–1962)

> Axel Hannemann, a 17-year-old from Cottbus, was shot dead on 5 June 1962 while swimming across the Spree towards the West Berlin bank behind the Reichstag building, after a barge captain refused to take him to the West.

- Born: 27 April 1945
- Died: 5 June 1962
- Age at death: 17
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree River near the Reichstag building; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Tiergarten
- Map position (approximate): 52.51923, 13.38023
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hannemann-axel/

## Story

Axel Hannemann was born in Buchhain in Lusatia in April 1945, a few days before the war in Europe ended. He grew up with three older siblings in nearby Cottbus, where his father worked in a department store. At 17 he was still living with his parents and was serving an apprenticeship. His mother later wrote that the news of his death came completely unexpectedly and caused his parents and siblings deep pain.

His family had not known he meant to leave, nor why. His elder brother Wolfgang later said he did not think the reasons were political, but that Axel had simply wanted a better and different life. Another brother, Jürgen, thought he might have been heading for their grandparents' home in West Berlin. In a farewell note Axel asked his family to understand this unannounced step; he wrote that he had no other way out, promising to explain once he had made it, and adding that he had done nothing wrong.

On 5 June 1962 he travelled by train from Cottbus to East Berlin and made his way to the Marschall Bridge, close to where the sector border crossed the Spree. There East German customs inspected cargo boats that were allowed to pass through West Berlin on their way to the surrounding area. At a quarter past five in the afternoon he jumped from the bridge onto a barge that had already been cleared and was heading west, but the captain would not take him, stopped the boat and alerted the customs officers and border guards. Axel broke free from the captain after a struggle, jumped into the river and swam for the West Berlin bank. Two border policemen fired at him from close range. Only metres from the bank he was hit and went under. According to the post-mortem report he had been shot through the skull; how many bullets hit him could not be established with certainty.

East Berlin firemen recovered his body two hours later, directly behind the Reichstag building, which stood in West Berlin. West Berlin police and journalists photographed the recovery. The East German authorities looked into his background hoping to find something they could use, but there seemed to be nothing against him: the report from Cottbus said he was no layabout, had not come to the attention of the police and had attended dancing lessons. Even so, the interior minister issued a statement calling him a criminal who had tried to force his way through the border.

In West Berlin, the police and public prosecutor opened an investigation into the guards who had fired, and the police chief offered a reward of 3,000 German marks for information leading to the identification of the culprit. Wanted posters were hung along the Wall where the guards could see them, as a reminder that they might one day have to answer for shooting fugitives.

It was some thirty years before the guards could be prosecuted. By then the former guard leader, to whom the fatal shots could be clearly attributed, had died. Because the second guard had also fired aimed shots, a court found him guilty of joint manslaughter in September 1993; his two-year prison sentence was suspended on probation.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Axel Hannemann”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180498/hannemann-axel
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171418/hannemann-axel
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Axel Hannemann”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hannemann-axel/

---

# Erna Kelm (1908–1962)

> Erna Kelm, a 53-year-old woman from Sacrow who had worked in nursing and care, drowned in the Havel on 11 June 1962, apparently while trying to swim to West Berlin wearing a swimming belt beneath her clothes.

- Born: 21 July 1908
- Died: 11 June 1962
- Age at death: 53
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Havel River; On the outer ring between Sacrow (Potsdam city district) and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (area): 52.43217, 13.10204
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kelm-erna/

## Story

Erna Kelm was born in Frankfurt (Oder) on 21 July 1908. In August 1947 she left Potsdam for Lübeck, without the permit then required by the occupying powers, and worked there as a nurse. From March 1948 she lived in West Berlin, where she was a nurse's assistant in a children's home for refugees. Her last post was as the head of a residential home.

Her children lived in Potsdam, and she travelled there several times to see them. Police records show that these trips made her suspected of intelligence work, though the suspicion was never confirmed. It reportedly led to her being questioned in November 1953, after which she went back to live in Potsdam; she said herself that she missed her children.

By 1962 she was living in Sacrow, which belonged to the East German district of Potsdam and faced the West Berlin district of Zehlendorf across the Havel; the border ran down the middle of the river. In the early hours of 11 June 1962, Whit Monday, an angler on the West Berlin bank of the river, south of Nikolskoe, saw a woman's body in the water and alerted the police, who brought it ashore by boat shortly afterwards.

Her East German identity card had been tucked into her sock. She had other papers with her in a plastic bag and wore a swimming belt under her clothing. Because of the swimming belt, West Berlin investigators concluded that she had in all likelihood been trying to swim across the Havel to the West, and the autopsy found that she had drowned.

At the request of relatives in Potsdam, her body was sent there, after which all trace of it was lost; for a long time nobody knew where she had been buried. The West Berlin investigation was soon closed and its file passed to the Central Registry Office in Salzgitter. When the case was reopened 30 years later, the original findings were upheld.

Apart from the Salzgitter files, her fate was recorded only in a few newspaper articles. On 13 June 1962 the West Berlin Tagesspiegel, reporting on incidents at the Wall over the Whitsun holiday, mentioned a woman's body taken from the lower Havel on Whit Monday who was thought to have drowned while fleeing. On the first anniversary of the Wall, the Federal Ministry of All-German Affairs included her death in a brochure on crimes at the border, and from then on her name appeared in official lists of those who died there. A photograph in the biography shows a commemorative column for her at the ferry dock in Sacrow.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Erna Kelm”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180499/kelm-erna
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171422/kelm-erna
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Erna Kelm”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kelm-erna/

---

# Wolfgang Glöde (1949–1962)

> Wolfgang Glöde, a 13-year-old schoolboy from East Berlin, was fatally wounded on 11 June 1962 when a border policeman showing the boys his machine pistol accidentally fired a shot in the "Sorgenfrei" garden settlement in Treptow.

- Born: 1 February 1949
- Died: 11 June 1962
- Age at death: 13
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the "Sorgenfrei" garden settlement; At the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.47879, 13.47012
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gloede-wolfgang/

## Story

Wolfgang Glöde was born in East Berlin on 1 February 1949 and grew up in the "Sorgenfrei" garden settlement on Kiefholzstrasse in Treptow, where his family had lived since 1930. He had two older siblings. His father was a fitter at the Berlin machine repair works and his mother looked after the home. Because of the post-war housing shortage, the family, like many of their neighbours, had made their leased garden plot their permanent home.

The settlement lay directly on the boundary with the West Berlin district of Neukölln. Before 13 August 1961 many paths had led across into Neukölln; after the border was sealed they were all cut off. Guard posts, dogs, barbed wire, barriers and watchtowers gradually surrounded the gardens, outsiders were kept away, and armed patrols walked the paths between the plots day and night. The constant presence of armed men was a risk to residents that the political and military leadership tacitly accepted.

Whit Monday, 11 June 1962, Wolfgang spent with two friends of his own age from the settlement; in the afternoon the boys went to play football at the club ground. At around 6 p.m. two 19-year-old border policemen on patrol came by and, against regulations, let the children draw them into conversation. The boys asked how the guards' machine pistols worked, and the men agreed to show them. One of the guards took the safety catch off his Kalashnikov without removing the magazine, and while loading it he mistakenly set off the trigger. The bullet struck Wolfgang at close range and passed through a lung. His parents, alarmed by the shot, hurried to the spot and found him dying; he died shortly afterwards.

The records of the border police and the Stasi say nothing about how the residents reacted. They do record the East German authorities' efforts to stifle discontent and criticism from the start: the border police leadership, together with the SED district leadership in Treptow, decided on measures to prevent what they called false accounts of the incident spreading among the population, including additional guards and making contact with Wolfgang's parents and teachers. The commander of the 5th Border Detachment concluded that the guard who fired had acted with gross negligence; elsewhere in the records it was said that the accident showed that some guards handled their weapons irresponsibly and called for tough disciplinary and criminal action. The guard was arrested at the scene and a military prosecutor questioned him and opened an investigation for negligent homicide; whether he was ever tried or punished is not known.

In West Berlin the news spread very quickly. The authorities there at first relied on false information that the boy had been shot while trying to escape, and on 15 June 1962 the Senate issued a press release to that effect. Newspapers took up the story, and on 17 June 1962 both Chancellor Adenauer and the mayor of Berlin, Willy Brandt, mentioned Wolfgang by name in speeches. At some point the following year, law enforcement authorities in the West learned that he had in fact been killed in a firearms accident, and his name was taken off official lists of Wall victims.

Wolfgang Glöde was buried quietly, with his family present, at the Baumschulenweg Cemetery in Treptow. His gravestone remembers him as a dear son, brother and brother-in-law, and records that his family's hearts would stay with him to the end of their days.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Wolfgang Glöde”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180500/gloede-wolfgang
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171433/gloede-wolfgang
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Wolfgang Glöde”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gloede-wolfgang/

---

# Reinhold Huhn (1942–1962)

> Reinhold Huhn, a 20-year-old East German border guard from Adorf in Saxony, was shot dead on 18 June 1962 at the corner of Jerusalemer Strasse and Zimmerstrasse by a West Berliner who was bringing his family out through a tunnel.

- Born: 8 March 1942
- Died: 18 June 1962
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: East German border soldier killed on duty
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the corner of Jerusalemer Strasse/Zimmerstrasse; On the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (exact): 52.50808, 13.3972
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/huhn-reinhold/

## Story

Reinhold Huhn was born on 8 March 1942, the youngest child of farmers in Braunsberg, East Prussia. He lost his mother in an accident at the age of three. At the end of 1946 the family was expelled from East Prussia, which by then belonged to Poland, and made a new home in Adorf in the Vogtland. After school he trained as a cattle breeder and worked on a state-owned farm in the Plauen district. At 18 he let himself be recruited into the Readiness Police (Bereitschaftspolizei), starting his service in Karl-Marx-Stadt, today Chemnitz, in September 1960. In June 1961 his unit was moved to East Berlin and helped build the Wall; afterwards he served in the East Berlin border brigade.

On the afternoon of 18 June 1962 he was on guard with his guard leader at the corner of Jerusalemer Strasse and Zimmerstrasse, in Berlin's old newspaper district, from 3 p.m. At about 5.20 p.m. they saw a man leave the border house at Zimmerstrasse 56 and head towards the city centre. An hour later he came back with two women and two children, and Reinhold Huhn was ordered to check their papers.

The man was a former cross-border commuter who had been separated from his family since the Wall was built. With his brothers and other helpers he had spent weeks digging a tunnel from the Springer publishing site in West Berlin to the cellar of Zimmerstrasse 56, and that afternoon he intended to bring his wife, two children and sister-in-law through it. According to the man's own later account, he told the guard they were going to a birthday party, and when Reinhold Huhn went ahead with the check anyway, he drew a pistol and fired. Hit in the chest at close range, Reinhold Huhn fell and bled to death. His guard leader opened fire, but the family escaped through the tunnel.

East Berlin demanded the man's extradition, but the West Berlin Senate stood by him and he was flown to West Germany. He told the police that the fatal shot had come from the other guard, and Western newspapers repeated this; the investigation opened against him in West Berlin was discontinued in November 1962. In the East, Reinhold Huhn was presented as a victim of Western warmongers. His body lay in state in his unit's barracks, and he was buried with military honours in Adorf. A memorial plaque was placed at the spot, later expanded into a central memorial for border soldiers, and in 1966 nearby Schützenstrasse was renamed after him. After East Germany ceased to exist, the memorial was removed and the street was given back its old name.

In April 1999 the Berlin Regional Court convicted the man of manslaughter, after he admitted firing the shot but claimed self-defence; the court found that no attack on the life or health of him or his family had come from Reinhold Huhn, and sentenced him to a year in prison, suspended on probation. Both sides appealed. In 2000 the Federal Court of Justice found him guilty of murder but left the sentence unchanged. The verdict remains disputed: he felt branded a cold-blooded murderer, while Reinhold Huhn's relatives questioned whether the urge for freedom should weigh more heavily than a human life.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht/Maria Nooke, “Reinhold Huhn”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180607/huhn-reinhold
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171426/huhn-reinhold
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Reinhold Huhn”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/huhn-reinhold/

---

# Siegfried Noffke (1939–1962)

> Siegfried Noffke, a 22-year-old West Berlin driver and young father, was fatally shot in a Stasi ambush on 28 June 1962 as he broke through an escape tunnel into the basement of Heinrich-Heine-Strasse 49, hoping to bring his wife and son to the West.

- Born: 9 December 1939
- Died: 28 June 1962
- Age at death: 22
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At Heinrich-Heine-Strasse 49; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (exact): 52.50468, 13.41326
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/noffke-siegfried/

## Story

Siegfried Noffke was born in Berlin on 9 December 1939 and grew up in the Soviet sector. A bricklayer by training, he fled west during the 1950s, settled in Kreuzberg and earned his living as a driver. In May 1961, after the birth of their son, he married Hannelore, who lived in Prenzlauer Berg in the East. The young couple had apparently assumed that after the wedding she and the baby would be allowed to move to the western part of the city, but the East Berlin authorities refused an exit permit, and when the border was sealed the family was suddenly divided.

For almost a year the couple, like many others, could only meet secretly near the border and exchange a few words across the barrier. At one of these meetings he met another West Berliner in the same situation, who invited him to join a tunnel project to bring their wives across. The digging, which he now carried out together with Dieter Hötger and Dieter G., was already well under way; it started from a basement on Sebastianstrasse in Kreuzberg towards a house at Heinrich-Heine-Strasse 48/49. It was a private undertaking by men trying to reunite their families.

The plan had been betrayed early, even before he joined it, and only by chance. A woman planning to escape through the tunnel had told her brother, not knowing he was a Stasi informer, and he reported it at once. The Stasi set up an operation code-named 'Maulwürfe' (moles) to arrest everyone when the tunnel was complete, and the informer joined the group posing as a would-be refugee. He was there at midday on 28 June 1962 when the tunnel was opened, and helped the three tunnel builders break through into the basement, where Stasi officers were waiting.

Surviving tunnel builders said that the shooting began the moment Siegfried Noffke and Dieter Hötger stepped into the basement, although the tunnel builders were unarmed; Stasi files record that one agent lost his nerve and started shooting despite the plan to arrest them. Siegfried Noffke was fatally wounded and Dieter Hötger badly injured; the informer and a Stasi officer were also wounded. Though critically hurt, Siegfried Noffke was questioned on the spot, in order, as Stasi reports put it, to extract a "confession". He is said to have died a little later on the way to hospital.

His wife was arrested with the other East Berliners who had planned to escape, and in November 1962 the Berlin-Mitte city court sentenced them to between one and two years in prison for attempting to leave the GDR illegally; Dieter Hötger was sentenced in October 1962 to nine years' penal servitude. Their son was raised by his grandmother; he was six years old before he saw his mother again. He later said that prison left her a broken woman; she became seriously ill and was placed in a nursing home in her early 40s.

About two weeks after his death, unknown mourners laid a wreath in Kreuzberg, not far from the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse crossing, its ribbon saying farewell from his friends to a victim of the Wall. After the collapse of East Germany the presumed gunmen and the former informer remained silent about what had happened, and criminal investigations opened in the 1990s on the basis of Stasi files were discontinued for lack of evidence, without charges being brought. In 2009 the association Berliner Unterwelten put up a memorial plaque on Sebastianstrasse.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Siegfried Noffke”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180501/noffke-siegfried
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171424/noffke-siegfried
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Siegfried Noffke”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/noffke-siegfried/

---

# Peter Fechter (1944–1962)

> Peter Fechter, an 18-year-old bricklayer from Weissensee, was shot on 17 August 1962 while trying to climb the Wall on Zimmerstrasse near Checkpoint Charlie. He lay at the foot of the Wall calling for help; when he was carried away 50 minutes later his cries had stopped, and he was declared dead soon afterwards.

- Born: 14 January 1944
- Died: 17 August 1962
- Age at death: 18
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Zimmerstrasse near the Friedrich/Zimmerstrasse border crossing (“Checkpoint Charlie”); At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (approximate): 52.50786, 13.39371
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/fechter-peter/

## Story

Peter Fechter was born in Berlin on 14 January 1944 and grew up in modest circumstances in Weissensee, the third of four children. His father was a machine builder and his mother a sales assistant. Their only son left school at 14 and trained as a bricklayer, a trade much in demand in the post-war rebuilding. His eldest sister was married and lived in the western part of the city, and before the Wall the family is said to have visited her regularly. He was described as a quiet, unassuming young man, and his work assessment called him willing and hard-working.

At work he met Helmut K., a fellow apprentice, and from the beginning of 1962 both worked on the rebuilding of the former Kaiser-Wilhelm-Palais on Unter den Linden. According to Helmut K., they had long been thinking of escape and had explored the border installations, but had no concrete plan. The two seem hardly to have discussed their reasons, though each probably knew that the other dreamed of a better life in the West. Even the Stasi later found no evidence of a prepared escape. A Stasi file shows that his employer had refused him a trip to West Germany, which may have played a part. Helmut K. told the West Berlin police he had been a good colleague, sincere and honest.

According to Helmut K., while exploring the area the two noticed a ruined building on Schützenstrasse that housed a carpentry workshop and whose rear windows faced Zimmerstrasse, almost at the Wall. Two days later, during their lunch break, they decided on the spur of the moment not to return to the building site but to explore it instead. They found a window that had not been bricked up; hearing voices and fearing discovery, they jumped out and ran in their socks towards the Wall a few metres away.

It was early afternoon on 17 August 1962; the West Berlin police received the first report of shots at 2:12 p.m. Four border guards had opened fire without warning, firing 35 shots in all. Helmut K. climbed the Wall and forced his way through the barbed wire into the West; he later said Peter Fechter seemed frozen with shock and did not move when he called to him. According to the border brigade commander's report, Peter Fechter was hit as he jumped at the Wall, slid back and then stood behind a reinforced section of the Wall. By this account he had already given up his escape, yet instead of arresting him the guards moved to another position and kept firing until he collapsed.

He lay badly wounded at the foot of the Wall, calling loudly for help, in view of many people on both sides. West Berlin police on ladders asked his name and threw bandages over, but did not dare to climb across; American military police from nearby Checkpoint Charlie feared that entering East Berlin territory might lead to a military clash. Fifty minutes passed, and his cries had already fallen silent by the time East German border troops carried him away behind a smokescreen; he was declared dead shortly afterwards at the People's Police Hospital.

Photographs of his dying were seen around the world, and his name became a lasting symbol of the border regime. In the East, officials blamed western police and photographers for the delay, and the chief state propagandist defended the guards on television on the same day that he was buried at the cemetery of the Resurrection Congregation in Weissensee. For decades his family suffered reprisals from the East German authorities.

In July 1990 his sisters filed a criminal complaint, and two of the guards who had fired were eventually convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 20 and 21 months in prison, suspended on probation. His youngest sister, Ruth, joined the trial as co-plaintiff and, in a statement made through her lawyer, spoke of the exclusion and enforced silence the family had endured. She added that a legal view could lose sight of the fact that in her brother's death world history had fatally crossed paths with an individual fate. The inscription on his gravestone reads "Allen unvergessen" ("unforgotten by all").

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Peter Fechter”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180502/fechter-peter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171420/fechter-peter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Peter Fechter”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/fechter-peter/

---

# Hans-Dieter Wesa (1943–1962)

> Hans-Dieter Wesa, a 19-year-old East German transport police officer, was shot dead by a fellow guard on 23 August 1962 after climbing the border fence at Bornholmer Strasse S-Bahn station into West Berlin.

- Born: 10 January 1943
- Died: 23 August 1962
- Age at death: 19
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Bornholmer Strasse S-Bahn station; At the sector border between Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (exact): 52.55477, 13.39785
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wesa-hans-dieter/

## Story

Hans-Dieter Wesa was born on 10 January 1943 in Schlewen, in the rural district of Gostingen, the youngest of four children. His parents came from Galicia; his father, a carpenter, had had his own workshop in his home town, in what is now Ukraine; under Nazi resettlement policy the family had been given a farm in the Warthegau. With his father a prisoner of war, his mother fled west with the children in 1945, and the family was assigned to Trebitz, near Wettin. His father returned in 1949 and the family stayed. Devout Protestants, his parents kept their distance from the regime, and they willingly let their eldest son go when he left for West Germany in 1954 and built a new life in Baden-Württemberg.

According to his brother, after school he completed a railway apprenticeship in Halle, and in September 1960 he signed up for five years with the transport police to advance his career. In April 1962 his unit was moved from Leipzig to Berlin to guard the border stations and railway facilities. His brother recalled that he could not refuse the transfer and personally rejected the idea of having to shoot at people; he believed this conflict may have been what led Dieter to desert. He left no explanation and gave no hint of his plans when he visited his parents a few days beforehand. His superiors regarded him as an exemplary officer.

On 23 August 1962 he was posted with another young officer he knew from Leipzig at the Bornholmer Strasse S-Bahn station, a "ghost station" beneath the Böse Bridge where trains no longer stopped. According to the other officer's later account, Hans-Dieter remarked, as if joking, that his sister in West Germany would be surprised to see him turn up. After dark he disappeared, on the pretext that he had to switch on the lights on the other platform.

His fellow guard found that he had climbed the border fence and was already on West Berlin territory. When Hans-Dieter Wesa ignored his order to come back, the guard opened fire regardless. By the guard's own account, he fired a burst of about six shots, Wesa fell and lay still, and he then fired a second burst. West Berlin police and forensic examinations found that a shot in the thigh had brought him down before the guard came up to the fence from the other side and killed him with shots from very close range. He probably died immediately. The case was reopened after East Germany collapsed, and the former guard was charged with manslaughter in June 1994, but he took his own life in September 1994 before trial, without ever explaining why he had fired.

Coming only days after the death of Peter Fechter, the shooting caused deep revulsion in West Berlin. According to the press, Mayor Willy Brandt and Senator Klaus Schütz went to the place where he died that same evening. An official memorial service was held in Berlin on 25 August 1962, attended by many West Berlin police officers who wished to honour their East German colleague. His brother in Eybach, Baden-Württemberg, arranged for his body to be brought there for burial, and the deputy commander of the West Berlin uniformed police spoke at the funeral.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Hans-Dieter Wesa”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180503/wesa-hans-dieter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171427/wesa-hans-dieter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Hans-Dieter Wesa”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wesa-hans-dieter/

---

# Ernst Mundt (1921–1962)

> Ernst Mundt, a 40-year-old former carpenter living in Prenzlauer Berg, was shot in the head on 4 September 1962 while running along the wall of the Sophien Cemetery towards the sector border at Bernauer Strasse.

- Born: 2 December 1921
- Died: 4 September 1962
- Age at death: 40
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Sophien Cemetery, Bernauer Strasse/Bergstrasse; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (approximate): 52.53628, 13.39141
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mundt-ernst/

## Story

Ernst Mundt was born on 2 December 1921 in Bad Polzin in Eastern Pomerania. A carpenter, he moved from Falkensee to East Berlin in 1950 to find work, and helped build the Friesen Stadium on what was then Dimitroffstrasse, which opened in 1951. Poor health later forced him to give up his trade. He was unmarried, lived on a disability pension in a studio flat in Prenzlauer Berg, and had relatives in the western part of the city.

Once the Wall was built, visits were impossible, and his mother kept in touch by letter and sent him regular parcels of food and necessities. She did not know he was planning to leave, or why. The East German authorities never learned his reasons either; Stasi officers who questioned his neighbours learned only that he was said to have openly criticised the sealing of the border.

The Sophien Parish cemetery lay in East Berlin and bordered Bernauer Strasse, which belonged to the West; border guards patrolled among the graves. On the afternoon of 4 September 1962 Ernst Mundt cycled there, left his bike on Bergstrasse where barbed wire blocked the way, climbed onto the glass-topped cemetery wall and ran along it towards the border. When cemetery visitors and border guards told him to get down, he is said, according to eyewitness accounts, to have replied that he would not come down because he was on duty. He had nearly reached the border when two transport police officers about a hundred metres away at Nordbahnhof saw him. One of them fired a warning shot and an aimed shot in quick succession; Ernst Mundt was hit in the head and killed instantly. His cap flew over to the western side, and witnesses remembered him as the man with the cap.

The shooter was given a bonus and a medal that same day, and the guards were praised for removing him quickly, before the western press could arrive, under an order issued in response to the death of Peter Fechter. His mother's enquiries went unanswered. In early November his younger brother travelled from Krefeld to East Berlin and refused to leave without answers; an East Berlin prosecutor finally told him that his brother had been injured in what he called a border provocation and had died of that injury. The family was told his urn lay in the Baumschulenweg Cemetery, but the Stasi had already had him cremated and buried anonymously. Thirty years later the man who had fired, called to account in court, said he had only carried out an order.

Ernst Mundt was the third fugitive shot dead at the Wall in quick succession, and anger grew in West Berlin. A cross put up at the corner of Bernauer Strasse and Bergstrasse was covered in flowers and wreaths, and half a year later the Wedding district office replaced it with a memorial of logs and barbed wire. According to his biography, a pavement slab inscribed "Dem unbekannten Opfer der Schandmauer † 4.9.1962" (to the unknown victim of the wall of shame) marks the place where he died.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Ernst Mundt”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180504/mundt-ernst
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171417/mundt-ernst
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Ernst Mundt”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mundt-ernst/

---

# Günter Seling (1940–1962)

> Günter Seling, a 22-year-old non-commissioned officer in the border troops from Stahnsdorf, was shot in thick fog on 29 September 1962 in Teltow-Seehof by a fellow soldier who took him for a fugitive, and died of his wounds the next day.

- Born: 28 April 1940
- Died: 30 September 1962
- Age at death: 22
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: East German border soldier killed on duty
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In Teltow-Seehof; At the southwest outer ring
- Map position (area): 52.40999, 13.28596
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/seling-guenter/

## Story

Günter Seling was born on 28 April 1940. He came from Stahnsdorf near Berlin and lived in his parents' house there until his death. He had served in the National People's Army since April 1959, having joined before general conscription was introduced in East Germany. By 1962 he was a non-commissioned officer in the Heinersdorf border company, stationed on the southern edge of the city along the border between West Berlin and Teltow.

On 29 September 1962 he was on patrol duty as guard leader. His task was to make unannounced checks on the guards at their posts. At about 5 a.m., in thick fog and poor visibility, he approached the post of a 19-year-old soldier and is said to have made a noise to draw attention to himself. The soldier then loaded his machine pistol, apparently thinking it was someone trying to escape.

The surviving reports describe what happened next with slight differences. A report prepared for Erich Honecker said that a burst of four shots went off accidentally as the weapon was being loaded. An earlier report, from the Berlin city command, suggested instead that the soldier had fired deliberately at the noise, without a call or warning shot. Either way, Günter Seling was badly wounded in the head. He was taken as quickly as possible to a hospital in Kleinmachnow and operated on at once, but he died of his injuries at about three o'clock the following morning, 30 September 1962.

A funeral with full military honours was ordered for him; according to West German and West Berlin newspapers, he was buried with military honours at the cemetery in Stahnsdorf. The soldier who had fired was detained and investigated by the military prosecutor for negligent use of a weapon; the outcome is not recorded. Unlike other border soldiers who were killed, he was not publicly commemorated in East Germany; given how he died, the political and military leaders evidently did not think it opportune.

Border guards who later fled to the West made the incident known in the West, though not the victim's identity, and in September 1968 his death was added to the West Berlin police list of victims of the Wall. In 1994 the Berlin public prosecutor's office, which opened preliminary inquiries, found no evidence of an intentional killing and concluded that in legal terms it was merely negligent homicide; the shooter was not prosecuted. In the view of his biographer, his death shows how great the pressure on guards to stop escapes was: in cases of doubt, they would fire even on their own comrades.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Günter Seling”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180608/seling-guenter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171432/seling-guenter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Günter Seling”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/seling-guenter/

---

# Anton Walzer (1902–1962)

> Anton Walzer, a 60-year-old varnish maker from East Berlin, was shot dead by East German border guards on 8 October 1962 while swimming across the Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge towards West Berlin.

- Born: 27 April 1902
- Died: 8 October 1962
- Age at death: 60
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree River near the Oberbaum Bridge; At the sector border between Berlin-Friedrichshain and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (approximate): 52.50138, 13.44539
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/walzer-anton/

## Story

Anton Walzer was born on 27 April 1902 in Weiler in Upper Swabia, near Ravensburg. From the mid-1920s he lived in Berlin-Weissensee with his first wife, and they had two daughters. A varnish maker by trade, he worked for many years at the Weissensee paint company Warnecke & Böhm, where under the Nazis he saw the firm 'aryanised' and later using Jewish forced labourers. After 1945 the company was nationalised, and around this time he married again.

In 1955 he fled East Germany with his second wife and their children and settled in Offenbach am Main. When his mother-in-law became seriously ill, the family moved back to East Berlin in 1958 at his wife's wish. As a returnee he was treated as politically unreliable: he was taken back by his old company, but only in a poorly paid job far below the knowledge and skill of an experienced master varnish maker. He apparently could not cope with this humiliation, drank more and more, and his marriage broke down. A divorce date had already been set.

On the evening of 8 October 1962, after drinking to steady his nerves, he went to the Spree bank near the Oberbaum Bridge in Friedrichshain, slipped unseen onto a moored barge and, at around 10:15 p.m., jumped into the water to swim to the West Berlin bank. Two guards at a nearby observation post noticed him immediately and opened fire. Shots struck the Gröbenufer on the western side, and a West Berlin police officer returned fire. An East German border boat was already closing in and he could hardly have escaped arrest, yet the guard leader on the bank kept shooting, firing 18 aimed shots in all. A bullet to the back of the head killed him instantly, and he sank.

Kreuzberg residents gathered on the bank as the search went on. When his body was lifted from the river at about 8:30 the next morning, boats were placed to block the view from the West; the name of the dead man was not immediately known there. For days people protested on the Gröbenufer, where Udo Düllick had died a year before. Two young people put up another wooden cross right beside the cross and memorial stone for Udo Düllick and took up the motto that they could be strong without violence.

East German authorities described the shooting as an armed provocation by the enemy and praised the guards. Some thirty years later, when the killings at the Wall were prosecuted, the guard leader admitted what he had done, saying he was in a moral conflict he could no longer live with, though he denied having aimed at the swimmer and claimed that he had wanted the shots to make him turn back. In August 1994 the Berlin Regional Court convicted him of manslaughter and imposed a suspended sentence of one and a half years in prison. The court accepted his remorse as mitigating but stressed his personal responsibility for killing a defenceless man in the water.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Anton Walzer”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180505/walzer-anton
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171431/walzer-anton
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Anton Walzer”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/walzer-anton/

---

# Horst Plischke (1939–1962)

> Horst Plischke, a 23-year-old from Potsdam, drowned on 19 November 1962 while trying to swim across the Havel north of the Glienicker Bridge to West Berlin; his body was found in the Jungfernsee four months later.

- Born: 12 July 1939
- Died: 19 November 1962
- Age at death: 23
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Havel River north of the Glienicker Bridge; On the outer ring between Potsdam and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.42555, 13.07525
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/plischke-horst/

> Note on the sources: The sources disagree on his place of birth. The German biography gives Braunau, the English version of the same biography gives Bernau.

## Story

Horst Plischke was born on 12 July 1939 and lived in Potsdam. No archive documents or contemporary witnesses have yet been found that tell us who he was or why he wanted to leave. His identity card and a call-up notice for military service were later found on his body.

In the early hours of 19 November 1962 he went into the Havel north of the Glienicker Bridge, intending to swim to the West Berlin bank. Border soldiers noticed him at around 3:30 a.m. According to the West Berlin press, several shots were fired, and the water and the eastern shore of the Jungfernsee were then searched, continuing into the next day. He was not found.

At about 6:45 a.m. on 10 March 1963 border soldiers found the body of a young man in the Jungfernsee; it had come to the surface when the water thawed. The East German authorities concluded that it was the swimmer of 19 November, and that he had drowned without being hit by any of the guards' bullets.

Throughout the East German years the West knew nothing of his fate; his death was registered nowhere and his name appeared on no list of victims. Only in November 1994 did investigators find border troop records of his escape attempt and the recovery of his body. Further enquiries confirmed that he had drowned rather than been shot; the border guards involved could therefore not be prosecuted, and the Berlin public prosecutor's office discontinued its investigation on 3 May 1995.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Horst Plischke”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180506/plischke-horst
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171436/plischke-horst
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Horst Plischke”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/plischke-horst/

---

# Otfried Reck (1944–1962)

> Otfried Reck, a 17-year-old apprentice from Berlin-Mitte who dreamed of singing opera, was shot in the back on 27 November 1962 near the corner of Invalidenstrasse and Gartenstrasse after he and a friend had already given up an escape attempt.

- Born: 14 December 1944
- Died: 27 November 1962
- Age at death: 17
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the corner of Invalidenstrasse and Gartenstrasse; Near the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (approximate): 52.53169, 13.38881
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/reck-otfried/

## Story

Otfried Reck, called Otti by his friends, was born in Berlin in 1944, the only child of Otto and Margit Reck. The family lived on Torstrasse, renamed Wilhelm-Pieck-Strasse in 1951, had relatives in the western part of the city and kept its distance from the SED regime. His father, a trained tailor, worked as a night watchman; his mother, who came from Austria, worked at the buffet of the State Opera on Unter den Linden.

Through his mother he came to know opera early. He went to performances whenever he could and dreamed of becoming an opera singer, though his friends preferred rock and roll and teased him for his taste. He apparently had no difficulty finishing school with the secondary certificate, and began an apprenticeship as a petrol station attendant. With his friends he spent his free time at the local skating rink and at the 'Helmut Just' youth club across the street, and, before the Wall, often in West Berlin.

On 12 September 1961 he was arrested on Gartenstrasse because, in a crowd that had gathered at the sector border, he was alleged to have condemned the border closure. Although he was only 16, he was convicted of 'state-endangering agitation' and sentenced to one and a half years in prison, serving time in the youth penitentiaries of Dessau and Torgau until his parole in August 1962. His mother later said the state had blocked his future. Afraid of being arrested again, he decided to escape with his friend Gerd P., three years older.

According to Gerd P., the two had played on the railway grounds as children; they knew a ventilation shaft at the corner of Invalidenstrasse and Gartenstrasse, near the closed Nordbahnhof, leading down to the underground tracks. They planned to stop a train heading for West Berlin with a red-painted torch. The opening had since been fitted with a grille to prevent escapes, but that did not deter them: early on the evening of 27 November 1962 they set about levering it up with crowbars, while a friend, Michael M., who did not want to flee himself, kept watch. According to official reports, they were noticed at half past six in the evening, when a border soldier heard a noise and a search began. When Michael M. did not return from checking the situation, the two gave up their plan for the day, then saw their pursuers and ran.

It never occurred to them, Gerd P. later said, that soldiers might fire at them at the skating rink. An officer shot, and a bullet struck Otfried in the back. Gravely wounded, he was brought to the People's Police Hospital and died there three hours afterwards. The records did not mention that he was shot a long way from the border fortifications, and, contrary to usual practice, apparently no sketches of the site were made. In 1995 the Berlin Regional Court convicted the officer of manslaughter, finding that he should have recognised the escape attempt had already failed and that the shots could not be justified.

Gerd P. got away at first but, like Michael M., was arrested the next day, and he was later sentenced to three years in prison; for weeks his interrogators would not tell him what had happened to his friend. He still believes they were betrayed. The Stasi investigation set out to show that the boys had been led astray by western propaganda, leaving no room for the possibility that they had reasons of their own. A memorial on Bernauer Strasse in Wedding recalled him.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Otfried Reck”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180507/reck-otfried
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171425/reck-otfried
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Otfried Reck”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/reck-otfried/

---

# Günter Wiedenhöft (1942–1962)

> Günter Wiedenhöft, a 20-year-old electrician from Berlin-Treptow, drowned in Griebnitz Lake on the night of 5 to 6 December 1962 while trying to escape across the ice to West Berlin.

- Born: 14 February 1942
- Died: Night of 5 to 6 December 1962
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Drowned on the night of December 5 to 6, 1962; In Griebnitz Lake; On the outer ring between Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.40213, 13.11759
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wiedenhoeft-guenter/

## Story

Günter Wiedenhöft was born in Berlin on 14 February 1942. He spent his earliest years in a children's home; when he was six, his mother fetched him and he joined her and his younger sister in their home in Berlin-Treptow. Following eight years of schooling he trained as an electrician and was taken on by the firm that had trained him. Before the Wall was built, he spent much of his free time in West Berlin, where he had friends, and afterwards he kept in touch with them by letter.

On 11 October 1962 he was arrested in Treptow while exploring the border installations facing Kreuzberg. Under interrogation he admitted wanting to leave, citing constant arguments with his mother and his impending call-up to the army, and insisted that he had not told his mother or sister of his plans or mentioned them in his letters. It is more than doubtful that he spoke openly about his motives under interrogation; people under arrest had good reason to protect others and seek a lighter sentence. At his trial before the Treptow district court on 27 November he showed remorse, but he was sentenced to eight months in prison. The authorities apparently saw no reason to think he would try again, for he was not taken into custody at once and had to report to begin his sentence only a few weeks later. He used that time to make a second attempt.

On 5 December 1962 he travelled from Berlin to Potsdam and after dark approached Griebnitz Lake, half of which belonged to Potsdam and half to the West Berlin district of Zehlendorf. In that cold winter the lake was already frozen near the banks, but border troops kept a channel open to prevent escapes. Why he chose this route is not known. The triple barbed-wire fence blocking access to the bank was later found cut in several places, and around midnight he must have set off across the ice. Two guards heard a cough and then the sound of ice breaking. Unable to see anyone, they called out, fired a warning shot and, with reinforcements, fired along the bank. They found only his pincers, coat and scarf on the shore; West Berlin police, who had also heard the shots, found no one either.

Günter Wiedenhöft must have fallen through the ice and drowned without being hit by any bullet. On 25 March 1963 border soldiers found his body in the Havel at the "Babelsberger Enge"; it showed no gunshot wound, and papers he carried identified him at once. His mother recognised the coat and scarf as his. The exact time of his death is uncertain, but the evidence suggests it was early on 6 December 1962: according to one border troop report, the wristwatch found with his body had stopped at fourteen minutes past midnight. A commemorative column for him was set up at the foot of the Teltow Canal bridge towards Klein Glienicke, on Lankestrasse.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Günter Wiedenhöft”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180508/wiedenhoeft-guenter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171435/wiedenhoeft-guenter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Günter Wiedenhöft”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wiedenhoeft-guenter/

---

# Hans Räwel (1941–1963)

> Hans Räwel, a 21-year-old baker from East Berlin, was shot by a border boat crew on New Year's morning 1963 while swimming across the ice-cold Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge towards the West Berlin bank.

- Born: 11 December 1941
- Died: 1 January 1963
- Age at death: 21
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree River near the Oberbaum Bridge; At the border grounds between Berlin-Friedrichshain and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (approximate): 52.50123, 13.44687
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/raewel-hans/

## Story

Hans Räwel was born in Stralsund on 11 December 1941, during the war, and grew up with three older siblings on the Baltic island of Rügen. The children lent a hand in their parents' own bakery while still young, and after the family's move to East Berlin in 1957 the parents took on another bakery, in Rahnsdorf, Köpenick. Known in the family as Hänschen, he trained as a baker at his father's wish. His sister recalled his love of music: in the bakery he would often pick up the harmonica or the accordion.

One by one the family went west: his eldest brother in 1954, then his other siblings and his father, with his sister Renate the last to leave in December 1960. She knew that Hans too was firmly determined to leave once he had finished his pastry chef training, but the sealing of the border on 13 August 1961 ended that plan. Escaping now would have meant leaving his mother alone for an unknown time, and he hesitated. He let weeks and months pass and gave the impression of having come to terms with the situation.

He spent New Year's Eve 1962 with a friend at the 'Plänterwald' dance café in Treptow, and when they parted at around 4 a.m. nothing suggested what he was about to do. On that exceptionally cold morning, with temperatures more than ten degrees below zero, he went into the Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge to swim to the western bank. Almost as soon as he was in the water, at around 6:15 a.m., the crew of a border troops boat spotted him. As they gave chase, he dived between the rows of wooden posts in the river, forcing the boat to go round them. Eventually they caught up with him and fired at close range until he sank. According to the statement of one of the men who fired, he was then about 35 metres from the western bank.

Two West Berlin police officers on the bank heard the shots and, saying they felt threatened, fired back, slightly wounding the boat's coxswain. East Germany called the escape a prepared provocation, while the American city commandant, Polk, condemned the shooting of a defenceless fugitive. His mother wrote in her notes that he had gone out celebrating near the Oberbaum Bridge and never came back. She was told he had drowned at the border; she was not told that he had been shot.

In April 1994 three former border soldiers who had been on the boat were charged with joint manslaughter. His mother and sister attended the trial, hoping at last to learn what had happened, and to their regret found the two men who had fired detached and showing no sign of remorse. The court could not establish with certainty which of the men had fired the fatal shot, but in March 1996 found both men who had fired guilty as charged, holding that killing a defenceless person swimming in icy water was a clear violation of basic humanity.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Hans Räwel”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180509/raewel-hans
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171409/raewel-hans
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Hans Räwel”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/raewel-hans/

---

# Horst Kutscher (1931–1963)

> Horst Kutscher, a 31-year-old father of six from Berlin-Treptow who had worked for coal merchants, was shot dead shortly after midnight on 15 January 1963 while crawling towards the border near Rudower Strasse, 25 metres from West Berlin.

- Born: 5 July 1931
- Died: 15 January 1963
- Age at death: 31
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near Rudower Strasse; At the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.42495, 13.51974
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kutscher-horst/

## Story

Horst Kutscher was born in Berlin-Treptow on 5 July 1931, the youngest of thirteen children of a machine builder who later became a florist, and grew up in Adlershof. By his own account he left school at 14 and began training as a car mechanic, but had to stop after six months for reasons to do with the company. He then worked as a plasterer on building sites and, from September 1954, for coal merchants in the district. In March 1952, aged 21, he married; he and his wife had six children.

From his teenage years he was repeatedly convicted of offences including theft, burglary and assault, and was sentenced to a number of prison terms. In February 1956 the police recruited him as an informant, possibly under pressure, but after two months released him from the arrangement because he missed the agreed meetings and talked openly about it. In April 1956 he fled to West Germany, at first alone; his wife seems to have followed, and their fourth child was born in Bochum. A year later, for unknown reasons, the family moved back to Treptow, and he worked in West Berlin as a cross-border commuter until the border was closed on 13 August 1961.

His long struggle with alcohol led to divorce in November 1962. By then he had been living apart from his family at his father's home for two and a half years. On 14 December 1962 he and a colleague, Joachim F., were sacked from their jobs at a coal merchant's for drinking at work. They went to court, but on 14 January 1963 the Treptow district labour court rejected their claim.

From midday that day the two men tried to drown their disappointment in alcohol and, after several bars, decided to flee to West Berlin that same night. They did not know that, because the Sixth Party Congress of the SED was to begin the next day, more guards had been posted and each had been told to regard preventing any border breach as a personal duty. At about 10 p.m. they went to Semmelweissstrasse to cross the frozen Teltow Canal, but the area was brightly lit. They tried instead along the gardens between the Wrede Bridge and the duck pond at Rudower Strasse, crawling on through the security ditch once the guards had moved away.

At about ten past midnight, 25 metres from the border, two shots rang out. Both men threw themselves to the ground. Joachim F. was arrested; Horst Kutscher, hit by a bullet, was dragged by the guards into a trench and taken by truck to their base, where a medic pronounced him dead.

The Stasi tried to keep the death secret, but Joachim F. told a fellow prisoner, who later reached West Berlin and informed the police in October 1963. Horst Kutscher's father later told the West Berlin police that he had been allowed neither to see his dead son one last time nor to attend the funeral. His former wife, questioned as a witness after the end of East Germany, recalled that she had found his grave at Baumschulenweg Cemetery only with the help of the cemetery attendant: a nameless grave in which he had been buried with two other dead. On 27 August 1997 the guard who fired the fatal shot was given a suspended sentence of a year and three months.

## Sources

1. Lydia Dollmann, “Horst Kutscher”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180510/kutscher-horst
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171408/kutscher-horst
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Horst Kutscher”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kutscher-horst/

---

# Peter Kreitlow (1943–1963)

> Peter Kreitlow, a 20-year-old from East Berlin, was shot by two Soviet soldiers in woods between Nieder Neuendorf and Berlin-Spandau on the night of 23 to 24 January 1963 while trying to reach West Berlin with four other young people.

- Born: 15 January 1943
- Died: 24 January 1963
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the outer ring between Nieder Neuendorf (Nauen district) and Berlin-Spandau
- Map position (area): 52.606, 13.18
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kreitlow-peter/

## Story

Peter Kreitlow was born in Berlin on 15 January 1943, during the Second World War. It is thought that his mother died while the war was still going on. After the war his father worked for the state-owned company Bergmann-Borsig and married again, and Peter did not get on with his stepmother. There were quarrels at home, and as soon as Peter turned 18 his father threw him out. That same year the Wall was built, putting an end to the visits to West Berlin that had been a welcome break from everyday life.

After the Wall went up, his life was marked by trouble with his parents and clashes with his superiors at work. He trained as a baker but afterwards got by as a casual and unskilled labourer in various factories. His last job was on an industrial building site in Schwedt, while still living as a subtenant in East Berlin. Nothing seemed to hold him in East Germany. Probably he and his friends imagined a better life in the West without yet having any concrete plans to leave.

On 23 January 1963 he and three friends travelled to Hennigsdorf for a dance, and at a youth club there they met Bernd K., whom Peter knew from earlier visits. Bernd K. said he meant to flee and invited them to come. According to one of them, questioned by the Stasi, they let themselves be persuaded after some initial hesitation; another told his interrogators that he himself had had no reason and did not think the others had one either. At about 11 p.m. the five set off, crossing the frozen Havel Canal between Hennigsdorf and Nieder Neuendorf and then moving through snowy woods, keeping off roads and paths.

Long before they reached the border, two soldiers from a Soviet unit stationed in Nieder Neuendorf stopped them. When the soldiers noticed the group, and why they opened fire in woodland about 2,000 metres from the border installations, was never established. Peter Kreitlow was hit several times, including in the head, and died shortly after midnight, aged twenty. Of all the East German fugitives who died at the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989, he is the only one known to have been shot by soldiers of the Soviet occupying forces.

No autopsy was carried out, a departure from normal practice that suggests how sensitive the case was. East German reports declared the shooting justified, and an investigation of the soldiers' conduct was out of the question. His friends were tried behind closed doors by the East Berlin City Court on 20 May 1963 for attempting to leave the country illegally and for incitement to do so, and sentenced to prison terms of between ten and 18 months. The Stasi arranged his funeral discreetly, but word of how he died still spread. A memorial service was held on 5 March 1963, and at his father's request his urn was buried in his mother's grave. Even after the end of East Germany, Berlin prosecutors found they had no legal means to obtain the soldiers' names from the Russian authorities.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Peter Kreitlow”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180511/kreitlow-peter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171407/kreitlow-peter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Peter Kreitlow”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kreitlow-peter/

---

# Wolf-Olaf Muszynski (1947–1963)

> Wolf-Olaf Muszynski, a 16-year-old from Friedrichshain, went missing in February 1963; his body was found on 1 April 1963 on the West Berlin bank of the Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge. He had drowned, apparently while trying to escape.

- Born: 1 February 1947
- Died: February 1963
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Drowned in the Spree River in February 1963; Probably near the Oberbaum Bridge; At the sector border between Berlin-Friedrichshain and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (area): 52.50138, 13.44539
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/muszynski-wolf-olaf/

## Story

Wolf-Olaf Muszynski was born on 1 February 1947 and lived in the East Berlin district of Friedrichshain. Little more is known about his life. His grandmother, who lived in West Berlin, later told police that he had in the past spoken of wanting to leave the East. She described him as a slim boy with mid-blond hair and blue eyes, about 177 centimetres tall, who looked about 18.

He was reported missing from 6 February 1963. On 18 March the East Berlin police headquarters took the unusual step of asking the western side whether the boy had turned up there as a refugee. Searches at the Marienfelde refugee centre and elsewhere in West Berlin found no trace of him.

On the morning of 1 April 1963, residents found his body on the West Berlin bank of the Spree, not far from the Oberbaum Bridge. According to the West Berlin police, as the 'Tagesspiegel' reported the next day, he could be identified at once because his identity papers had been fastened to his back beneath his shirt; the paper added that the body showed no external injuries but that he appeared to have drowned some time before. Everything indicated that he had drowned while trying to escape, without being noticed by the border guards.

An autopsy found that neither illness nor violence had caused his death and that he had drowned, and the police closed the case. When it was reopened in the 1990s, these findings were confirmed, but nothing further came to light about his life or about why he decided to flee.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Wolf-Olaf Muszynski”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180512/muszynski-wolf-olaf
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171412/muszynski-wolf-olaf
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Wolf-Olaf Muszynski”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/muszynski-wolf-olaf/

---

# Peter Mädler (1943–1963)

> Peter Mädler, a 19-year-old electrician, was shot on 26 April 1963 while swimming through the Teltow Canal at Kleinmachnow towards West Berlin, only metres from the border in the waterway.

- Born: 10 July 1943
- Died: 26 April 1963
- Age at death: 19
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Teltow Canal; On the outer ring between Kleinmachnow (Potsdam county district) and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.40535, 13.26108
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/maedler-peter/

## Story

Peter Mädler was born on 10 July 1943 in Opperau near Breslau, today's Wrocław. It is presumed that he was separated from his birth parents in the confusion of the war when he was very young. Around 1950 he was adopted by the Mädlers, a couple in Hoyerswerda; his adoptive father was a storekeeper and his adoptive mother kept house. He went to school in Hoyerswerda up to the 8th grade.

In 1958 he began training as an electrician at the company school of the Lauta power station, finishing on 30 August 1961. A childhood friend recalled that his looks stood out: during his apprenticeship he was the first to wear his hair platinum blond. He did well in his training, cared more about girls than politics, and stayed out of the FDJ youth association while an apprentice. Immediately after the Wall went up, the power station's apprentices were expected to pledge themselves to serve in the army; like other apprentices, he refused to sign. After a spell at the Lübbenau power station he moved in December 1961 to the 'Teltower Geräte und Reglerwerk', from whose roof he could see the border grounds at the Teltow Canal in Kleinmachnow.

According to his childhood friend, in the early 1960s Peter learned that blood relatives of his were living in West Germany. This was probably why he began planning an escape, which he meant to carry out once his training was over; the Wall got in the way, and for a time he set the idea aside. It is not known whether he moved to Teltow deliberately to prepare his escape. He told neither his colleagues nor his foster parents what he intended, but by April 1963 he was ready.

In the darkness of the night of 26 April 1963 he approached the border near the Erlenweg, cut through the fence, left his clothes on the bank and swam into the canal with his papers tied to a belt. He worked his way along the northern bank towards the harbour entrance, near a watchtower. At 4:45 a.m. the guards saw him. About ten metres from the border he was ordered out; he called to the two guards not to shoot and swam on. One guard fired 30 rounds without a warning shot and missed; he dived. When he surfaced just short of the border line, a guard fired three single shots straight at him; he was hit and sank. After an extensive search, firemen recovered his body at the entrance to Teltow harbour at about 4:46 p.m. that afternoon.

The same day the commander of the border unit praised the guards' conduct in his report, and they were awarded the 'Medal for Exemplary Service at the Border'. Across the canal, residents of the Teltow dockyard heard the shots; one thought the body wore a uniform, so the West Berlin police and press assumed that the dead man was a border soldier. The press criticised the West Berlin police for their inaction, the Berlin CDU raised the matter in parliament, and patrols at the Teltow dockyard were increased and disciplinary proceedings were opened against the police officers concerned.

The guards were not prosecuted until 32 years later; the Potsdam Regional Court convicted both of them of manslaughter and gave them suspended prison sentences of a year and three months, holding that the guard whose shots missed had also accepted the fugitive's death. A childhood friend said that his urn was interred at the Waldfriedhof in Hoyerswerda; the grave was later levelled and no longer exists. In West Berlin a cross was raised for the unknown fugitive at the Steinstücken triangle on the Wall's tenth anniversary. Today a memorial stone in Kleinmachnow for the victims of Germany's division recalls in particular those who, like him, died at the border there, and every 13 August people gather at the Knesebeck Bridge in Teltow to lay flowers at columns dedicated to him and Karl-Heinz Kube.

## Sources

1. Lydia Dollmann, “Peter Mädler”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180513/maedler-peter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171406/maedler-peter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Peter Mädler”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/maedler-peter/

---

# Siegfried Widera (1941–1963)

> Siegfried Widera, a 22-year-old East German border soldier and former lathe operator, was struck down by escaping workers at the Massante Bridge between Treptow and Neukölln on 23 August 1963 and died of his injuries on 8 September 1963.

- Born: 12 February 1941
- Died: 8 September 1963
- Age at death: 22
- Cause of death: Died of injuries after being struck down
- Circumstances: East German border soldier killed on duty
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near the Massante Bridge; On the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (exact): 52.4336, 13.49766
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/widera-siegfried/

## Story

Siegfried Widera was born on 12 February 1941 in Silesia and grew up after the war in the Mansfelder Land, on the edge of the Harz Mountains. He worked as a lathe operator, and according to official reports he joined the border service voluntarily in October 1960. Just weeks before his death he had married, and his wife was expecting a child.

He served as a corporal in the 5th company of Border Regiment 42, which guarded the border between Treptow and Neukölln. On the evening of 23 August 1963, aged 22, he was posted with his junior guard, a lance corporal, at the Massante Bridge, which was closed off by the Wall and barbed wire. Excavation work for sewage pipes was under way on the East Berlin bank of the canal, and workers were often there during the day. At around 7 p.m., although work had stopped early in the evening, three men in work clothes began tinkering with an excavator; the two guards apparently thought nothing of it. The men were employees of the excavation company who had had access to the border area for weeks and hoped to use it to escape.

After talking with the guards, the men decided they had to knock them out to get past. Siegfried Widera and his fellow guard were struck with fists and an iron rod, and the three ran across the bridge and reached West Berlin unhurt despite shots from the second guard. Siegfried Widera had suffered a fracture at the base of his skull. He died on 8 September 1963 in the Köpenick Municipal Hospital, probably without ever regaining consciousness.

East German media blamed his death, without basis, on a West Berlin escape-helper group, and a propaganda version of events was repeated at every commemoration. Internally, however, the border troop leadership concluded that the two guards had disobeyed orders and been too trusting. He was promoted posthumously to sergeant. At a public ceremony in Hettstedt, his widow was handed a letter of condolence from Walter Ulbricht, and he was buried with military honours in Gorenzen, her home town.

In West Germany an investigation was opened against the three men. They said they had never meant to hurt anyone; one said he was deeply distressed that a young man had died because of his actions. The investigation was discontinued in April 1969, as it could not be proven that they had committed intentional or joint manslaughter. After the East German state ceased to exist the case was reopened against the other guard, who had fired despite a concussion, but since it had to be assumed, on the basis of the files, that he had been only half conscious at the time, he was not charged either.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Siegfried Widera”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180609/widera-siegfried
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171410/widera-siegfried
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Siegfried Widera”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/widera-siegfried/

---

# Klaus Schröter (1940–1963)

> Klaus Schröter, a 23-year-old electrical engineer working in East Berlin, was shot at by border guards while diving under the Spree near the Reichstag building in scuba gear; a bullet grazed his head and he drowned. He died on 4 November 1963.

- Born: 21 February 1940
- Died: 4 November 1963
- Age at death: 23
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree River near the Reichstag building; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Tiergarten
- Map position (approximate): 52.51923, 13.38023
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schroeter-klaus/

## Story

Klaus Schröter was born on 21 February 1940 in Friedersdorf near Bitterfeld and grew up there with two brothers. His parents had a small house on a housing estate, which in East German times had to make way for lignite mining. Drawn to technology from an early age, he trained as an electrician at the Agfa film factory in nearby Wolfen. At 18 he was sent by the firm to study electrical engineering at the engineering school in Velten, in Brandenburg, named after Hanno Günther.

In September 1961, a few weeks after the Wall was built, he began work as an electrical engineer at the state-owned heavy current plant on Schlegelstrasse in Berlin-Mitte. His career went well: he started a further degree and taught on the side at Pankow's adult education centre. In April 1963, disappointed that his firm would not let him make a change of job he had hoped for, he handed in his notice, but the management refused to accept it and forced him to withdraw it. Friends and colleagues believed this pushed him to act on a plan to escape that he had long been considering. His mother said he never hid his rejection of the SED and its regime from her.

He prepared with great care and told no one the details. A friend he visited the evening before later recalled knowing that he meant to flee at some point, but not that it would be the following night; Klaus had not wanted to tell him the exact date, the friend said, so as not to get him into trouble. He planned a route under the water of the Spree, sold his television to buy scuba equipment, had compressed air tanks delivered to his flat and sewed his own diving suit, weighted with lead.

Before sunrise he cycled with his equipment to Mitte and left his bicycle on the Marschall Bridge, which crosses the Spree between Reichstagsufer and Schiffbauerdamm close to the sector border. Beneath the bridge he cut through the barbed wire, went down the steps in the embankment and entered the river. A guard in the watchtower at the corner of Reichstagsufer and Ebertstrasse saw him, and he and two other guards fired as soon as he dived. A bullet grazed the back of his head; he lost consciousness and drowned. His body was recovered after a long search at around 7.45 a.m., while an East Berlin fire boat hung out a curtain of water to screen the scene from the western bank.

East Germany denied that he had been shot. A Stasi officer, posing as a state prosecutor, told his mother he had drowned after a brain contusion and pressed her to agree to cremation. At his workplace, a meeting was organised to stop rumours of a shooting, but his colleagues did not believe the official version; they had heard on West Berlin radio of shots on the Reichstagsufer that morning. His mother, who was also told that wearing black was no longer the fashion, later said that she had worn mourning clothes for a whole year as an act of opposition.

Despite the intimidation, friends and colleagues travelled to Friedersdorf for his funeral on 14 December 1963, where the urn was buried in his father's grave. The minister did not mention how he had died, but chose as the text for his sermon a verse from the Epistle to the Romans. Some thirty years later the truth came out, and in 1994 the guards were brought to court. They denied guilt, saying they had fired into the water without aiming so as not to be punished for refusing orders, but the judges found it proven that at least one of them had acted with conditional intent to kill, and convicted him of manslaughter.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Klaus Schröter”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180514/schroeter-klaus
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171405/schroeter-klaus
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Klaus Schröter”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schroeter-klaus/

---

# Dietmar Schulz (1939–1963)

> Dietmar Schulz, a 24-year-old from Pankow, was found fatally injured on the S-Bahn tracks north of Bornholmer Strasse station on 25 November 1963, apparently while trying to reach Wedding; the reports on how the accident happened contradict each other.

- Born: 21 October 1939
- Died: 25 November 1963
- Age at death: 24
- Cause of death: Fatal fall or accident
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the S-Bahn tracks north of the Bornholmer Strasse station; At the sector border between Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (approximate): 52.56089, 13.39693
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schulz-dietmar/

## Story

Dietmar Schulz was born on 21 October 1939 and lived with his fiancée in a flat on Gaillardstrasse in Pankow, a few minutes from the sector border along the S-Bahn tracks between Bornholmer Strasse and Wollankstrasse stations. He is said to have been thinking about leaving for a long time. In April 1963 he told a young West German he met in an East Berlin bar that he rejected the SED regime and meant to go West one day. His fiancée also suspected that he wanted to leave; she believed he feared being called up into the National People's Army.

Bornholmer Strasse station had been closed when the Wall was built, and West Berlin trains passed through it without stopping. The East Berlin line ran parallel on a new route inside a 100-metre prohibited zone, created in June 1963 officially to protect the border but in practice to stop people before they reached the barriers.

At around 7 p.m. on 25 November 1963 he left the flat; nothing suggested he meant to try that evening. Not entirely sober, he got onto the railway land in the border area apparently unnoticed. Later that evening border soldiers found him, unconscious and critically injured, on the S-Bahn land north of Bornholmer Strasse station. He had apparently been struck by a train while trying to cross the tracks towards Wedding, though the reports on how he entered the zone and how the accident happened disagree. He was taken to the People's Police Hospital, where he died a short time later.

According to one report from the East Berlin command, at 9:20 p.m. a man leapt from an S-Bahn train while it was moving, south of Maximilianstrasse. The transport police concluded instead that he had walked from home to the embankment and been run over in unknown circumstances; their report made no mention of an escape and recorded a personal accident.

His fiancée did not believe it was an accident and was convinced he had been shot. After his funeral in East Berlin on 2 December 1963 she contacted the West German he had met, who passed on what she knew. The Central Registry Office in Salzgitter opened an inquiry in April 1964, and the Berlin public prosecutor's office later reopened the case once the East German archives had been opened, but the suspicion that he had been shot could not be confirmed.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Dietmar Schulz”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180515/schulz-dietmar
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171414/schulz-dietmar
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Dietmar Schulz”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schulz-dietmar/

---

# Dieter Berger (1939–1963)

> Dieter Berger, a 24-year-old bricklayer and young father from Glienicke, entered the border area on the Teltow Canal in Johannisthal on 13 December 1963, apparently after drinking, and was shot by border guards after he had raised his hands.

- Born: 27 October 1939
- Died: 13 December 1963
- Age at death: 24
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Teltow Canal near the Wrede Bridge in Berlin-Johannisthal; At the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.427, 13.5172
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/berger-dieter/

## Story

Dieter Berger was born on 27 October 1939 in Polkau, Silesia. His father died as a soldier in the Second World War before he could know him, and he grew up with his mother, his stepfather and a younger half-brother. After the war the family came from Silesia to the Soviet occupation zone, and from 1947 they lived in Glienicke, a northern suburb of Berlin. He went to school there until 1955 and then trained as a bricklayer at a state-run company in East Berlin.

In 1962 he married Gerda, five years his junior, who had also come from Silesia to Glienicke as a child. The couple lived in a small house with a garden close to both sets of parents, and they had a little daughter. His widow later said that he had no interest in politics and loved motorcycles, and that they had never talked about leaving. Inquiries made by the Stasi after his death found that the local People's Police officer regarded him as a citizen who was not opposed to the East German system and had always been friendly and courteous; the only remark against him was that he played western pop music loudly at home. In December 1963 he was working as a bricklayer on an Academy of Sciences building site in Adlershof.

Friday 13 December 1963 began as an ordinary working day. According to Stasi files, he is said to have got drunk with a colleague during his lunch break and left the site in the afternoon, presumably walking to the neighbouring district of Johannisthal. At around 3 p.m. two guards in a trench inside the border strip saw him approach the bank of the Teltow Canal and took him for an escapee. Why he was there has never been conclusively explained. Border troop and Stasi files stated that he was trying to cross the border grounds, but his family believed he had wandered into the area, drunk and disoriented; his mother wrote to relatives in West Germany at the time that he had had neither the intention nor any reason to leave them and, since he was said to have been drinking, must surely have lost his bearings. A careful look at the facts, the biography notes, offers little to suggest he was trying to escape.

According to the guards, he ignored their order to stop, tried to climb the fence and insulted them; one of them later told a court that his behaviour had unsettled them. After warning shots he came down and raised his hands as instructed. Workers at the West Berlin Eternit plant across the canal, who also took it for an escape attempt ending in an arrest, then saw him move a little way away from the border fortifications and be shot down by the two guards. East German reports gave a different account, claiming he had tried to escape into the hinterland. He died on the way to the People's Police Hospital.

Because he carried no papers, it took a number of days to identify him. On 16 December his wife had to identify his body at the Charité forensic institute. The autopsy found that a bullet to the thigh had brought him down and that the fatal shot struck him while he was already lying on the ground. It also recorded that he was heavily intoxicated.

After reunification two former border soldiers were charged. The guard who had fired the fatal shot was unable to stand trial after suffering two strokes, and his guard leader was acquitted on 1 November 1995 because the court could not establish that he had fired or ordered the shooting.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Dieter Berger”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180516/berger-dieter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171411/berger-dieter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Dieter Berger”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/berger-dieter/

---

# Paul Schultz (1945–1963)

> Paul Schultz, an 18-year-old electrician's apprentice from Neubrandenburg, was shot by border guards on Christmas Day 1963 as he climbed the Wall at the corner of Melchiorstrasse and Bethaniendamm, and died that same evening in a Kreuzberg hospital.

- Born: 2 October 1945
- Died: 25 December 1963
- Age at death: 18
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the corner of Melchiorstrasse and Bethaniendamm; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (exact): 52.5058, 13.42645
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schultz-paul/

## Story

Paul Schultz was born in Neubrandenburg in October 1945, the youngest of three brothers. He never knew his father, who was killed in the Second World War. He grew up with his friend Hartmut D., who later told the West Berlin police that Paul was his best friend; both left school after the 10th grade, and in September 1962 Paul began an apprenticeship with a private electrician. The two were almost the same age and celebrated their 18th birthdays together in October 1963.

That evening, Hartmut D. later said, they made the plan to escape to West Berlin and go on from there to West Germany. They knowingly took the risk of being shot at the Wall, on the principle of all or nothing. Early on Christmas Day 1963 they left home, telling their parents they were visiting friends, took the train to East Berlin and walked for hours along the inner-city border looking for a place to cross. As dusk was falling they chose the corner of Melchiorstrasse and Bethaniendamm, where the strip seemed narrower, and watched the patrols before making their attempt.

They climbed the inner fence and ran through the barriers. According to border troop and Stasi files, at the very moment they entered the strip a pair of guards patrolling between the border sections that evening happened to be nearby, and they opened fire without hesitation. As the boys were getting through the last fence before the Wall, Hartmut D. recalled, the guards shouted "Halt!" and began shooting straight away. The two got up onto the wall, which was topped with barbed wire; Hartmut D. dropped unhurt to the western side, but Paul was fatally wounded in the hail of bullets before he fell to the ground on West Berlin territory. A police constable from nearby Mariannenplatz ran to help him, and Paul told him he had been hit in the back. He died that same evening in the Bethanien Hospital in Kreuzberg from a bullet through the lung. Seeing his friend die right beside him left Hartmut D. in severe shock; looking back, he said that for years he could not get over it.

That same month, a border pass agreement had been reached under which West Berliners could, for the first time since the Wall was built, visit relatives in the East. His death overshadowed not only Christmas but also the pass agreement itself, and doubts were voiced on all sides about negotiating with representatives of the regime responsible for the shootings at the Wall. There were protests at Mariannenplatz for days, and opponents of the East German regime set up a wooden cross with his photograph where he was shot. The two guards were later commended by the NVA city commander and given a briefcase and a wristwatch respectively.

In the East, his mother and brothers learned of his death from RIAS radio and were placed under Stasi surveillance. The Stasi found nothing against them, and blamed western radio and his friend for leading him astray. On 28 December a West Berlin police escort accompanied the hearse to the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse crossing. The funeral in Neubrandenburg two days later had been set for the morning and was then officially postponed to the afternoon, but, as his friends found out in a roundabout way, only as a ruse to keep them away; in the end friends and workmates did attend. One friend recalled that the speech, given by a relative who he thought may have been a member of the local SED leadership, culminated in the words "Paul, wir vergeben Dir Deine Tat" ("Paul, we forgive you your deed"), a sentence he never forgot.

In 1995 the Berlin Regional Court found that both guards had been determined to stop the escape and had accepted that the boys might die. One had died by then; the other was convicted of joint manslaughter and given an 18-month suspended sentence.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Paul Schultz”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180517/schultz-paul
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171413/schultz-paul
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Paul Schultz”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schultz-paul/

---

# Walter Hayn (1939–1964)

> Walter Hayn, a 25-year-old transport and construction worker originally from Breslau, was shot dead by border guards on 27 February 1964 on Kiefholzstrasse in Treptow as he tried to escape to West Berlin.

- Born: 31 January 1939
- Died: 27 February 1964
- Age at death: 25
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Kiefholzstrasse; At the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.47767, 13.46966
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hayn-walter/

## Story

Walter Hayn was born in Breslau on 31 January 1939. Expelled from Silesia as the Second World War ended, the family made a new home in Ebersbach, near Dresden. His father had been missing since the war, and his mother brought up four children alone in hard conditions. The eldest brother left for West Germany in 1950. Walter, the second youngest, left school after eight years and completed agricultural training, then worked for a time in construction.

In 1958 he joined the East German police, less from conviction than in hope of better prospects, and according to his brother served on the sector border in Berlin. He was discharged from the police in June 1961 and worked in transport and construction. He married and lived in Lichtenberg with his wife and their son until their divorce in September 1963. Why he decided to escape a few months later is not known; his brother believed he wanted a better life. The Stasi found no motive: he worked regularly, paid child support, and his neighbours thought him friendly and polite.

Along Kiefholzstrasse in Treptow, garden plots lay on both sides of the border: the "Sorgenfrei" settlement in the East and the "Neuköllnische Wiesen" colony in the West. On the evening of 27 February 1964 Walter Hayn had a few drinks in a bar in the "Sorgenfrei" settlement to steady his nerves. He had his papers with him, among them his identity card and divorce documents, as well as the address of his brother in West Germany. He climbed the inner fence and made for the three rows of fencing in front of the West Berlin gardens. At 10.20 p.m. two patrolling guards saw him and fired when he did not stop; a third guard fired from a watchtower. Seventeen shots were fired. Two struck him just in front of the fence, and one of them killed him. He was 25 years old.

Allotment gardeners on the West Berlin side heard the shots and the guards' shouts but could not see through a hedge, and for years it was not known whether the fugitive had been hit. The East German authorities kept the truth even from his family, telling them that he had drowned at the border, and warned them that spreading rumours could lead to prosecution. Neither his mother nor his brother believed the story. His brother went to East Berlin to investigate himself; it was a state prosecutor's remark, that everyone must surely know the fate of anyone who tries to flee across the border, that convinced him Walter had been shot.

The three guards were commended at the time. After his brother filed a criminal complaint in 1991, they were indicted in 1995 for joint manslaughter. All three said they had fired into the air. The court found that at least two had been determined to stop him by any means and had accepted his death; these two received prison terms of one year and nine months and of one year and six months respectively, both suspended on probation. The third was acquitted. Walter Hayn's brother, who followed the trial closely, considered the light sentences unfair.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Walter Hayn”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180518/hayn-walter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171396/hayn-walter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Walter Hayn”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hayn-walter/

---

# Adolf Philipp (1943–1964)

> Adolf Philipp, a 20-year-old radio and television technician from Bavaria living in West Berlin, was shot dead by a border guard on the night of 4–5 May 1964 after entering the East German border strip between Spandau and Falkenhagen carrying a gas pistol.

- Born: 17 August 1943
- Died: 5 May 1964
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the outer ring between Berlin-Spandau and Falkenhagen (Nauen district)
- Map position (area): 52.57962, 13.13179
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/philipp-adolf/

## Story

Adolf Philipp was born on 17 August 1943 in Ziemetshausen near Augsburg, the eldest of four children and the only son. His father ran a small radio shop and his mother worked at a nearby press plant. His youngest sister remembered him as a thoughtful, idealistic young man, liked by everyone for his friendliness and helpfulness, who grew up happy and sheltered in modest circumstances. He was a hard-working pupil with a particular interest in maths and technology, and after secondary school he trained as a radio and television technician, passing his exam with very good marks.

In the summer of 1963 he arranged a job in West Berlin through the employment office, mainly because as a West Berliner he could not be called up for military service. From August 1963 he worked in Schöneberg and lived in a furnished room on the Kurfürstendamm. His letters home were full of the city: films, theatre, the radio exhibition, the six-day cycle race and a Chubby Checker concert at the Sportpalast. Of the Brandenburg Gate at night he wrote that it looked magnificent, but that the Wall and the barbed wire were disturbing.

Increasingly the Wall occupied his thoughts. He cycled along the border, studied the border grounds and sometimes stepped into the no-man's-land in front of the barriers. His sister recalled that he told relatives, neighbours and friends in Ziemetshausen about conditions at the Wall and about divided families he knew of; in a letter he called the situation on Bernauer Strasse dreadful. He had little sympathy for West Berliners who had resigned themselves to the division. After his death colleagues said he had sought contact with people who organised escapes. He is also said to have taken part in the protest rallies against the moving of the Wall, held over several days at the Peter Fechter memorial cross in April 1964, and notes in his flat showed he was planning something, though not what.

What happened on the night of 4 to 5 May 1964 is known only from border troop and Stasi reports. Two soldiers of the border regiment that guarded the border between Nauen district and Spandau found footprints in the border strip during a night patrol and, assuming they had been left by people escaping, ran to a ground bunker to report them. There, according to these reports, they came upon Adolf Philipp, who threatened them with a pistol. A sergeant opened fire at once from close range, hitting him several times; he presumably died immediately. The Stasi found that his weapon was only a gas pistol that could not fire live rounds.

East Germany announced on 5 May that he had been shot while attacking a guard near Staaken, and his body was handed over to the West the next day, but the East German authorities created confusion about where it had happened. In 1991 prosecutors reopened the case. Both former guards admitted that the sergeant had fired the fatal shots, but his claim that he had felt threatened and acted in self-defence was confirmed by the other guard and could not be disproved, so no charges were brought and the investigation was discontinued.

He was buried in Ziemetshausen on 11 May 1964, amid great public sympathy. His Berlin landlady wrote that he was exactly the way her late husband would have wanted his son, who had died in the war, to be. In August 1964 the Spandau district office dedicated a wooden cross at the spot where he had left his bicycle that night. His sister said the family found his death unfathomable, but not meaningless.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Adolf Philipp”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180519/philipp-adolf
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171399/philipp-adolf
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Adolf Philipp”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/philipp-adolf/

---

# Walter Heike (1934–1964)

> Walter Heike, a 29-year-old painter and former customs officer, was shot dead on 22 June 1964 after crossing the grounds of the Invaliden Cemetery, as he tried to climb the Wall on the bank of the Spandauer Schifffahrts Canal.

- Born: 20 September 1934
- Died: 22 June 1964
- Age at death: 29
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the grounds of the Invaliden Cemetery; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Tiergarten
- Map position (approximate): 52.53189, 13.37027
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/heike-walter/

## Story

Walter Heike was born in 1934 in Taurage (Tauroggen), Lithuania, the elder of Marie and Rudolf Heike's two children; his father was a carpenter. For generations the family had been part of a small German community in the Baltic states. The war brought resettlement, return and flight, until in July 1945 he arrived with his mother and sister in Wriezen in Brandenburg. His father never came back and was listed as missing.

He left school at 16 without a certificate, worked for a time for a firm in Strausberg that painted for theatres and advertising, and then did an apprenticeship as a painter. In early 1955 he enlisted for five years in the Garrisoned Police, which became the National People's Army, and after his service he was given a post in the East Berlin customs administration. On 5 February 1964 he was dismissed, reportedly because he had met a woman from West Berlin while on duty at the Friedrichstrasse customs office. He then lived with his mother in Bad Freienwalde and went back to work as a painter. In a résumé written soon afterwards he presented himself as confident, mentioning his singing in a choir, his work designing wall newspapers and club rooms, his wish to go on learning and his many cultural interests.

The files do not show when he began to think of escape, or whether, as the East German authorities claimed, he wanted to be with the woman from West Berlin. There are strong signs that he planned it: according to his sister, on his last visit in early June 1964 he hinted that inquiries would soon be made about him; he carried documents and cash, and he left behind a notebook carefully listing the books he would have to leave.

Early on 22 June 1964 he entered the border area from a building plot on Scharnhorststrasse, near the Sandkrug Bridge. A Stasi guard at the government hospital next door ordered him to stop and fired two warning shots, but he kept going, got over the Invaliden Cemetery wall and made for the canal bank. According to military records, at around 5.30 a.m. four border soldiers noticed him. An NCO went after him as he was trying to pull himself over the last wall in front of the canal embankment, knelt and fired from 25 to 30 metres. A bullet struck Walter Heike in the abdomen, and he presumably died at the scene. West Berlin police across the canal heard shots and saw a seemingly lifeless person carried away on a stretcher, but could not see what had happened.

Two days later a Stasi officer visited and questioned his mother and sister; when his sister insisted on knowing why, she was told only that he had been fatally injured in Berlin through his own fault; they were not told he had died at the border. His sister's attempts to learn where and how he had died came to nothing. When his last employer asked for a death certificate, the prosecutor in charge of the case told the employer that the family had no claim to death benefits because the state had paid for the burial. In fact, the burial had been paid for with the money Walter Heike was carrying when he died.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Walter Heike”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180520/heike-walter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171395/heike-walter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Walter Heike”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/heike-walter/

---

# Norbert Wolscht (1943–1964)

> Norbert Wolscht, a 20-year-old lathe operator from Freiberg in Saxony, drowned in the Havel near Potsdam on 28 July 1964 when his home-made diving equipment apparently failed during an underwater escape attempt with his friend Rainer Gneiser.

- Born: 27 October 1943
- Died: 28 July 1964
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Havel River; On the outer ring between Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (area): 52.4099, 13.08774
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wolscht-norbert/

## Story

Norbert Wolscht was born on 27 October 1943 in Greiffenberg in Silesia, the second child of Benno and Charlotte Wolscht; his sister Barbara was a year older. In 1947, with his father still a prisoner of war, his mother, grandmother and the children had to leave Greiffenberg, which had become part of Poland. His sister later said the war and the expulsion had marked their childhood. His mother hoped to join her brothers in Düsseldorf, but the refugee camp near Görlitz was so overcrowded that she arranged to move to relatives in Freiberg, and the family settled in Saxony.

After leaving school with a secondary certificate he trained as a lathe operator in a precision engineering firm. His sister felt he found it hard to submit to the ideological demands of the state. According to his sister, he had always meant to emigrate to South Africa one day, like a friend with whom he corresponded for many years; on that friend's advice he first wanted to finish his apprenticeship and learn English. He was not yet 18 when the Wall was built, but he probably never completely gave up his dream. In the summer of 1963 he is said to have teamed up with Rainer Gneiser, a friend since their school days in Freiberg who had already failed once to escape. They trained in long-distance swimming and learned how diving equipment was built. Norbert was athletic and a strong swimmer.

On 25 July 1964, telling family and friends they were going camping, the two set off from Freiberg by motorcycle, probably heading straight for Potsdam. On 27 July Norbert sent his camping gear home to his parents from Potsdam; it was the last sign of life he left. Their plan was to get across the Havel to West Berlin during the night leading into 28 July, using diving suits, flippers and oxygen tanks. Exactly when and where they entered the water is not known; they probably set out from the Tiefen See and meant to swim underwater north through the Babelsberger Enge towards the West Berlin bank.

Both young men drowned in unexplained circumstances. Border soldiers pulled Norbert's body from the river the next morning; Rainer Gneiser's body was found on the Babelsberg bank a week later. The autopsy placed Norbert's death at around 2 a.m. on 28 July and attributed it to failure of the breathing apparatus; a doctor told his father there were no external injuries and that death was presumably caused by carbon dioxide poisoning, because the soda lime in the home-made equipment had apparently not absorbed the gas properly. The West knew nothing of their fate at the time.

His parents were informed the same evening and were allowed to see their son. Norbert Wolscht was buried in the Donatsfriedhof in Freiberg on 1 August 1964. In the death notice his parents wrote of an accident, but they did not hide from relatives and friends that he had died trying to escape. After the collapse of East Germany, friends and relatives drew attention to the case, and investigations confirmed that the two had died in an accident during their escape attempt.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Norbert Wolscht”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180521/wolscht-norbert
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171404/wolscht-norbert
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Norbert Wolscht”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wolscht-norbert/

---

# Rainer Gneiser (1944–1964)

> Rainer Gneiser, a 20-year-old from Freiberg in Saxony, drowned in the Havel on the night leading into 28 July 1964 during an apparent attempt to reach West Berlin from Potsdam with his friend Norbert Wolscht, using home-made diving equipment.

- Born: 10 January 1944
- Died: 28 July 1964
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Havel River; On the outer ring between Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (area): 52.4099, 13.08774
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gneiser-rainer/

## Story

Rainer Gneiser was born on 10 January 1944 in Kreuzburg in Silesia, the son of Wilhelm and Ruth Gneiser. Probably as a result of the expulsions from Silesia, which passed to Poland after the war, the family took refuge with an aunt in Freiberg in Saxony. He grew up in the Soviet occupation zone and then in East Germany. He had five siblings.

He left school after the tenth grade with a secondary school certificate and then did a craft apprenticeship. In spring 1962, aged 18, he made his first attempt to leave East Germany, hoping to reach the West across the Baltic Sea. He was arrested, and on 16 April 1962 the district court in Freiberg sentenced him to ten months in prison for attempting to leave East Germany illegally. After his release he went back to Freiberg, apparently still set on leaving. Many years later a friend recalled Rainer telling him that he would not stay in East Germany under any circumstances.

Norbert Wolscht, a friend of the same age whom he had known since school, shared his wish. From the summer of 1963 the two are said to have prepared an escape through the Havel from Potsdam to West Berlin. About a year later they set off, equipped with diving suits and oxygen tanks. Both drowned on the night leading into 28 July 1964; the circumstances remain unexplained.

Norbert Wolscht was found that same day, but Rainer Gneiser was missing for several days. On 5 August soldiers of Border Regiment 48 recovered his body from the Havel at the Babelsberg embankment; East German border troop records place the find in the Tiefen See, the stretch of the Havel between Potsdam and Babelsberg. He was still wearing his self-made diving gear, and he carried a compass, a watch, a torch and a waterproof pouch holding his identity card, military card and employment book.

He was buried on 18 August 1964 in the Donatsfriedhof in Freiberg, the cemetery where Norbert Wolscht had been laid to rest two weeks before. His parents' notice in the local paper said that he had died in an accident in Potsdam, and the undertaker is said to have assured his father that his son had no gunshot wounds. According to his brother Klaus, the family were not permitted to put his first name or his dates of birth and death on the gravestone.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Rainer Gneiser”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180522/gneiser-rainer
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171402/gneiser-rainer
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Rainer Gneiser”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gneiser-rainer/

---

# Hildegard Trabant (1927–1964)

> Hildegard Trabant, a 37-year-old housing administrator from East Berlin, was shot in the back by a border guard on 18 August 1964 on the closed S-Bahn tracks between Schönhauser Allee and Gesundbrunnen, and died an hour later.

- Born: 12 June 1927
- Died: 18 August 1964
- Age at death: 37
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the closed-off S-Bahn tracks between Schönhauser Allee and Gesundbrunnen; At the sector border between Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (approximate): 52.54944, 13.39919
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/trabant-hildegard/

## Story

Hildegard Trabant was born Hildegard Pohl in Berlin on 12 June 1927. In 1949, when the GDR came into being, she joined the SED, the ruling party, where, as far as her career is documented, she was valued as an active member. In 1954 she married, and she and her husband lived in Friedrichshain in East Berlin. She held a managerial post in a municipal housing administration; her husband worked for the East German police in the passport and registration division.

What led her to attempt an escape in August 1964 is not known for certain, but the reasons probably lay in her family life. The Stasi learned from her husband's People's Police file that in February 1964 he had been taken to task by his superiors after beating her during a quarrel; one cause of their arguments was that he would not accept her coming home late three times a week because of her voluntary public work.

After the Wall was built, the S-Bahn tracks between Schönhauser Allee and Gesundbrunnen were closed, and the track grounds in Prenzlauer Berg became part of the restricted border area. At around 6:50 p.m. on 18 August 1964, border soldiers noticed a woman hiding behind an elder bush there. When ordered to come out, she ran, but away from the border, not towards it. A guard fired a warning shot and then shot her in the back. She was taken to the People's Police Hospital, where she died an hour later. The guard was promoted and decorated.

The next day a Stasi officer told her husband that she had been shot during an attempted border breach. He had to sign an undertaking to tell no one except his superiors the real cause of death and to speak to others only of a fatal accident. The Stasi kept the circle of those informed small, concealed the place and time, and itself arranged her cremation and urn burial on 23 September at the Frieden-Himmelfahrt Cemetery in Berlin-Niederschönhausen.

Even so, word spread. News of the details of her death set off a discussion at a party members' meeting at the Friedrichshain municipal housing administration, called by the SED district leadership, and her husband later told the state prosecutor that her workplace had been informed and that rumours had spread, even in their neighbourhood. In West Berlin, however, nobody learned of it at the time.

A legal investigation began only in October 1990, when the East Berlin files were handed to the federal judiciary. The former guard, who had been 20 at the time, long denied being the one who fired; in 1997 he was charged before the youth chamber of the Berlin Regional Court, and he confessed during the main hearing. On 10 June 1998 he was convicted of manslaughter and given a suspended prison sentence of a year and nine months. The court found that when she was shot, Hildegard Trabant had no longer been trying to cross the border and had run into the hinterland only to avoid arrest.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Hildegard Trabant”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180523/trabant-hildegard
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171401/trabant-hildegard
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Hildegard Trabant”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/trabant-hildegard/

---

# Wernhard Mispelhorn (1945–1964)

> Wernhard Mispelhorn, an 18-year-old metalworker from Berlin-Buchholz, was shot in the head on 18 August 1964 in the Schönholz garden settlement while trying to reach his girlfriend in West Berlin; he died two days later.

- Born: 10 November 1945
- Died: 20 August 1964
- Age at death: 18
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the "Schönholz" garden settlement; At the sector border between Berlin-Pankow and Berlin-Reinickendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.57501, 13.37681
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mispelhorn-wernhard/

## Story

Wernhard Mispelhorn was born in Berlin on 10 November 1945 and grew up in his parents' house in Berlin-Buchholz, the youngest of four children. His brother remembered that as children they regularly visited relatives in the western sectors, and how much they enjoyed it when their grandmother in Wedding gave them money for the cinema. Their parents were fairly relaxed with the two boys, who were mischievous children. After the parents divorced, the boys stayed with their mother; one sister studied biology in East Berlin, and the other moved west in 1960 and settled in Hanover. Wernhard trained as a gas and water pipe fitter with a private firm and later worked as a metalworker outside Berlin.

He was 15 when the Wall was built. He and his friends had little interest in the official socialist project; they listened to the American station AFN, wore jeans and loved western motorbikes and cars. They sometimes talked about leaving, but it stayed talk. Besides a general discontent with life in East Germany, there was another reason for the risk he took in August 1964: not long before, his girlfriend had been able to move to West Berlin, apparently in one of the few family reunions the East German authorities allowed. He told his brother he wanted to risk crossing the border to be with her. His brother tried, without success, to dissuade him.

On the evening of 17 August 1964 he was in a bar in Prenzlauer Berg with his friends Hans and Dieter, who did not know that he wanted to go west because of the girl. They always maintained that the idea of going to Schönholz that night arose spontaneously after several beers, and that they only wanted to look around. According to their account, once in the garden colony they lifted the inner fence at one spot so that he could crawl under it and look at the border strip. They said they were completely surprised when he suddenly got up and ran, and that when shots rang out shortly afterwards they panicked and ran away.

Shortly after midnight on 18 August 1964, two border soldiers on an additional patrol in the rear area, which a Stasi report described as a focal point for people trying to approach the border, spotted him and kept firing after him until he collapsed just short of the border fence. West Berlin police saw two soldiers with a stretcher, but not that a gravely injured young man was being carried away. He had been shot in the head, and he died in an East Berlin hospital two days later. The East Berlin city commandant at once reported to Erich Honecker that a border breakthrough had been prevented, and had the guards given the usual awards; his report took no interest in the fate of the wounded man or in who had fired the fatal shot, a question that the later criminal investigation could not resolve either.

While he lay dying, the Stasi questioned neighbours and colleagues and wrote lengthy reports that accused him, among other things, of hooliganism. Only after these inquiries did the Stasi tell his mother that he had been critically injured at the border, and she was not allowed to visit him. After his death she had to undertake to keep silent about what lay behind it and not to make inquiries. The family spoke of an accident in the death notice and at the funeral, and his two friends kept quiet for fear of punishment. Within the family, though, the truth was acknowledged: his eldest sister wrote letters so that what little they knew would be documented, and urged that his death should not simply be accepted.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Wernhard Mispelhorn”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180524/mispelhorn-wernhard
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171400/mispelhorn-wernhard
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Wernhard Mispelhorn”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mispelhorn-wernhard/

---

# Egon Schultz (1943–1964)

> Egon Schultz, a 21-year-old teacher from Rostock serving as a non-commissioned officer in the border troops, was shot on 5 October 1964 in the courtyard of Strelitzer Strasse 55 during the "Tunnel 57" escape and died on the way to hospital; the fatal shots came from a fellow soldier's rifle, a fact East Germany concealed.

- Born: 4 January 1943
- Died: 5 October 1964
- Age at death: 21
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: East German border soldier killed on duty
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the courtyard of Strelitzer Strasse 55; On the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (exact): 52.5362, 13.39408
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schultz-egon/

## Story

Egon Schultz was born on 4 January 1943 in Pomerania. At the age of seven he came from Poland to East Germany with his parents and his elder brother, settling first in Gross Stove near Rostock and in 1957 in Rostock itself. His father was a driver and his mother a waitress, and as the younger son he was meant to go on to study. At the Borwin School he discovered a wish to teach; he enjoyed working with children and, as a member of the FDJ, looked after younger pupils as a pioneer group leader.

In July 1960 he gained admission to train as an elementary school teacher in Putbus on Rügen, then did a practical year at a school in Rostock-Dierkow; at the weekly study meetings he became friends with a colleague, Michael Baade. On 1 September 1963 he took on a first-grade class, but soon afterwards he was called up, signed on for three years and joined the border troops on 2 November. In letters to his friend he wrote of exhausting duty, of hoping to meet a girl despite his uniform, and, soon after arriving, that he felt he was gradually becoming stupid there. He also corresponded with his former pupils, and in August 1964 became a candidate member of the SED, East Germany's ruling party.

Over many months, West Berlin students had dug a 145-metre tunnel from a disused bakery on Bernauer Strasse to an outhouse in the courtyard of Strelitzer Strasse 55; it became known as "Tunnel 57" after the number of people who escaped through it. The Stasi had learned of the operation from informants. On the night of 4 October 1964, Egon Schultz, by then a non-commissioned officer, was on reserve at the command post on Arkonaplatz when a Stasi officer asked for border troops to arrest suspicious people at Strelitzer Strasse 55. He and his comrades were not told the real purpose.

At about half past midnight, in the dark, the Stasi men returned with the soldiers. An escape helper fired the first shot to avoid arrest, and further shots rang out in the darkness; the helpers escaped through the tunnel to the West. Egon Schultz fell in the courtyard, struck by ten bullets, and died on the way to the People's Police Hospital. Investigations in the 1990s established that the escape helper's bullet had lodged in his lung but was not fatal: the fatal shots came from the Kalashnikov of a border soldier who, on a Stasi officer's instruction, had fired into the dark courtyard and hit him unintentionally. He died of internal bleeding.

East Germany's own investigations, conducted by the city command and the Stasi, had reached the same conclusion, but their results were kept strictly secret, and the Stasi had the autopsy files removed from the Charité. Instead, his death was presented as murder by West Berlin agents and made into a political campaign. Tens of thousands of workers were ordered to line the streets as his coffin was taken to Rostock, where he was buried in the New Cemetery. His school was named after him, as were more than a hundred other institutions, and in 1966 Strelitzer Strasse was renamed Egon-Schultz-Strasse.

In a case opened in 1992, it was accepted that the soldier who fired the fatal shots had acted in self-defence and under orders, and the proceedings against him were discontinued. In May 1994 a private criminal complaint accused one of the escape helpers of his murder; his mother joined it, and a further complaint followed. The proceedings, later extended to other escape helpers on suspicion of aiding and abetting murder, were discontinued in the summer of 1999. How he died still divides opinion, but he was without doubt a victim of the Wall. A new plaque at Strelitzer Strasse 55, put up at the initiative of some of the escape helpers and a friend, honours him as such.

## Sources

1. Maria Nooke, “Egon Schultz”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180610/schultz-egon
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171403/schultz-egon
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Egon Schultz”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schultz-egon/

---

# Hans-Joachim Wolf (1947–1964)

> Hans-Joachim Wolf, a 17-year-old apprentice from Berlin-Friedrichshain, was shot dead by border guards on 26 November 1964 in the Britzer Zweig Canal while trying to escape to West Berlin, after calling on them to stop firing.

- Born: 8 August 1947
- Died: 26 November 1964
- Age at death: 17
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Britzer-Zweig Canal; At the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.45909, 13.477
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wolf-hans-joachim/

## Story

Hans-Joachim Wolf was born on 8 August 1947 and lived with his parents, a petrol station attendant and a shop assistant, in Berlin-Friedrichshain. In September 1964 he began an apprenticeship at the cable works in Köpenick. His mother later thought he might have been driven to flee because he was refused the apprenticeship he wanted as a radio and telecommunications technician, despite good school reports, because he was not involved in the state youth organisations. His sister, four years older, remembered him as very sociable and cheerful, with many friendships kept up in person and by letter, and on good and open terms with his parents.

He told his parents he thought life was better in the West but never spoke of escaping; he probably wanted to protect them from the Stasi and to spare them worry, since his sister had fled to West Berlin in 1961 and still suffered health problems as a result. Only to his grandmother did he hint at a possible route. On 9 December 1963 he had been caught at Friedrichstrasse station trying to reach West Berlin by train, but was evidently believed when he said he had boarded the wrong train, as he was not prosecuted. In November 1964 his mother saw him sorting his belongings and burning letters from friends in West Berlin.

On the morning of 25 November 1964 he left home for vocational school but never arrived. Instead he took a room at the Hotel Adlon near the Brandenburg Gate, apparently considering a descent by rope, and his worried parents reported him missing that night. The next day he decided against this presumed plan. That evening he made his way through the "Silberlinde" allotments in Treptow and climbed a barbed wire fence of about 2.5 metres on the southern bank of the Britzer Zweig Canal.

At 6:30 p.m., in darkness and a temperature of four degrees, he jumped into the canal. Border guards nearby saw him and fired without warning. He called out to them to stop shooting, abandoning his attempt, but they continued, firing 61 shots. One struck him in the chest and killed him. On the West Berlin side, police closed the nearby Sonnenallee crossing for half an hour because of the shooting.

Two days later his parents were told that he had accidentally drowned while crossing the border. They were not told where, not allowed to see his body, and not permitted a large memorial service. He was cremated at Baumschulenweg and his urn buried in the Parochial Cemetery in Friedrichshain. His parents did not believe the account: he was a good swimmer, and his father found blood on the watch returned to them. His sister, by then in Munich, reported the case in February 1965 but withdrew her statement for fear of consequences for her parents.

What happened was clarified only in 1994, when the guards were tried in Berlin. Proceedings against one ended when he died in March 1996; in September that year the court gave the other a suspended sentence of one year and four months for manslaughter. His parents had died by then.

## Sources

1. Lydia Dollmann, “Hans-Joachim Wolf”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180525/wolf-hans-joachim
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171397/wolf-hans-joachim
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Hans-Joachim Wolf”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wolf-hans-joachim/

---

# Joachim Mehr (1945–1964)

> Joachim Mehr, a 19-year-old carpenter from Prenzlauer Berg, was shot dead on 3 December 1964 at the barbed-wire fence near Bergfelde, after he had already been wounded and had given up his escape.

- Born: 3 April 1945
- Died: 3 December 1964
- Age at death: 19
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near Bergfelde; On the outer ring between Hohen Neuendorf (Oranienburg district) and Berlin-Reinickendorf
- Map position (area): 52.65941, 13.2961
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mehr-joachim/

## Story

Joachim Mehr was born on 3 April 1945 in Belgard, Pomerania, the second child of his family. He spent his childhood in East Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg. His father, a master carpenter, ran his own workshop, and Joachim chose the same trade: after an apprenticeship in a state-run firm and his final exam, he went to work in his father's workshop. At 18 he moved into his own flat on Sonnenburger Strasse, though he still ate his meals at his parents' home. The Stasi later found no sign of western influence or of any wish to leave in the young man.

On 2 December 1964, his father later told the Stasi, Joachim worked until 5 p.m. as usual and had dinner with his parents. He then went to the Christmas market at Alexanderplatz with friends, among them his girlfriend. After taking her home he called in at the 'Mila-Eck' bar, where he met Hans-Jürgen K., the older brother of a good friend. K. had escaped to the West in 1962 and later come back to East Berlin, and he described how he had got out at the edge of the city. The two decided to go there that same night; K. later told the Stasi it had been a spontaneous decision made at his suggestion.

When the bar closed they rode a moped to Hohen Neuendorf, on the edge of the West Berlin district of Frohnau, and continued on foot to the border between Hohen Neuendorf and Bergfelde, where the brightly lit strip ran right through the middle of the woods. They climbed the inner fence, watched the guards for a while from the shadows, and then ran for the last barrier, three rows of barbed wire.

As emerged at the trial in 1994, two soldiers in a watchtower 160 metres away had seen them, and the guard leader opened fire. Both young men were wounded and fell just short of the fence. They crawled on to the wire but then decided to give up. A non-commissioned officer on a checking patrol then arrived; although the two were lying on the ground caught in the barbed wire only 100 metres from him, he fired more shots at Joachim Mehr because he moved. Until then Joachim's wounds had not been life-threatening; now he was fatally hit. According to West Berlin police and press reports, a customs patrol in Frohnau heard bursts of fire and saw flares at 2:20 a.m.; smoke canisters set off beyond the fences hid what happened next as the two were carried away. Hans-Jürgen K. was taken to hospital with bullet wounds in both legs. Joachim Mehr, aged 19, died on the spot.

His parents were told nothing during the investigation. When they learned he was dead, they were made to sign a statement that he had died of injuries resulting from a border violation he had himself committed, and to pretend he had died in a traffic accident. Even with a lawyer they were not allowed to see his body, and when his father would not accept this, he was summoned to a talk with the public prosecutor in charge and questioned by the Stasi. Despite this pressure, the parents announced his death in a local newspaper as a tragic accident. He was buried on 30 December 1964 in the municipal cemetery in Berlin-Weissensee. Hans-Jürgen K., permanently injured, was sentenced in August 1965 to three years in a penitentiary.

In 1994 the Potsdam Regional Court found the former non-commissioned officer guilty of manslaughter and gave him a suspended sentence of 18 months in prison. The guard leader who fired first received the same sentence for attempted manslaughter on two counts.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Joachim Mehr”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180526/mehr-joachim
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171398/mehr-joachim
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Joachim Mehr”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mehr-joachim/

---

# Unidentified fugitive (?–1965)

> An unidentified man, thought to be about 30 years old, drowned in the Spree between Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg on 19 January 1965 while trying to swim to West Berlin; his identity has never been established.

- Born: Unknown
- Died: 19 January 1965
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree River; At the sector border between Berlin-Friedrichshain and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (approximate): 52.50541, 13.4382
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/unidentified-fugitive/

## Story

Nothing is known of this man's life, not even his name. Witnesses in the West judged him to be about 30 years old. He is remembered here as one of those who died at the Berlin Wall, even though his identity remains unknown.

At about 5:30 p.m. on 19 January 1965, two employees of a firm on the Kreuzberg bank of the Spree heard someone calling for help. They saw a man swimming through the icy river towards their side. Because the full width of the river there belonged to East Berlin, they were sure he was trying to escape. They called to him to swim towards them so they could pull him out, but his strength apparently gave out, and about 10 metres from the West Berlin bank he went under before their eyes. A West Berlin police report concluded that he had probably succumbed to hypothermia and that no one else was involved.

According to the same police report, the escape attempt had also been noticed on the eastern bank: border soldiers fired flares and went by boat to the spot where he had gone under, and divers were brought in, but the search was called off without success at around midnight. Reports of the East Berlin border troops also record his fatal attempt: a border soldier had spotted him while lighting up the water with a floodlight and reportedly saw him clearly and heard him call for help before he went under. With a tracking dog, investigators established that he had approached the river from a property on Mühlenstrasse and then crawled under the security fence. He had left behind a briefcase containing a shirt, magazines, an empty fountain-pen case and a sandwich wrapped in a newspaper from the Halle district dated 21 September 1964. None of it revealed who he was.

Investigations in East and West produced no further findings. Research on the case resumed in the 1990s, but the Berlin public prosecutor's office closed its preliminary investigation in 1995 without solving the case or finding new evidence. An unidentified body was recovered from the Spree on 8 July 1965; whether it was this man has so far been neither proven nor ruled out.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Unidentified fugitive”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180527/unidentified-fugitive
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171393/unbekannter-fluechtling
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Unidentified fugitive”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/unidentified-fugitive/

---

# Christian Buttkus (1944–1965)

> Christian Buttkus, a 21-year-old from Berlin-Niederschönhausen who worked at a chemical plant, was shot dead in the early hours of 4 March 1965 while trying to escape with his fiancée through the border fence near Stahnsdorfer Damm in Kleinmachnow.

- Born: 21 February 1944
- Died: 4 March 1965
- Age at death: 21
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near Stahnsdorfer Damm/Teerofendamm; On the outer ring between Kleinmachnow (Potsdam county district) and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.41051, 13.18853
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/buttkus-christian/

## Story

Christian Buttkus was born in Tilsit on 21 February 1944, and knew flight from early childhood: Tilsit was heavily bombed during the war, declared a front-line town in autumn 1944 and largely evacuated, and after the war the city passed to the Soviet Union. His family settled in Berlin-Niederschönhausen. His parents had divorced in 1945 and his father died in 1950, so he, the younger of two children, grew up with his mother. After finishing secondary school in 1960 he trained as a skilled chemical worker at the state-owned chemical plant in Adlershof, which then employed him.

He had relatives and friends in West Berlin, and he had been thinking of escape since the closing of the border in August 1961 at the latest. His fiancée later told the Stasi that he opposed the closure because it restricted his freedom; he hoped to study chemical engineering in West Berlin and build a life there with her. He and Ilse P. became engaged in April 1964 and planned their escape together.

Their first plan was to cross the Teltow Canal at Kleinmachnow in summer 1965. He built diving equipment and an underwater vehicle, which failed its tests. But at the end of February 1965 he was called up to the National People's Army for 1 May. He did not want to swear allegiance to a state he did not see as his own, and the couple decided to bring their escape forward and abandon the water route.

On 3 March 1965 the forecast promised snow and strong wind, and that evening they decided to cross that night in Kleinmachnow, where Ilse P. had grown up. They travelled by S-Bahn and bus to the Schleusenkrug stop, took their money and papers out of the briefcase, buried it in the snow, put on white coats as camouflage and approached the border through the woods. At 1:15 a.m. they set off an alarm at the anti-vehicle trench, ran across the patrol path and strip, leaving only the three-row barbed wire fence to cross.

Guards at Stahnsdorfer Damm near the transit motorway had been alerted. The two sentries fired warning shots; the soldiers of a nearby patrol aimed at the couple. Before they could cut through the fence, Christian Buttkus was struck in the right side of his chest and died at once. One of the 199 shots fired grazed Ilse P.'s calf. The soldiers carried his body back to the trench so that it could not be seen from the West, and were later decorated and in some cases promoted.

Ilse P. was sentenced on 1 June 1965 to a year and eight months in prison; only during the proceedings did she learn that her fiancé was dead. On 11 November 1965, at the prosecution's request, the court suspended the rest of her sentence. Four days after the escape attempt the Stasi told his mother, Ruth Buttkus, that he had died of injuries sustained in a border breach for which he himself was to blame, and urged her to speak of his death only as an accident. His body was cremated at the Baumschulenweg Crematorium on 10 March 1965. News of the shooting still spread among neighbours and colleagues. His mother fell mentally ill, came to believe that he had survived and been taken by the Stasi, and died in 1967.

Relatives in West Berlin made his death known there and in July 1965 turned to the "Liberal Jurists Board of Inquiry" in the hope of learning how he had really died. On 22 December 1994 the Potsdam Regional Court convicted the former patrol guard who had fired the fatal shots of manslaughter together with attempted manslaughter and gave him a suspended sentence of one year and six months. A memorial stone to the victims of Germany's division was placed in Kleinmachnow in 1999; a wooden cross in his memory on Berlepschstrasse in Zehlendorf was removed that year and has been missing ever since.

## Sources

1. Lydia Dollmann, “Christian Buttkus”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180528/buttkus-christian
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171384/buttkus-christian
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Christian Buttkus”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/buttkus-christian/

---

# Ulrich Krzemien (1940–1965)

> Ulrich Krzemien, a 24-year-old bricklayer living in West Berlin, is believed to be the swimmer who drowned in the Spree near Osthafen on 25 March 1965 after an East German border guard did no more than point out where he might climb out.

- Born: 13 September 1940
- Died: 25 March 1965
- Age at death: 24
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree near Osthafen; At the sector border between Berlin-Kreuzberg and Berlin-Friedrichshain
- Map position (approximate): 52.5017, 13.44892
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/krzemien-ulrich/

## Story

Ulrich Krzemien was born in Berlin on 13 September 1940, the fourth of six children. His father had served in the Wehrmacht and did not come back from the Second World War, so his mother brought up the large family on her own in the hard post-war years. After eighth grade he trained as a bricklayer and from 1958 worked for several East Berlin building firms. One day in the summer of 1959 he did not come home to his mother's flat in Berlin-Treptow; his mother reported him missing, while he looked for a flat and work in West Berlin. A few weeks later he wrote to her that he now planned to live in the West.

While the border was still open he is said to have visited his mother in the East often, and it was there that he was arrested in July 1961. Charged with leaving illegally, slandering the state and resisting state authority, he was sentenced by the Berlin-Treptow district court in early August to a year and two months in prison. He was released on 29 September 1962 and made to stay in East Berlin with a job at a state-owned company. By mid-October 1962 he had escaped again, telling his mother that he had crossed via the Teltow Canal. He wrote to her regularly. He soon became engaged, but the relationship lasted only a little over a year and broke up around the turn of 1964 to 1965; he may not have got over it.

At around 9.30 p.m. on 25 March 1965 an unidentified man swam from the West Berlin bank of the Spree towards the East. About twenty metres from the bank near the Osthafen paper mill, apparently exhausted and, according to a border report, presumably drunk, he called to a guard for help. The guard merely pointed out places where he might climb out. The man tried to scale the steep bank, fell back five metres from the watchtower and went under while the guard looked on.

Only then did the guard act, firing five shots into the air and a red flare to alert the patrol boat. Boats searched with hooks until about 10.30 p.m. Alerted by the shots, West Berlin fire crews, police and two rescue divers arrived, watched by 80 to 100 people on the western bank, but the commander of the 1st Border Brigade ordered from the eastern bank that any western diver entering the water be fired on. On 13 April 1965 a body was found drifting between the Brommy Bridge and the Schilling Bridge, carrying Ulrich Krzemien's identity card. The Stasi was sure it was the swimmer, and Berlin investigators reached the same conclusion in the 1990s, although the body was too decomposed to be identified at first from his passport photo; a comparison with identifying features given by his mother and two of his siblings matched almost entirely.

The day after the body was found, a Stasi officer questioned his mother and told her that her son had drowned during a border provocation; she was to say it had been an accident. She was given a death certificate giving 25 March 1965 as the date of death, but the autopsy report, evidently on Stasi instructions, recorded 31 March. She was not allowed to see him and was pressed to agree to cremation and burial at the Baumschulenweg cemetery. At the end of 1990 one of his sisters wrote to the Berlin Senate that she believed her brother had been shot near the Massante Bridge; a man who had introduced himself as a state prosecutor had given her that news at the time. She filed a criminal complaint, but questioned in October 1991, she said she still did not know whether he had drowned by accident or been shot. The investigation by the Berlin public prosecutor was discontinued soon afterwards for lack of sufficient suspicion; it accepted the original post-mortem and alcohol findings that he had drowned, helped by very heavy drinking, and found no sign of violence by others. What led him, if he was indeed the swimmer, to swim fully clothed into the East in the cold of March is not known.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Ulrich Krzemien”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180529/krzemien-ulrich
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171394/krzemien-ulrich
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Ulrich Krzemien”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/krzemien-ulrich/

---

# Peter Hauptmann (1939–1965)

> Peter Hauptmann, a 26-year-old driller and father of four who lived in the border area of Potsdam-Babelsberg, was shot by a border guard outside his home on 24 April 1965 during a dispute over identity checks, and died on 3 May 1965.

- Born: 20 March 1939
- Died: 3 May 1965
- Age at death: 26
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the outer ring between Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.39168, 13.12682
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hauptmann-peter/

## Story

Peter Hauptmann was born on 20 March 1939 in Gittersee near Dresden. He lived with his wife and their four children on Stahnsdorfer Strasse in Potsdam-Babelsberg, a street inside the border area. For many years he had served in the Bereitschaftspolizei (the barracked police units), and later with the People's Police and the customs service. His repeated refusals to hand over his identity card had already led to serious disputes, and when he threatened to hit a guard, he was arrested and dismissed; afterwards he changed jobs often before finding work as a driller for a company near Teltow.

Living in the border zone meant constant checks. Guards who knew him as a resident would sometimes greet him and wave him through, but the next day young recruits might be on duty and he would have to show his papers again to enter or leave his own home. Perhaps because he had been a policeman himself, he did not want to be treated as a possible border violator, and he repeatedly refused to show his card.

On the warm evening of Saturday 24 April 1965 he met two East German navy seamen in the "Waldschlösschen" restaurant in Babelsberg; they were in the area on a sightseeing weekend. After closing time the three went back to his house. They apparently met guards who knew him and were let through; presumably it was agreed that the guests would leave before the change of guard, but they stayed too long. When he saw his guests off after 3 a.m., new guards were on duty; they checked the seamen's papers and held them because they had no pass for the border area. Peter Hauptmann protested that he had brought them in and was responsible, whereupon the guards demanded his papers too and, although they were valid, told him that he was also to be detained.

He turned to walk back to his house. A guard ordered him to stop and threatened to shoot. Peter Hauptmann turned, went towards the guard and seized the barrel of his machine pistol, and the two struggled. The guard ended the struggle by firing two short bursts, aimed at him from only a few steps away; he later claimed that he had first fired a warning shot. Peter Hauptmann fell, gravely wounded. His wife, startled by the shots, ran out with towels to help dress his wound. With the ambulance slow to come, guards took him by military truck to the Drewitz Army Hospital, where he underwent surgery that night.

On 28 April he was moved to the clinic in Berlin-Buch, where his right kidney was removed. When his left kidney also stopped working, he died early on 3 May 1965. Doctors in Buch told his wife that he had lost too much blood because help had come too late. According to medical information that the Stasi kept secret, he had been wounded by six shots, the fatal one in his back. His wife, who had heard no single warning shot, only a series of shots, and found him lying face down, believed he had been shot from behind; doctors at the army hospital had confirmed a shot in the back to her.

Two days after his death his widow filed a criminal complaint for negligent homicide against the border troops, supported by his father, a police captain, but their efforts came to nothing. An investigation opened in 1993 was discontinued in December 1996 because the Berlin public prosecutor's office held that the guard had acted in self-defence. Neither his widow nor the neighbours who had watched from their balcony were heard in that investigation. A commemorative column to him was put up on Bernhard-Beyer-Strasse near Steinstücken.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Peter Hauptmann”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180530/hauptmann-peter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171385/hauptmann-peter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Peter Hauptmann”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hauptmann-peter/

---

# Hermann Döbler (1922–1965)

> Hermann Döbler, a 42-year-old West Berlin businessman, was shot dead by an East German border guard on 15 June 1965 during a motorboat trip on the Teltow Canal near Dreilinden, after unknowingly crossing the poorly marked border line in the water.

- Born: 28 October 1922
- Died: 15 June 1965
- Age at death: 42
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the Teltow Canal near the Dreilinden border crossing; On the outer ring between Berlin-Zehlendorf and Potsdam
- Map position (approximate): 52.39724, 13.16824
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/doebler-hermann/

## Story

Hermann Döbler was born on 28 October 1922 in Roderbeck, a small village in the then Pomeranian district of Greifenhagen, south of Stettin. Conscripted into the Wehrmacht at 18, he was in Berlin when the Second World War ended. With nothing and no trade, he found lodgings in the eastern part of the city, worked as a messenger and clerk, and soon became a successful independent businessman.

In 1949 he met his future wife, Irene, in Görlitz; they married a year later and had three children. She remembered how quickly his charm had won her over. In the mid-1950s, with her active support, he built up a haulage firm in Eberswalde; the couple later ran their own car repair workshop in Karlshorst. The business prospered, and they saw no reason to leave East Germany, not even after he was sentenced in 1958 to six months in prison for spontaneously helping a teenage girl flee to West Berlin.

From 1960 he also ran a block of garages on Rothenburgstrasse in Steglitz, spending more and more time in the West while his wife ran the Karlshorst business. He was at his West Berlin address when the Wall went up on 13 August 1961, cutting him off from his family. He sent money and parcels and met his wife and children at the border, and in May 1962 organised their escape in a truck. After a few weeks in the West, his wife concluded that the marriage was over and returned to East Germany with the children. They divorced in May 1965, but he kept in touch with his children by letter and provided for their maintenance.

On 15 June 1965, a fine day, he invited 21-year-old Elke Märtens on a trip in his open motorboat. They set off from the Wannsee, travelled along the Havel as far as the Griebnitzsee and at Kohlhasenbrück turned into the Teltow Canal, where parts of the water belonged to East Germany and the border line was hard to see and poorly marked. According to what Elke Märtens told the West Berlin police at the time, she was at the helm as they passed under the motorway bridge leading to the Dreilinden crossing. Beyond the bridge she noticed a barrier closing off the whole width of the canal and pointed it out to him, but he told her she could safely carry on as far as the barrier. Neither of them, she said, knew that the border line lay 100 metres before it.

Two border soldiers watched them from a tower on the southern bank. The guards allegedly felt provoked by the pair, possibly because they waved to them. One of the guards opened fire at once and kept firing aimed shots at the boat and its occupants even when Elke Märtens turned and headed for the West Berlin bank. Hermann Döbler was hit four times and died in the boat. Elke Märtens was grazed on the head and taken to a West Berlin hospital in critical condition; she survived, but with lasting injuries.

The shooting was unanimously condemned in the West; Mayor Willy Brandt called it cold-blooded murder. More than 1,000 people paid their last respects when he was buried on 22 June 1965 at the municipal cemetery on Bergstrasse in Steglitz. In East Germany the Stasi organised a smear campaign against him, and his children, living in the East, suffered badly from the public hostility; their teachers even presented their father to the whole class as a criminal.

After the collapse of East Germany, the guard who fired, the soldier who stood beside him without shooting and the platoon leader who had given the two guards their duty orders that day had to answer for the shooting. Satisfied that the man who fired had acted intentionally, the Berlin Regional Court found him guilty of murder in conjunction with attempted murder and sentenced him to six years in prison, one of the heaviest sentences ever given to a border guard.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Hermann Döbler”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180531/doebler-hermann
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171386/doebler-hermann
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Hermann Döbler”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/doebler-hermann/

---

# Klaus Kratzel (1940–1965)

> Klaus Kratzel, a 25-year-old bricklayer and father of two, died on 8 August 1965 in an S-Bahn tunnel north of Bornholmer Strasse station, apparently hit by a train while trying to rejoin his family in West Berlin.

- Born: 3 March 1940
- Died: 8 August 1965
- Age at death: 25
- Cause of death: Fatal fall or accident
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the S-Bahn tunnel north of the Bornholmer Strasse station; At the sector border between Berlin-Pankow and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (approximate): 52.55825, 13.3972
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kratzel-klaus/

## Story

Klaus Kratzel was born in Berlin on 3 March 1940 and grew up with four siblings in the East Berlin district of Weissensee. After school he trained and worked as a bricklayer. At 18 he met his future wife at a fair in Berlin-Stralau, and they married in April 1961, after the birth of their first daughter.

When the Wall was built, his father-in-law, a Social Democrat, feared that political dissenters and their families would be treated more harshly and urged the family to flee. On 18 August 1961 Klaus Kratzel, his wife, their daughter and his in-laws got through the barriers, leaving everything they owned behind. After a first period in various refugee camps and a year of hardship they found a flat of their own, and a second daughter was born. His wife remembered him as a good father who liked caring for the children.

He found it hard to resist the temptations of Western consumer goods, and in January 1965 he once again ran into financial difficulties. After an argument with his wife he left, went to the Friedrichstrasse crossing and asked to return to East Germany. He passed through a reception camp in Blankenfelde and moved back in with his mother. Before long he regretted it. In guarded letters to his in-laws, in which he avoided the word "Flucht" (escape) and wrote instead, in roundabout terms, that he would soon be moving flat, he let them know he wanted to come back. In early August 1965 he wrote that he would come only if he had a good chance.

On 8 August 1965, at around 11.30 p.m., Klaus Kratzel, aged 25, was found dead in an S-Bahn tunnel north of the disused Bornholmer Strasse station. The tunnel lay in the border area, and trains between Schönhauser Allee and Pankow ran through it regularly. Everything pointed to his having been hit by a train while trying to cross the tracks towards Wedding; he had drunk alcohol to find his courage. The border troops' investigation found no clue as to how he had entered the area unseen. A possible link to another escape in the same area that night could not be confirmed.

The findings were classified as military secrets. His mother was told only that he had died in an accident on the tracks; she was not told where, and was not allowed to see his body. He was buried in East Berlin on 18 August 1965. The secrecy left his family distrustful, and for years there were rumours among them that he had been shot at the Wall. After 1990, the opening of the East German archives and the investigations of the Berlin public prosecutor's office ruled this out.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Klaus Kratzel”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180532/kratzel-klaus
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171383/kratzel-klaus
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Klaus Kratzel”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kratzel-klaus/

---

# Klaus Garten (1941–1965)

> Klaus Garten, a 24-year-old metalworker and SED member from Saxony, was shot while climbing a fence at the border in Teltow-Seehof on 17 August 1965. Left for almost an hour without medical help, he died of his wounds that night.

- Born: 19 July 1941
- Died: 18 August 1965
- Age at death: 24
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near the Philipp-Müller-Allee in Seehof; On the outer ring between Teltow (Potsdam county district) and Berlin-Steglitz
- Map position (approximate): 52.41327, 13.29715
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/garten-klaus/

## Story

Klaus Garten was born on 19 July 1941 in Radeberg, Saxony. He was three when he lost his father in the Second World War, and he grew up in his home town with his mother and his stepfather, an official of the SED, the ruling party. A trained body repair technician, he did his military service with the National People's Army in Stahnsdorf, on the south-western edge of Berlin, from 1959 to 1962.

He met his wife during reserve training in Oranienburg, and after his military service they moved into a garden house in her home village of Schmachtenhagen. He worked as a metalworker at the local branch of the Hennigsdorf steel and rolling mill and took on extra tasks to help meet the plan. As a party member he was made his division's party group organiser, a role that increasingly troubled him: few of his 50 colleagues belonged to the party, and he felt they looked down on him for it.

Growing isolated at work, he thought of giving up his job and taking over a restaurant, but also of leaving for the West, and in July 1965 he spoke to his wife about it. For a year and a half the couple had lived in their one-room garden house, hoping to make it a proper home, but building materials were impossible to obtain, and as a childless couple they had little chance of another flat. He tried to buy a car, probably to transport materials, but used cars were extremely expensive, so he looked for a damaged one he could repair himself.

On 17 August 1965, during his holiday, the couple went to East Berlin in search of a car. Sent on to a trade office in Teltow, he made the long journey there alone while his wife went home. There too, the waiting lists were endless; whether he actually called at the office that day is not known. That year may have been what finally destroyed his faith in East German socialism; by this point at the latest, he decided to leave East Germany. He knew the area from his time in the army.

At around 9 p.m. a guard saw him climb over a wire mesh fence on a plot on Paul-Gerhard-Strasse in Teltow-Seehof, where the border strip was only 20 metres wide. A guard about 200 metres away fired three shots, and he fell from the fence. He was found in the anti-vehicle trench, where he had dragged himself, bleeding heavily from a thigh wound. Instead of bandaging him, the guards took cover in the trench, as West Berlin police searched the area with lamps and residents gathered. West Berlin police recorded that at about 9:50 p.m. six guards carried away an injured man in a tarpaulin.

To avoid being seen from the West, the guards took a long detour through the trench to carry him to an observation tower (one of them reported that they crawled, carrying him on their backs), where he was hastily bandaged. Almost an hour had passed before he received any medical help. He had lost a great deal of blood, yet he was taken not to the church hospital a kilometre away but to the Stasi prison hospital in Hohenschönhausen, at least an hour's drive. He died of his injuries later that night.

The next morning the Stasi took his wife to Oranienburg for questioning; she was told only days later that he had died trying to flee, and learned more from a newspaper cutting from the "BZ" that a relative in West Berlin sent her. She was told to reveal the truth only to her next of kin and to tell everyone else that he had died in a motorcycle or car accident. He was cremated on 20 August 1965 and buried in Schmachtenhagen. An investigation decades later was discontinued in 1995, as the suspected gunman said he had fired only a warning shot and this could not be disproved.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Klaus Garten”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180533/garten-klaus
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171387/garten-klaus
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Klaus Garten”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/garten-klaus/

---

# Walter Kittel (1942–1965)

> Walter Kittel, 22, was shot dead in Kleinmachnow on 18 October 1965 by the commander of a border guard unit after he had already given himself up during an escape attempt at An der Stammbahn 53.

- Born: 21 November 1942
- Died: 18 October 1965
- Age at death: 22
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At Stammbahn 53; On the outer ring between Kleinmachnow (Potsdam county district) and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (exact): 52.41893, 13.22015
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kittel-walter/

## Story

Walter Kittel grew up in Kölleda in Thuringia and went to school there. In 1957 he started training as a car mechanic in nearby Gutmannshausen. In September 1959 he fled to West Berlin and had to stay in a refugee camp, but after three months his father came to collect him and took him back. Why he returned to East Germany is not known.

Back in the East he appears to have become politically active. He founded a marching band in his local FDJ youth group, joined a circle of worker-writers and worked for the FDJ district leadership, first in Jüterbog and later in Nauen. He volunteered for the National People's Army but was turned down on health grounds. While at the FDJ district school in Schwante he got to know a young woman, and the two later had a child together. He worked for a milk production company in the Nauen district and, until 1964, for the Melioration Construction Company in Potsdam.

From 1964 at the latest his political commitment fell away rapidly. While drunk he spoke out against Walter Ulbricht to a police officer and likened the methods of the police, and his father's way of raising him, to those of the SS. In May 1964 he was convicted of criminal intoxication combined with slander against the state and given nine months in prison, suspended with two years' probation. His second attempt to leave probably had both political and personal reasons. After several close relatives had died within a few years, he, his father and his two siblings had moved from Kölleda to Kleinmachnow.

On the evening of 17 October 1965, the 22-year-old met Eberhardt K., an acquaintance two years his junior, in a bar in Teltow-Seehof. They found they both wanted to go to West Berlin, and Walter Kittel proposed going that same night. He lived close to the border, had for some time been able to watch its layout and the guards' movements, and knew exactly where to make the attempt; at his flat a sketch of the escape plan and tools for getting through the barriers lay ready. At around 2.45 a.m. the two reached the garden at An der Stammbahn 53 in Kleinmachnow. They got through the inner fence, crossed the patrol route and the anti-vehicle trench, and crawled to within a few steps of the last fence before two guards spotted them.

The two young men obeyed the order to come to the patrol path with their hands raised. An argument followed, and one guard fired three aimed shots towards the feet of the two men, hitting Eberhardt K. in the foot. The pair took cover in the trench, but the guards kept firing and Eberhardt K. was hit again and seriously wounded. The commander of the group section then arrived and ordered them out. Walter Kittel, still unhurt, complied. The commander fired 30 shots at him from about 15 metres. Hit in the chest and stomach, he died at once. His body was taken away quickly so that it could not be seen from the West.

The next day the Stasi told his father, who had to sign an undertaking to keep silent and to let the state arrange the burial. The commander was honoured and promoted. Eberhardt K. was sentenced to two years in prison; fellow prisoners who later reached West Berlin confirmed the West Berlin police's suspicion that a man had died that night. In December 1992 the Potsdam district court convicted the former commander of manslaughter; the following year the Federal Court of Justice raised his sentence to ten years for murder, likening the shots to an execution. Since 1999 a memorial stone on Adam-Kuckhoff-Platz in Kleinmachnow has honoured those who died at the border there.

## Sources

1. Lydia Dollmann, “Walter Kittel”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180534/kittel-walter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171388/kittel-walter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Walter Kittel”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kittel-walter/

---

# Heinz Cyrus (1936–1965)

> Heinz Cyrus, a 29-year-old farm worker from Rügen and father of four, was discovered trying to escape near the Nordbahnhof on 10 November 1965. Fleeing gunfire into Gartenstrasse 85, he fell or jumped from a fourth-floor window and died of his injuries the next morning.

- Born: 5 June 1936
- Died: 11 November 1965
- Age at death: 29
- Cause of death: Fatal fall or accident
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: From a jump or fall out of the building at Gartenstrasse 85 while under fire; On the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (exact): 52.53303, 13.38762
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/cyrus-heinz/

## Story

Heinz Cyrus was born on 5 June 1936, the child of an unmarried nurse in Greifswald, and spent his early years in a children's home. In 1943 he was taken in by foster parents and grew up in Dreschvitz on the island of Rügen. He trained as a dairy worker and worked on a number of state farms on the island. He married in 1954 and had four children. A school friend remembered him as a strong man and a capable worker, well brought up by his foster parents, if perhaps a little wild.

Jailed in October 1956 for beating up People's Police officers, he was let out of the prison work camp early, and in April 1957 he and his wife took over an eight-hectare farm in Teschvitz. Two years later they joined the local cooperative, where he became deputy chairman and was put in charge of the cattle. His eldest daughter, Monika, remembered a carefree childhood, with a television, a refrigerator and a father who rode a motorcycle and played football, until, as she recalled, men in long coats and leather jackets appeared on the farm in 1960.

In October 1959 informants reported that, during a quarrel and under the influence of alcohol, he had abused communists and threatened the cooperative's chairman. The Stasi arrested him in March 1960, as forced collectivisation was intensifying, and in June 1960 a public trial in Rostock sentenced him to seven years for alleged harmful activities, including neglecting the cooperative's cattle. He denied every charge; no defence witnesses were allowed. In his final words he told the court he had not acted as an enemy of East Germany and asked for a milder sentence, in vain. He was sent to the prison in Torgau.

An amnesty in September 1964 brought his early release. By then divorced, he worked with a crop brigade on a state farm in Güttin. In July 1965 he received a six-month prison sentence for assault, suspended with a two-year probation period, and in early November the People's Police investigated him again on suspicion, whether rightly or not is unknown, of a violent crime. The threat of another arrest was probably what made him resolve to escape to West Berlin; he had four siblings in West Germany. According to a Stasi report, he had said goodbye to his foster mother on the evening of 9 November, telling her he had taken a few days' leave and had to go away.

Shortly before 9 p.m. on 10 November 1965 he was moving towards the border installations near the Nordbahnhof when a guard dog picked up his scent. Police were called in and sealed off the area; after the guards allegedly called on him to surrender and he refused, they fired at him from three sides. Unhurt, he escaped into the building at Gartenstrasse 85, and as his pursuers searched it he climbed from floor to floor. In the end he climbed out of a fourth-floor hallway window, clung to the gutter and plunged into the courtyard below; whether he jumped or fell is not certain. He was taken to the People's Police Hospital with a fractured skull and other broken bones, and died early the next morning despite an emergency operation.

The Stasi told his foster mother and his former wife that he had run from an identity check while drunk and jumped from a window, and the local police representative in his home village and the deputy director of his farm were told only that he had had an accident. On 5 January 1966 he was laid to rest, with only his closest family present, in the Protestant cemetery at Samtens on Rügen. According to his daughter Monika, his ashes were placed in the grave of his foster father, and his foster mother received only his wristwatch, its glass broken. The Berlin public prosecutor's investigation, opened at the end of 1990, was discontinued on 6 October 1993: the border guards were held to have acted in accordance with their service regulations and therefore without guilt. No one was ever held legally responsible for his persecution or his death.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Heinz Cyrus”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180535/cyrus-heinz
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171392/cyrus-heinz
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Heinz Cyrus”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/cyrus-heinz/

---

# Heinz Sokolowski (1917–1965)

> Heinz Sokolowski, a 47-year-old journalist and former political prisoner, was shot by a border guard on 25 November 1965 as he reached the Wall between the Reichstag building and the Brandenburg Gate, and died on the way to hospital.

- Born: 17 December 1917
- Died: 25 November 1965
- Age at death: 47
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Between the Reichstag Building and the Brandenburg Gate; On the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Tiergarten
- Map position (approximate): 52.5183, 13.37691
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/sokolowski-heinz/

## Story

Heinz Sokolowski was born on 17 December 1917 in Frankfurt an der Oder and grew up in modest circumstances. According to an account of his life he wrote later, he trained as a tailor after elementary school and attended a business school. In 1936 he was offered an editorial internship at the "Frankfurter Oderzeitung" and gave up studying for his university entrance qualification in favour of journalism. Called up two years later, he served in the Wehrmacht in various places during the Second World War, among other things as a war reporter, and finally as a lance corporal on the eastern front. At 26 he was taken into Russian captivity, went through anti-fascist training and, like many soldiers, was for a time won over to communism.

In 1946 he settled in the Soviet sector of Berlin and worked as a freelance journalist for radio and newspapers. In 1947 he married; he, his wife and their daughter made their home in Prenzlauer Berg until the couple divorced in 1951. Although not a party member, he worked for the communist-controlled media. In early 1953 came a break; the files do not show whether he had turned away or why he had fallen out of favour. He was arrested on 12 February 1953 and on 27 April 1953 a Soviet military tribunal sentenced him to twenty years, reduced by a court of cassation to ten, for allegedly spying for the West and possessing anti-Soviet literature. After three years in a Soviet labour camp he was handed over to the East German authorities in 1956, in the last repatriation of German prisoners, as one of those not amnestied, and had to serve the rest of his sentence there, in Bautzen, Brandenburg and Waldheim, where he contracted tuberculosis in early 1960. He was released in February 1963, not to the West as he had hoped, but to East Berlin.

Out of touch with his family, in poor health and reduced to working as a lift operator in an industrial plant, he applied to leave East Germany, citing distant relatives in the West, but he soon had to recognise that the East Berlin authorities would not let him go at any price. In May 1965, according to the Stasi, he was dismissed without notice after refusing to work under new rules. He then began to prepare an escape, looking for a place along the border, gathering ropes and blankets to get over the wall and barbed wire, gradually selling his household goods and letting friends in West Berlin in on his plan. In October he wrote to a friend in West Berlin, whom he had met in Waldheim prison, that he could no longer bear living in East Berlin.

At around 5 a.m. on 25 November 1965, still in darkness, he approached the border from Clara-Zetkin-Strasse, today's Dorotheenstrasse. A guard in the watchtower at the corner of Ebertstrasse saw him and fired warning shots, but he kept going. He set off an alarm, bringing two more soldiers. He had reached the barbed-wire-topped wall when one of them opened aimed fire on him. Struck in the abdomen, he died shortly afterwards on the way to the hospital in Mitte. West Berlin police heard the shots and saw him being carried away.

His friend in the West learned of his death from a friend in East Berlin. He wrote that when they had read the press report of another fugitive shot near the Brandenburg Gate, they had feared it might be Heinz Sokolowski, and that they were deeply shaken. The following spring the "Working Group 13th of August" put up a three-metre wooden cross in his memory at the corner of Scheidemannstrasse and Ebertstrasse, opposite the place where he died. Its inscription recalled that he had been shot trying to escape after seven years in East German prisons.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Heinz Sokolowski”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180536/sokolowski-heinz
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171389/sokolowski-heinz
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Heinz Sokolowski”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/sokolowski-heinz/

---

# Erich Kühn (1903–1965)

> Erich Kühn, a 62-year-old transport and warehouse worker from East Berlin, was shot while trying to cross the railway grounds at Kiefholzstrasse in Treptow in November 1965 and died of his wounds on 3 December 1965.

- Born: 27 February 1903
- Died: 3 December 1965
- Age at death: 62
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Kiefholzstrasse; On the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.48446, 13.46038
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kuehn-erich/

## Story

Erich Kühn was born on 27 February 1903 in Landsberg an der Warthe, a town that is now part of Poland. At the age of nine he moved to Berlin, where he spent most of his life. Without a trade, he got by on casual work. Only fragments of his life can be pieced together from official records, and they show a life marked by hardship and conflict.

According to Stasi records he was in trouble with the law from an early age: a criminal police file shows that in 1917, at 14, he served four weeks in prison for theft, and he was imprisoned several times in later decades for theft and forgery. After the war the authorities in the Soviet sector first noticed him because of black-market dealing. In November 1953 he was sentenced to six years and three months in a penitentiary for a sexual offence against a child. He was released in June 1959, at the age of 56.

The years that followed brought poor health, frequent changes of job and a third marriage that ended in divorce in 1964. From February 1963 he worked for several East Berlin firms as a transport and warehouse worker. In the weeks before his escape attempt he was in hospital: he had spent a long time in the Protestant Queen Elizabeth Hospital before being moved on 27 September to the Herzberge Municipal Hospital, a psychiatric institution. Sent home on two days' leave on 13 November, he did not return. Papers found in his flat point to a crisis: an unsent letter protesting against his dismissal and the apparent threat of enforcement over maintenance demands. On 24 November he took a suit to a pawnshop. As far as the records show, by the time he decided to flee he was lonely, ill and poor, and all this suggests that he hoped to escape his plight by fleeing to West Berlin.

After dark in late November he approached the railway grounds where disused tracks crossed Kiefholzstrasse, between Treptower Park and Sonnenallee stations, keeping below the embankment. The two soldiers posted on the bridge heard a noise from the embankment but in the dark could not tell whether it was an escapee, and they were reluctant to intervene. The guard leader telephoned the company's platoon leader, who ordered him to act; he then told the other guard to shoot, and, as the press reported when the three soldiers stood trial decades later, the guard fired blindly into the bushes. Erich Kühn was badly wounded in the stomach.

He was operated on that night at the People's Police Hospital and was conscious in the days that followed, but his condition grew steadily worse. The wound led to peritonitis, and he died on the evening of 3 December 1965, aged 62. He apparently left no relatives to mourn him; at least, the East German authorities could find no one willing to arrange his funeral, and at the instigation of the East Berlin public prosecutor his urn was buried in an anonymous grave at the Baumschulenweg Cemetery.

His fate became public only after the East German archives were opened, and the trial attracted much public interest. In 1995 the Berlin Regional Court found three former border soldiers guilty of manslaughter and incitement to manslaughter and gave each a suspended one-year prison or youth sentence.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Erich Kühn”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180537/kuehn-erich
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171390/kuehn-erich
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Erich Kühn”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kuehn-erich/

---

# Heinz Schöneberger (1938–1965)

> Heinz Schöneberger, a 27-year-old construction worker from West Germany, was shot in the back on 26 December 1965 at the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse crossing while trying to drive two women out of East Germany, and died from loss of blood on West Berlin territory.

- Born: 7 June 1938
- Died: 26 December 1965
- Age at death: 27
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse border crossing; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (exact): 52.50516, 13.41209
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schoeneberger-heinz/

## Story

Heinz Schöneberger was born on 7 June 1938 in Wagten, East Prussia. After the Second World War he was forced to leave his homeland; together with his mother and his three brothers he made it to West Germany, where they made their home in the Harz mountains. There he went to school and trained as a construction worker, afterwards getting by with a series of temporary jobs.

He married, and in June 1961 moved with his wife to East Germany, probably to avoid a prison sentence for driving without a licence. He returned to West Germany before the Wall was built, meaning to bring his wife over later. On 17 October 1961 he left the transit route to fetch her from Karl-Marx-Stadt, but was arrested before they could plan an escape. Sentences for leaving and re-entering the country, for "violating the border", and, while he was still in prison, for attempted breakouts and "mutiny" followed one another, and his wife divorced him. He was released to West Germany on 1 August 1964, only to serve two months in Wolfenbüttel prison for driving without a licence.

Afterwards he worked on building sites in West Berlin with his brother Horst. On visits to East Berlin the brothers met Monika P. and Christel R. at a dance hall and began seeing them. The two women were set on leaving East Germany, and the brothers wanted to help. They planned to use a Ford Taunus 17 M, which had bench seats at the front as well as the back: Monika P. was to hide inside the backrest of the rear seat and Christel R. under the front bench. If they were discovered at the border, they agreed, they would put their foot down and break through.

At around half past midnight on 26 December 1965 they reached the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse crossing. The brothers were told to step out, and a soldier found Monika P. hidden in the backrest of the rear seat. Heinz Schöneberger leapt behind the wheel, locked the doors and drove towards the border through the zigzag of concrete barriers, but could not go faster than 40 kilometres an hour, and the car stopped at the closed final barrier. Shots from the tower hit the driver's door, injuring only his calf. He ran for the border, bent low. A second guard fired at him from behind, and five metres from the line a bullet struck him in the back and severed his carotid artery. He reached West Berlin territory but died soon afterwards from loss of blood. He was buried in Dortmund.

West Berlin police, customs officers and passers-by had witnessed the shooting, and protests continued at the crossing over the following days. Horst Schöneberger was sentenced to twelve years and freed to the West six and a half years later. Monika P. received two years and six months and Christel R. two years; both later moved to the West.

A West Berlin manslaughter investigation was discontinued in 1967 because the soldiers who had fired could not be identified. Reopened in the early 1990s, the case came to trial, but on 28 February 1997 the Berlin Regional Court acquitted all the defendants, finding the charges not proven with sufficient certainty.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Heinz Schöneberger”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180538/schoeneberger-heinz
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171391/schoeneberger-heinz
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Heinz Schöneberger”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schoeneberger-heinz/

---

# Dieter Brandes (1946–1966)

> Dieter Brandes, an 18-year-old concrete worker who had grown up in children's homes, was shot on the grounds of the Nordbahnhof station on 9 June 1965 while trying to escape. Paralysed, he died of his wounds in hospital on 11 January 1966.

- Born: 23 October 1946
- Died: 11 January 1966
- Age at death: 19
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the grounds of the Nordbahnhof station near Feldstrasse; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (approximate): 52.53649, 13.38367
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/brandes-dieter/

## Story

Dieter Brandes was born in Frankfurt an der Oder on 23 October 1946. He spent his first sixteen years in a succession of children's homes and later lived in a home for young people in Bad Freienwalde. In June 1964, aged 17, he is said to have tried to escape and failed; as punishment he was sent to a "youth work yard" in Sömmerda, Thuringia, one of the institutions East Germany used to re-educate non-conforming young people and young offenders in line with the socialist state.

After his release at the end of 1964 he went to live with his father and stepmother in Frankfurt an der Oder and worked as an unskilled concrete worker. His natural mother lived in Hamburg, and he was said to be in contact with her by letter. When he did not come home on 9 June 1965, his parents assumed, according to Stasi files, that he was trying once more to reach the West and his mother.

That day he had indeed travelled to East Berlin. In the evening, on the grounds of the Nordbahnhof station in Mitte, he set off an alarm at around 9 p.m. while trying to get through the border installations. This alerted a non-commissioned officer of the border troops who was checking on the guards posted there. When he did not stop despite a call to halt and a warning shot, the NCO opened fire. He fell a few metres short of the last barrier. The soldiers involved and their superiors later received awards for it.

Residents of the Ernst Reuter housing estate in West Berlin watched from their windows and balconies as he was carried away, limp. From their accounts the West Berlin police concluded that he had been at least wounded, perhaps killed. The press reported the failed escape the next day, a wooden cross was put up on Gartenstrasse that evening, and the West Berlin police chief filed a criminal complaint on suspicion of manslaughter against unknown members of Border Regiment 33.

In fact he was still alive. A bullet had shattered his ribcage and badly injured his lung, and after an operation at the People's Police Hospital he woke up paralysed. On 12 June he was moved to the municipal clinic in Berlin-Buch, where he did not recover. A medical report of 31 August said he was often greatly changed mentally and apathetic towards his treatment and his future, and the investigation into his escape attempt was discontinued on 5 October 1965 because he could not be questioned. His father was told of his injuries and allowed to visit him. His condition kept worsening, and he died on 11 January 1966 when his circulation failed.

The ward staff had collected money for him and given him a Christmas present. In a note written two weeks after his death, the Stasi lieutenant in charge worked to counter any impression that he had been a victim, falsely claiming he had used violence and injured border soldiers; whether the staff believed this is not known. Under Stasi pressure his father waived the right to have the urn sent home, and Dieter Brandes was buried anonymously at Baumschulenweg Cemetery. An investigation reopened in October 1990 could not identify the man who shot him, and the proceedings were discontinued on 29 May 1996.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Dieter Brandes”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180539/brandes-dieter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171373/brandes-dieter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Dieter Brandes”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/brandes-dieter/

---

# Willi Block (1934–1966)

> Willi Block, a 31-year-old former border policeman from Berlin, became entangled in barbed wire while trying to escape near the Staaken border crossing on 7 February 1966 and was shot by East German border guards as West Berlin police looked on.

- Born: 5 June 1934
- Died: 7 February 1966
- Age at death: 31
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near the Staaken border crossing; On the outer ring between Staaken (Nauen district) and Berlin-Spandau
- Map position (approximate): 52.52414, 13.14334
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/block-willi/

## Story

Willi Block was born in Berlin on 5 June 1934. He trained as a construction worker and from 1954 to 1959 served in the East German border police, where he became a tank commander and finally an instructor in Wismar, leaving with the rank of Feldwebel (sergeant) and as a member of the SED, the ruling party. As a member of a workers' militia, he took part in building the Wall in 1961.

He fled to West Berlin for the first time on 13 January 1962, then went back a month later to fetch his wife and was arrested. He was sent to a re-training and labour camp and released after six weeks, partly because his evidently influential father intervened, and while there agreed to inform for the Stasi under the cover name "Rabe", though he evidently declined concrete spying assignments. On 18 August 1962 he fled west again and told the authorities about his recruitment, after which proceedings were opened against him at the West Berlin superior court for violating the freedom protection law.

In December 1962, learning that his wife wanted a divorce, he returned to the East once more. This time he was treated as a traitor, accused of spying for western intelligence, and in April 1963 sentenced to five years, which he served in Bautzen. A British intelligence note suggests he had cooperated with a Western intelligence agency, and British officers had no doubt that he was a double agent. Released early in November 1965, he was assigned a job at the Staaken concrete plant near the border, where he often clashed with his supervisors.

On 7 February 1966 he drank so much during his shift that he was not allowed to carry on working; a colleague last saw him asleep on a cot in the lounge at around 3 p.m. Soon afterwards he must have decided to flee once more; unnoticed and in broad daylight, he got past the inner fence and a dog run near the crossing to Spandau. At around 3:45 p.m. two guards on a watchtower spotted him; they fired a flare and a barrage, and shots struck the ground in front of him. He tried to crawl under the three coils of barbed wire between him and West Berlin, but his clothes caught in the second coil and he was held fast, lying on his stomach.

West Berlin customs officers and police arrived, soon followed by an ambulance, and tried to make contact with him. He called out that he was unhurt, gave the name of his brother, who lived in West Berlin, and asked them to pass on his regards. Guards on the eastern side, joined by their regiment commander, surrounded him; when an officer called on him to come back, he answered that he could not. For a few minutes nothing happened. Then, as he tried once more to pull himself towards the West, a number of guards opened fire, among them the regiment commander, who emptied his pistol and then fired a Kalashnikov from 15 metres. Seventy-two shots were fired; four hit him, three of them fatal.

His body had to be cut free from the wire. Two border soldiers on their way to their barracks glimpsed it on a truck and decided on the spot to flee, unwilling to find themselves having to shoot at an escapee; they reached West Berlin together that same evening. Three days later a Potsdam prosecutor told his father that his son had died in an accident during an attempt to break through the border for which he himself was to blame, made him sign an undertaking to keep the circumstances secret, and required an urn burial at Baumschulenweg Cemetery.

In 1993 four former officers and guards were charged with attempted manslaughter. The chief of staff and both guards were acquitted by the Berlin Regional Court in January 1995 because it could not be proved that they had aimed at him or acted together with the one who fired the fatal shots. In the separate proceedings against the regiment commander it could not be established who had fired the fatal shots, although it was considered highly probable that he had. He was first convicted of attempted manslaughter; after the prosecution appealed and the Federal Court of Justice ruled, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three years in prison, not suspended; the Berlin Regional Court said his conduct at the scene bore the character of an (attempted) execution.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Willi Block”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180540/block-willi
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171376/block-willi
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Willi Block”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/block-willi/

---

# Jörg Hartmann (1955–1966)

> Jörg Hartmann, a ten-year-old boy from Friedrichshain, was shot dead by border guards on 14 March 1966 near the "Sorgenfrei" garden settlement on Kiefholzstrasse in Treptow; his 13-year-old friend Lothar Schleusener was shot with him and died that same evening.

- Born: 27 October 1955
- Died: 14 March 1966
- Age at death: 10
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Kiefholzstrasse near the "Sorgenfrei" garden settlement; On the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.47816, 13.46896
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hartmann-joerg/

## Story

Jörg Hartmann was born in East Berlin on 27 October 1955 and grew up in Friedrichshain. Because his mother was ill and could not look after her children, Jörg and his two younger siblings lived with their grandmother in a small flat in a rear building on Schreinerstrasse. His third-grade teacher, Ursula Mörs, remembered him as a quiet, shy boy, small and slight, with blond hair and pale blue eyes. School was hard for him, and he was very pleased whenever he was praised. He had never met his father, who lived in West Berlin.

On 14 March 1966 Jörg left home to buy fresh bread rolls and did not come back. That day he was with Lothar Schleusener, 13, whom he had known since they were small, when both families lived in the same neighbourhood. His classmates later told his teacher that Jörg had said he wanted to go to his father in West Berlin.

After dark the two boys reached the border area in Treptow unnoticed. According to the report that the East Berlin city commandant made to Erich Honecker, at about 7.15 p.m. border soldiers near the "Sorgenfrei" garden colony saw two figures who had passed the inner barrier. When they did not respond to a warning shot, the report said, fire was opened. Jörg, aged ten, died at once. Lothar was taken to the People's Police Hospital in Mitte and died of his injuries that same evening. Thirty years later one of the guards who fired said he had seen a shadow from his watchtower and had opened fire because he believed it was his duty.

East Germany's political and military leaders were unwilling to acknowledge that border guards had fired on children, and the truth was covered up. His grandmother reported him missing that evening but was told nothing. Two weeks later the East Berlin public prosecutor's office informed her that he had drowned and been recovered from a lake in Köpenick. The family did not believe it; an aunt told relatives in Australia that the police had summoned his grandmother and mother and threatened them, telling them to say nothing. Jörg had been cremated and buried anonymously at the Baumschulenweg Cemetery before his family had been informed of his death. His grandmother later had the urn reburied in a grave with a headstone.

The shots had been heard in Neukölln, and in March 1966 radio and newspapers in the West reported that children had been fired on; through channels that remain unknown, even Jörg's name reached the West. His teacher, who heard the report on RIAS radio, began asking questions until the school director told her to stop; she escaped to the West that same year. In the 1990s investigators were able to establish what had happened, and in November 1997 the Berlin Regional Court convicted a former border guard of manslaughter for the deaths of both boys and gave him a twenty-month suspended sentence; he had admitted firing on the two children together with another guard who had since died. A memorial to Jörg Hartmann and Lothar Schleusener, for which Ursula Mörs had campaigned, was dedicated on Kiefholzstrasse in 1999.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Jörg Hartmann”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180541/hartmann-joerg
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171379/hartmann-joerg
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Jörg Hartmann”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hartmann-joerg/

---

# Lothar Schleusener (1953–1966)

> Lothar Schleusener, a 13-year-old boy from Friedrichshain, was shot by border guards on 14 March 1966 at the border on Kiefholzstrasse together with a younger boy, and died the same night; his mother was given a falsified death certificate.

- Born: 14 January 1953
- Died: 14 March 1966
- Age at death: 13
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Kiefholzstrasse near the "Sorgenfrei" garden settlement; On the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.47816, 13.46896
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schleusener-lothar/

## Story

Lothar Schleusener was born in East Berlin on 14 January 1953 and grew up in Friedrichshain with his older sister. His father was an electrician and his mother a seamstress at the state-owned company "Fortschritt" in Lichtenberg. According to his sister, the family lived in a poor neighbourhood that everyone then called the "Hinterland". With both parents at work, the two children were often left to themselves, and they loved spending time at the family's allotment garden, where they kept animals and where they sometimes stayed overnight in summer. The parents divorced in 1965 but were still sharing the flat in March 1966.

His sister remembered him as a friendly, caring boy who was especially fond of animals and longed to be big and strong; he liked to picture himself one day driving his grandmother around in a car. The family had relatives in the West who had sent parcels at Christmas in the first years after the border was closed. According to her, not long before he went missing Lothar confided to her that he and a friend meant to visit relatives in West Berlin, and promised to bring her back something nice. She did not take him seriously at the time; only after the Wall fell did she understand that he had meant it.

On 14 March 1966 Lothar and Jörg Hartmann were in the border area at a place known as "Grenzknick". One of the guards later confessed that he and a fellow guard had shot at the children. By his account, from the observation tower he had seen a human shadow and thought someone was trying to climb out of the anti-vehicle trench; he sent the other guard down from the tower and opened fire, shooting forty rounds in all. When he came down from the tower after the firing stopped and saw that they were children, he was, as he later said, completely devastated.

The only official record of what happened speaks of two injured "Grenzverletzer" (border violators) taken to the People's Police Hospital, one of whom died. It does not say they were children or give their names, nor that Lothar, the older boy and the one allegedly fit to be questioned in hospital, also died that same night. The Stasi kept watch on the guards stationed there; one informer reported that the incident had become known in his platoon before the guards involved were sworn to silence, and that with attentive observation the crossing could have been prevented without the use of firearms.

Lothar had been missing for days before his mother was officially told that he had died of an electric shock in an accident in Espenhain near Leipzig; a death certificate issued by the registry office in Leipzig was meant to confirm this. His parents doubted this in private but, fearing trouble, did not dare say so openly. His sister believes their mother knew she was being lied to, since she knew of western radio reports that two children had been shot at the Wall on the day he vanished. His sister says that, out of grief and fear, their mother never wanted to talk about his death and told her to say nothing and ask no questions. He was buried at the cemetery on Friedensstrasse in Friedrichshain, with only his parents, grandparents and sister present.

In November 1997 the Berlin Regional Court convicted a former border guard of manslaughter for the deaths of both boys and gave him a 20-month suspended sentence; the second guard had died by then. Proceedings over the false death certificate were discontinued without result in August 1997 because no documents could be found that would prove the case against the suspected culprits. A memorial to the two boys was put up on Kiefholzstrasse in November 1999.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Lothar Schleusener”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180542/schleusener-lothar
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171380/schleusener-lothar
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Lothar Schleusener”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schleusener-lothar/

---

# Willi Marzahn (1944–1966)

> Willi Marzahn, a 21-year-old soldier and father from Jüterbog, died on 19 March 1966 after an armed escape attempt near Steinstücken/Kohlhasenbrück; whether he was shot or took his own life remained unclear.

- Born: 3 June 1944
- Died: 19 March 1966
- Age at death: 21
- Cause of death: Shot, or suicide – the circumstances are unclear
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near Steinstücken/Kohlhasenbrück; On the outer ring between Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.39012, 13.13076
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/marzahn-willi/

## Story

Willi Marzahn was born on 3 June 1944 in Jüterbog. After school he trained as a locomotive mechanic. From 1964 he lived with his wife and child in Schwedt an der Oder, where he worked as an engine fitter in the central workshop of the oil refinery. That same year he signed up for three years in the National People's Army, beginning his service on 3 November 1964. Politically he did not draw attention to himself, and his room-mates reportedly saw him as a loner.

He had been promised a post in an armoured unit near home, but the promise was not kept: he was posted to Stahnsdorf, south-west of Berlin, as weapons master in a motorised rifle unit. The journey to Schwedt took almost a day, so he could not reach his family during ordinary off-duty passes. Worried that his marriage would not survive, he asked repeatedly to be transferred, without success. In February 1966 he asked to be released from his three-year commitment, writing that his basic service would end in April, that his wife had said she would divorce him if he did not then come home, and that he was married with a child. The army dismissed his requests. His superiors also ignored his complaints of chronic headaches after a concussion and ear operation, his reliance on painkillers and sleeping pills, and even threats of suicide.

In early March 1966 he unexpectedly wrote to his wife asking for a divorce. He may have meant it; it may also have been meant to protect her from being accused of knowing his plans. By then, it appears, the 21-year-old was already thinking of escape.

He and another sergeant, Eberhard M., were off duty on 18 March 1966 with a pass until 6 o'clock the next morning. After an evening in a Potsdam bar they returned to the Stahnsdorf barracks at about 3 a.m. Only Willi Marzahn went inside. He had the armoury key handed to him, supposedly to carry out a check, and passed two Kalashnikov machine pistols, three Makarov pistols and ammunition out of the armoury window to Eberhard M., who carried them to the fence. After signing out again for the rest of their pass, the two collected the weapons at a gap in the barracks fence. They walked for several hours, partly through woodland and partly along the roadside, to the border strip near Kohlhasenbrück and Griebnitzsee.

At around 6 a.m. they crawled under a signal fence near Steinstücken. They set off an alarm, to which no guard at first reacted, and then a flare. Only when they ran from the cover of the woods across the death strip did the guards on duty spot them. Shots were exchanged. Eberhard M. got over the last obstacles into West Berlin. Willi Marzahn lay before a tank-trap wall, where he was found with a gunshot wound to the head. Taken to the nearby army hospital in Drewitz, he died at around 8 in the morning without regaining consciousness. Residents of Steinstücken and Kohlhasenbrück were startled by the early-morning gunfire; one heard a voice from the strip calling for help.

Who fired the fatal shot was never established. The pathologists at first also assumed that a long-range shot from a Kalashnikov had killed him; after a second examination requested by the Stasi, the pathologists arrived at what they called a reliable assumption that it had been a shot at point-blank range from the Makarov pistol lying beside him. Because the scene was never properly examined, it remained unclear whether he was shot or, as the Stasi wanted to suggest, possibly took his own life. After 1990 prosecutors could not determine with certainty who fired first, and in 1992 the case against the border soldiers was discontinued.

He was buried in Jüterbog on 23 March 1966, with his family present and the Stasi watching. A memorial cross bearing his name and the date 19 March 1966 was later erected in Zehlendorf.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Willi Marzahn”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180543/marzahn-willi
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171377/marzahn-willi
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Willi Marzahn”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/marzahn-willi/

---

# Eberhard Schulz (1946–1966)

> Eberhard Schulz, a 20-year-old farmhand from Brusendorf, was shot dead by a border guard on 30 March 1966 near the Rudower Woods between Grossziethen and Neukölln, apparently after he had stood up and given himself up.

- Born: 11 March 1946
- Died: 30 March 1966
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near the Rudower Woods; On the outer ring between Grossziethen (Königs Wusterhausen district) and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.40894, 13.47396
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schulz-eberhard/

## Story

Eberhard Schulz was born in Glasow, Brandenburg, on 11 March 1946. His parents separated, and he grew up with his mother and four siblings in Brusendorf, to the south of Berlin. After school he found work on a state-owned farm in Boddinsfelde as an unskilled farmhand.

He often talked with a workmate, his friend Dieter K., about how life differed in East and West; one of his brothers lived in West Berlin and was doing well. Dieter K. had helped clear rubble in 1964/65 when border houses in Grossziethen were demolished, and remembered the barrier there as little more than barbed wire and a mesh fence. When Dieter K. talked about this over a beer one evening in a larger group, some of the young men there decided they wanted to try to flee too; the two friends thought that too risky and wanted to go on their own.

Late on 29 March 1966 they took a bolt-clipper from the company workshop and cycled almost twenty kilometres to Grossziethen. At around 3 a.m. on 30 March they left their bicycles near the border and went on foot, guided by the lit high-rises in the West. They lost the bolt-clipper on the way, and the border was no longer as Dieter K. remembered it: there were now signal devices, dogs, a signal fence and a lit strip a good 250 metres wide. Dieter K. crawled under the inner fence but set off an alarm, and flares went up. Eberhard, apparently losing his nerve, had stayed on the near side of the fence. Both lay still in the grass.

When three guards reached Dieter K. and ordered him to stand with his hands up, Eberhard thought the order was meant for him too and stood up, a dim figure about 15 metres away whom the guards had not yet seen. Two versions of what followed exist. Dieter K. said a guard immediately fired from the hip at Eberhard, without a call or warning shot, and a second guard shouted to cease fire. The guards claimed Eberhard had suddenly bent down, reached into his jacket pocket and made to run. What is certain is that two shots struck him in the face and neck and that he died instantly. His biographer considers the guards' account hardly plausible: the escape had already failed, and he had given himself up in a hopeless situation.

His body was taken to the forensic institute at the Charité, and the Stasi told his mother of his death the next day. Dieter K. was sentenced on 1 June 1966 to two years in prison. Investigations opened in 1991 could not establish exactly how the shots were fired, as the accounts contradicted one another. In the guard's favour - he denied any intention to kill - the public prosecutor's office had to assume that he had acted in putative self-defence, and Dieter K.'s contrary account was not enough for a conviction. The investigation was discontinued in November 1996, and his death remained unpunished by law.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron, “Eberhard Schulz”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180544/schulz-eberhard
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171375/schulz-eberhard
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Eberhard Schulz”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schulz-eberhard/

---

# Michael Kollender (1945–1966)

> Michael Kollender, a 21-year-old National People's Army soldier from Oberlungwitz, was shot in the head while crawling towards the Teltow Canal in Johannisthal early on 25 April 1966, and died in hospital.

- Born: 19 February 1945
- Died: 25 April 1966
- Age at death: 21
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Teltow Canal in Johannisthal; On the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.42686, 13.5193
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kollender-michael/

## Story

Michael Kollender was born in Silesia on 19 February 1945 and grew up in Oberlungwitz in Saxony, the eldest of three children in a Catholic family. He drove a tractor at the machine and tractor station in a neighbouring town. In early November 1965 he was drafted into the National People's Army and trained as a gunner in an air force anti-aircraft missile regiment.

His regiment was due to take part in the May Day parade in East Berlin on 1 May 1966, which can hardly have pleased him: he was a Catholic critical of the regime, and his superiors regarded him as recalcitrant. He had been thinking of escape since joining up, and had once confided to his younger brother that he would cross the border illegally into West Berlin if the opportunity arose.

On the night of 24 to 25 April 1966 he was on duty where his unit stored its combat equipment, in the old Hentschel factory halls in Berlin-Johannisthal. Still in uniform and carrying his loaded machine pistol, he left his post and ran across the old Johannisthal airfield towards the border, getting through the inner fence. At about 3.45 a.m. a flare was fired from the watchtower at Wrede Bridge.

Four guards were on duty by the canal. Three of them were due to be discharged within days, and by their own account, given when they were questioned in the early 1990s, they had just been saying how glad they were that no one had tried to escape on their watch. In the light of the flare they saw the shadow of a fugitive some distance away. One of them later claimed that, despite the darkness and the distance, he had made out an army uniform and a gun in the fugitive's hand; the other three said they had taken him for an ordinary escapee. They took their machine pistols from their shoulders and opened aimed fire, pursuing and encircling him and firing salvo after salvo; when they drew level with him, two of them allegedly fired barrage fire parallel to the border to stop him. He was already crawling across the control strip; only the triple barbed-wire fence stood between him and the canal bank, which was already West Berlin. He was only a few metres from the actual border line. The four guards fired at least 109 shots. He was hit twice in the head and suffered many other serious wounds. He had not fired a single shot himself.

The guards dragged him into a ditch, tried to give first aid and notified their command post. For half an hour the badly injured man lay in the death strip without medical care. Then, wrapped in a tarpaulin, he was pushed under a medical vehicle and loaded on the side facing away from the West, so that no one there could see him being taken away. He was taken to the People's Police Hospital in Berlin-Mitte, where he died. That same day the four guards were commended as a model group; the one presumed to have fired the fatal shot received a medal for exemplary border service and was promoted, and the other three were each given a gold wristwatch and a cash bonus.

Two days later army officers told his parents only that he had been shot while trying to escape, and urged them to stay silent; the family's papers about his service were taken away. He was buried in his home town among his family and many friends, watched by the Stasi. In autumn 1995 the Berlin Regional Court convicted one of the guards of attempted manslaughter and gave him a nine-month suspended sentence, but acquitted the guard presumed to have fired the fatal shot, holding that desertion was a wrong that could be prosecuted even under the rule of law. On appeal by the prosecution and the convicted guard, the Federal Court of Justice acquitted him as well: under East German military law of 1962 desertion was a crime, and killing deserters was excused because, in this special case, the unlawfulness of the shooting could not have been obvious to the guards.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Michael Kollender”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180545/kollender-michael
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171378/kollender-michael
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Michael Kollender”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kollender-michael/

---

# Paul Stretz (1935–1966)

> Paul Stretz, a 31-year-old warehouse worker living in West Berlin, was shot dead by East German border guards on 29 April 1966 while swimming in the Spandauer Schifffahrts Canal near Invaliden Cemetery.

- Born: 28 February 1935
- Died: 29 April 1966
- Age at death: 31
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spandauer Schifffahrts Canal near Invaliden Cemetery; At the sector border between Berlin-Tiergarten and Berlin-Mitte
- Map position (approximate): 52.53189, 13.37027
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/stretz-paul/

## Story

Paul Stretz was born on 28 February 1935 in Luitpoldshöhe in Bavaria and lived with his wife in Ottensoos, near Nuremberg. In October 1960 the couple lost their first daughter, Karin, when she was three months old. In November 1961, shortly before their second daughter was born, his wife left him because of his drinking. The divorce was settled in January 1966.

He stayed on in Ottensoos for a while without keeping in touch with his family, then moved to West Berlin, where he had no permanent home. His last job was as a warehouse worker for a haulage firm. On 29 April 1966, a hot day, he was working with colleagues beside the Spandauer Schifffahrts Canal, where the border followed the West Berlin embankment, so that the water itself belonged to the East.

He had been drinking beer and was noticeably drunk when, at about 3:30 p.m., he decided to go for a swim. His colleagues, watching from above, warned him that the canal belonged to East Berlin and that swimming there could cost him his life, but he took off his clothes and swam a few metres out, as far as the middle; a customs official also tried, without success, to get him to come back. Several witnesses recorded his last words: never mind the snipers, the water was lovely and warm.

Struggling against the current on his way back, he came into view of two guards in a watchtower about 250 metres away, who took him for an East German fugitive about to reach the West. He could not have heard any warning. They opened fire, and two more soldiers on patrol joined in from the bank. In all, 176 bullets were fired, some striking the West Berlin side, including a window of the Reichstag building. Paul Stretz was hit four times; he died at once and sank. East German divers recovered his body at about 11:15 that night and took it to the Charité for an autopsy.

His death and the shooting on the Spreebogen, in what had once been the heart of the city, drew West Berlin police, firefighters, customs officers and British military police to the scene and attracted wide political and media attention. West Berliners protested, and a placard was put up where he died. The East Berlin press, by contrast, described the incident as a provocation against East Germany's border.

Although East German authorities had learned his name from western newspapers, Paul Stretz was buried in early May 1966 as an unknown dead man at the municipal cemetery in Berlin-Marzahn. All his mother's attempts to have his remains brought home failed. Only in 1997 did the Berlin Regional Court give the guards who shot him suspended sentences of one year in prison.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Paul Stretz”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180546/stretz-paul
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171381/stretz-paul
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Paul Stretz”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/stretz-paul/

---

# Eduard Wroblewski (1933–1966)

> Eduard Wroblewski, a 33-year-old father of two from Zahna near Wittenberg, was shot from behind by border soldiers on 26 July 1966 while trying to cross the border from Mahlow to Lichtenrade along disused S-Bahn tracks.

- Born: 3 March 1933
- Died: 26 July 1966
- Age at death: 33
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the outer ring between Mahlow (Zossen district) and Berlin-Tempelhof
- Map position (approximate): 52.37713, 13.40222
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wroblewski-eduard/

## Story

Eduard Wroblewski was born on 3 March 1933 in Wutschdorf, in the former Prussian district of Züllichau-Schwiebus, one of many children in a family that had made its home in the Fläming Heath before the war. He left school at 14 and worked on a farm. He was evidently never an enthusiastic supporter of socialism, possibly in part because an older brother had been convicted of alleged espionage and sent to serve his sentence in the Soviet Union. At 19, in 1952, he went to West Germany, but without training or family support he could not establish himself and returned after nine months.

He worked for a time as a trackman on the railway and later found jobs on the land and on building sites. He first married in 1956; that marriage failed. In 1962 he married again, and he and his second wife had a son and a daughter. Difficulties with superiors and the authorities strained the marriage, and in July 1966 he was facing dismissal once again. The family lived in Zahna, in the Wittenberg district.

On the morning of 26 July 1966 his wife believed he was going to work at the mosaic plate factory in Zahna. Instead, without a word to his family, he travelled to Mahlow on the southern edge of Berlin. Early in the evening, probably having had a few drinks, he entered the border area along the disused S-Bahn tracks that once ran to Lichtenrade and got within 100 metres of the last fence unseen. Then shots rang out without warning. He ran and got over the first two rows of the three-row barbed-wire fence before he was struck from behind and collapsed in the wire. Five soldiers fired 274 rounds; twelve hit him, and he died at once.

Residents of Lichtenrade, who had just been sitting in their gardens or watching the World Cup semi-final, witnessed the shooting, and bullets struck houses on the western side. Heinrich Albertz, the senator for the interior, and the American city commander condemned it. In East Berlin, a newspaper denounced him as an antisocial element and a criminal wanted in the Halle district; the rumour that he had committed a crime was without foundation. The guards were honoured.

The slander followed his family for years. Out of shame and fear, his death was not spoken of at home; his son first learned of it when a classmate told him that his father had been a criminal who was shot at the border, and in 1982 he was refused radio operator training during military service because the files listed his father as a so-called border violator. After the collapse of the East German state, the Potsdam Regional Court found that of the six conscripts involved, one had not fired, one had deliberately missed and two had missed despite aiming. In August 1996 the two held responsible for the fatal shots were given 18-month suspended sentences for manslaughter. A commemorative column for him stands on the Berlin Wall Trail near Paplitzer Strasse.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Eduard Wroblewski”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180547/wroblewski-eduard
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171374/wroblewski-eduard
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Eduard Wroblewski”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wroblewski-eduard/

---

# Heinz Schmidt (1919–1966)

> Heinz Schmidt, a 46-year-old West Berliner in poor mental health, was shot by East German border guards on 29 August 1966 while swimming, heavily intoxicated, in the Spandauer Schiffahrts Canal at the Nordhafen harbour.

- Born: 26 October 1919
- Died: 29 August 1966
- Age at death: 46
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spandauer Schiffahrts Canal; On the sector border between Berlin-Tiergarten and Berlin-Mitte
- Map position (approximate): 52.53563, 13.36585
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidt-heinz/

## Story

Heinz Schmidt was born in Berlin on 26 October 1919. He married in 1949, and until 1962 he lived with his wife and their three children in Wedding, in West Berlin. In later years his mental health declined; he became an alcoholic and was out of work. Minor offences such as drunkenness, theft and embezzlement led to fines and spells in prison, and in 1962 the local court in Wedding classified him as mentally infirm, and a lawyer was appointed as his legal guardian.

In September 1965 he had already clashed with East German border guards when he shouted insults at them while crossing at the Oberbaum Bridge. After some years apart from his family, he was divorced in April 1966; from the middle of July he was living in a Wedding homeless shelter. On 29 August 1966 the social welfare office turned down his request for money, and his father, whom he met around midday, could not help him either.

Soon afterwards the 46-year-old appeared, heavily drunk, on the southern bank of the Nordhafen harbour in Tiergarten. He undressed down to his underwear and went into the water. Two fishermen warned him that these were border waters, since the canal here belonged wholly to East Berlin, but he swam on. They alerted the West Berlin police, and British military police also arrived. When East German guards fired a warning shot, West Berlin officers shouted across not to shoot, that he had jumped in from their side and was drunk. The guards opened fire all the same.

Under fire, he reached the east bank and sheltered behind a projecting wall of an old loading ramp. After a short rest he went back into the water and tried to swim underwater to the western side, surfacing several times for air while guards fired at him from a bunker in the Invaliden Cemetery and from the roof of a former ice factory. Hit by five bullets, he still reached the west bank. Firemen pulled him out at around 1.45 p.m. and took him to the Rudolf Virchow Hospital, where he was found to be dead; a bullet had shattered his cervical spine. He was buried on 8 September 1966 in the St. Pauli Cemetery in Wedding.

Crowds on both banks of the canal watched. In the East, a brewery worker was arrested for insulting the soldiers; from the West, people shouted across the canal that the guards were murderers. Stray bullets struck a harbour warehouse, the balcony window of a flat 1.5 kilometres away and a passing family's car. The three Allied city commanders condemned the shooting, while the East German party newspaper "Neues Deutschland" spoke of a new provocation. A criminal complaint was filed against the West Berlin police officers at the scene for failing to help a person in danger by not giving him covering fire, but Heinrich Albertz, mayor and senator for the interior, defended them, saying the bullets had struck about 150 metres from the patrol car and the officers could not have noticed them.

In 1991 investigators opened proceedings against the East German guards suspected of firing at him. The border troop files did not show clearly who had fired, and in the 1990s none of the former soldiers could or would remember. The soldier who had been awarded the "Medal for Exemplary Service at the Border" refused to testify about his use of his weapon and said he did not know why he had received the medal. With no one who could be proven to have fired at Heinz Schmidt, the public prosecutor's office discontinued the investigation on 25 July 1997.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Heinz Schmidt”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180548/schmidt-heinz
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171372/schmidt-heinz
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Heinz Schmidt”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidt-heinz/

---

# Andreas Senk (1960–1966)

> Andreas Senk, a six-year-old boy, fell into the Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge on 13 September 1966, where the whole river belonged to East Berlin; he was not recovered for hours and was declared dead in hospital.

- Born: 1960
- Died: 13 September 1966
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge; On the sector border between Berlin-Kreuzberg and Berlin-Friedrichshain
- Map position (approximate): 52.50207, 13.44282
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/senk-andreas/

## Story

Andreas Senk was born in 1960, the only son of his mother, Renate Senk, who was 25 years old in 1966.

On the morning of 13 September 1966, a hazy late-summer day, the six-year-old fell into the Spree at the Gröbenufer in Kreuzberg, sometime between 10 and 12 o'clock. Although Andreas fell from the western bank, the whole width of the river here belonged to the Soviet sector, so he fell into East Berlin waters.

The guards in the watchtower on the Oberbaum Bridge, about 200 metres away, apparently either did not notice or did not take it seriously as a border violation, and the same was true of the East German boats patrolling mid-river. For hours no one tried to save him or bring him out of the water. According to a chief fire inspector's later report, when West Berlin firemen arrived, the soldiers on a patrol boat were called to and told that the firemen needed to search there; a soldier answered that they should not come too far out into the water. The guards stood on deck with their machine pistols ready and otherwise did nothing, and they did not help to find the boy. According to the East German boat's report, firemen began searching the river from the western bank with long poles, and at 2:30 p.m. a child of about five was recovered and taken away on the western side. Andreas was taken to the Bethanien Hospital, where he was declared dead.

The next day a West Berlin newspaper reported that the boy had died before the eyes of the border police, and a spokesman for the West Berlin Senate accused the patrol boat crew of not only hindering but preventing the recovery. Two days after the accident, once the firemen had been questioned, that accusation was toned down. It is not known whether the guards ever noticed that he had fallen; the files say nothing of it.

The late alarm to the fire brigade had nothing to do with politics, and he could only have survived if he had been brought out within eight minutes at most. But the chance of a quick rescue at this spot was very small because of the border: as one commentator wrote, there were no passers-by at the death strip who could have become rescuers, and anyone jumping into East Berlin waters would have had to reckon with being shot. Four more children fell into the Spree at the Gröbenufer and died between 1972 and 1975. Only in the autumn of 1975 was an agreement reached, and from the spring of 1976 illuminated rescue posts stood along a good six kilometres of the water border on the West Berlin side.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends, “Andreas Senk”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180549/senk-andreas
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171382/senk-andreas
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Andreas Senk”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/senk-andreas/

---

# Karl-Heinz Kube (1949–1966)

> Karl-Heinz Kube, a 17-year-old from Ruhlsdorf near Teltow, was shot dead on 16 December 1966 in the border strip at Kleinmachnow, near Teltow harbour, after he and a friend had already given up their escape attempt.

- Born: 10 April 1949
- Died: 16 December 1966
- Age at death: 17
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near the Teltow Harbor; On the outer ring between Kleinmachnow (Potsdam county district) and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.41173, 13.24784
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kube-karl-heinz/

## Story

Karl-Heinz Kube was born on 10 April 1949 and grew up with four siblings in Ruhlsdorf near Teltow, south of Berlin. He went to school in Stahnsdorf and from November 1964 worked at the state-owned industrial plant in Ludwigsfelde, from April 1966 as an electric trolley driver. His friends called him "Kalle". Like them he loved western rock music, above all the Beatles, whom the East German authorities at that time scorned as a "layabout band" and whose music was therefore banned.

According to Stasi records he discouraged young people from joining the FDJ and objected to collections for the Vietcong. His defiant attitude brought him into conflict with the SED party leadership at his workplace, and for political reasons he was even threatened with being sent to a Jugendwerkhof, a kind of prison for young people. In the autumn of 1966, when he was 17, he and his friend Detlev S., who was 18, began to plan an escape to the West. Detlev wanted to become a ship's cook, but his applications were turned down, probably because his father and brother lived in the West. They considered swimming the Teltow Canal, ramming the border in a stolen car and even a glider, before settling on Kleinmachnow.

On the evening of 16 December 1966 the two rode a scooter from Ruhlsdorf to the border at Erlenweg in Kleinmachnow, near Teltow harbour, hoping that many guards would already be on Christmas leave. With wire cutters Karl-Heinz had obtained in Potsdam, they got past the first wall and the wire obstacles into the death strip. Around 9.45 p.m. they reached a trench obstacle; only an iron mesh fence about two to two and a half metres high now stood between them and West Berlin. At that moment border soldiers spotted them and opened fire.

The two gave up their attempt and took cover in a trench, hoping to get back, but as they ran from one group of guards they came into the line of fire of a second pair of guards, which opened continuous fire; the two ran back and forth in the trench several times to escape the shots. Karl-Heinz was struck by two bullets, in the head and chest, and fatally wounded. Four soldiers had fired 40 shots. Detlev S., unhurt, was arrested and not told for weeks that his friend had died. In a handwritten account he wrote in prison, he stated that two guards had carried Karl-Heinz, who had lost a great deal of blood and was unconscious, to a wall about 1.5 metres high and thrown him down from it. On 2 March 1967 the Potsdam-Stadt district court sentenced him to a year and eight months in prison.

Shortly before Christmas his parents, Helmut and Martha Kube, were told at the Kleinmachnow police station that their son had died in a border breach. His father was made to sign his agreement to cremation. They were not allowed to see him; his urn arrived by post. The uncertainty about how he had died, and whether he had suffered, never left his mother. She was 54 when she died, in December 1983, shortly before the anniversary of his death. The Stasi tried to stop his friends from hanging his picture in the Ruhlsdorf youth club and attending his funeral together.

In January 1990 his father wrote to Eberhard Diepgen, then mayor of Berlin, that he would never forget the sentence with which he had been told of his son's death. After a year of fruitless inquiries he followed advice to file a criminal complaint against persons unknown, and in March 1993 the four guards were charged with joint manslaughter and attempted manslaughter. A youth panel of the Potsdam District Court (Bezirksgericht) acquitted them, finding among other things that it could not be established which of them had fired the fatal shots. His younger sister said the acquittal had not settled their guilt: they claimed they had not aimed, she said, and yet they had hit. Today a plain wooden cross on the edge of Berlepschstrasse in Berlin-Zehlendorf remembers him.

## Sources

1. Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Karl-Heinz Kube”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180550/kube-karl-heinz
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171371/kube-karl-heinz
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Karl-Heinz Kube”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kube-karl-heinz/

---

# Max Sahmland (1929–1967)

> Max Sahmland, a 37-year-old Berlin-born former blacksmith and farm worker, was shot by border guards while fleeing across the Teltow Canal to West Berlin on 27 January 1967 and sank in the water.

- Born: 28 March 1929
- Died: 27 January 1967
- Age at death: 37
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Teltow Canal near Kanalstrasse; On the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.42752, 13.51285
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/sahmland-max/

## Story

Max Sahmland was born in Berlin on 28 March 1929 and was 16 when the war ended. The years that followed seem not to have been easy for him. After leaving school he worked on the land and later as a blacksmith at the heavy equipment construction company in Wildau. He was married and had two children.

According to a West Berlin police report, he moved to West Berlin in January 1961, leaving his wife and children behind, but returned to East Germany a few months later. Little is known about his reasons, or about why he came back; he reportedly later told the People's Police it was because of problems in his marriage. The marriage broke up. Alcohol repeatedly brought him into conflict with the law. In 1964 he had to serve an 18-month prison sentence for culpably causing a traffic accident, and in early January 1967 the district court in Königs Wusterhausen gave him six months for assault, followed by a stay in a detoxification centre. He did not want to go back to prison and decided to escape to West Berlin with his fiancée, who had a cousin there; he himself had a sister in West Germany.

Two earlier attempts had already failed. The day before the next try, the couple told a friend of their plans, and she chose on the spot to come with them. Shortly before midnight on 26 January 1967, having been drinking, the three set off, cycled to Zeuthen station and took the S-Bahn to Adlershof. From there they walked to a stretch of the border that Max Sahmland knew from his earlier work at a sewage treatment plant. He left the two women in a trench a few metres from the first fence, told his fiancée to be brave, and crawled ahead to cut a gap with a wire-cutter. When bursts of submachine-gun fire startled them, the women ran back and reached home without being noticed.

At about 2:30 a.m. he set off an alarm while trying to get over the signal fence, and guards in the observation tower at the Wredebrücke opened fire. Although already hit, he got under the barrier, reached the bank of the Teltow Canal and began to swim. The guards kept firing even after he had reached West Berlin territory; he was struck by several bullets, one of them in the right lung. Two workers from a cement asbestos plant on the western bank ran to help him, but had to take cover because the shooting continued, and eventually he sank into the canal.

The West Berlin water police recovered his body from the canal on 8 March 1967, six weeks later; he was identified by the identity card he was carrying. In February 2000 the Berlin Regional Court acquitted the man suspected of having shot him, because it could not disprove his claim that he had deliberately aimed a few metres wide.

His fiancée was arrested on 28 January 1967 and sentenced to two years and eight months in prison; she served twenty months in the Stasi prison in Potsdam and in Hoheneck women's prison. Her friend received a year and seven months. Max Sahmland's mother, who lived in East Berlin, was apparently not told that his body could be brought to East Berlin, as her letters to her sister suggest, and he was buried on 5 April 1967 in the Park Cemetery in Neukölln, West Berlin. To keep the 70-year-old woman from attending her son's funeral, the Stasi barred her from travelling until the end of April 1967.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Max Sahmland”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180551/sahmland-max
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171369/sahmland-max
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Max Sahmland”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/sahmland-max/

---

# Franciszek Piesik (1942–1967)

> Franciszek Piesik, a 24-year-old welder and painter from Poland, died on 17 October 1967 while trying to reach West Berlin across the Nieder Neuendorf Lake from Hennigsdorf; his body was recovered from the lake eleven days later.

- Born: 23 November 1942
- Died: 17 October 1967
- Age at death: 24
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Nieder Neuendorfer Lake; On the outer ring between Hennigsdorf (Oranienburg district) and Berlin-Heiligensee
- Map position (approximate): 52.61746, 13.21449
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/piesik-franciszek/

## Story

Franciszek Piesik was born on 23 November 1942 and grew up in a large family in Widuchowa on the Oder, right on Poland's border with East Germany. In the early 1960s he worked in inland shipping, on a dredger among other things, and in timber rafting. He later settled in Bromberg, married and had a daughter. A young woman who saw him shortly before he left Poland described him as having blue eyes, curly black hair and a tattoo of a long-haired girl on his left forearm.

He was self-assured and willing to take risks. He had twice been convicted and sent to prison, once for leaving his army unit without permission and once for breaking into a bar. By early 1967 he was free and working as a welder and painter at the Bromberg Metal Works. On 30 September 1967 he told his wife he was going to Widuchowa to visit his sick mother.

But he did not stay there long; he took jobs near the border using a false school certificate, and visited his brothers Leon and Ryszard on the dredger 'Neptun' at Bielinek. On the night of Saturday 14 October he insisted on sleeping aboard; around midnight he was gone, along with the dredger's rowboat, which was found at dawn on the East German bank. He managed to reach the area around Berlin unnoticed, and when he turned up near Hennigsdorf on 17 October he was carrying side-cutters and sketches of the border line in that area.

In the early evening of 17 October 1967 he stole a motorboat near Hennigsdorf and headed south, probably aiming to round a headland separating the canal from the Nieder Neuendorf Lake. The border ran down the middle of the water, with Heiligensee in West Berlin on the far side. Border guards spotted the boat. The accounts differ on what happened next: a Polish border officer, citing an East German colleague, wrote that he jumped into the water when ordered to stop and left his clothes behind, while another report says he reached the marshy headland and left his belongings there. Either way, he had to abandon his plan and try to swim across the lake. It was already the third day of his escape, the autumn weather was cool, and the water was little more than ten degrees. Whether he drowned from cold and exhaustion, or hid in the reeds and died there, is not known.

Reports that shots were fired were quickly denied, and West Berlin police were not aware of any firing. The border guards at first believed he had got away. On 28 October his body was recovered from the West Berlin side of the lake; the autopsy found no sign of external force. In Poland his relatives were repeatedly questioned and their homes searched, and in spring 1968 his wife was told his fate was unknown. Fingerprints that the Polish side supplied to the West Berlin police in mid-January 1968 confirmed his identity, and nearly half a year after his death he was buried in the Heiligensee cemetery, in the district he had hoped to reach. Because the grave fees went unpaid, the grave was cleared after a few years.

Why he left Poland remains unclear. He had corresponded with people in Essen and Düsseldorf and had probably meant to visit relatives in Essen. Whether marriage difficulties, his mother's need for medicine unavailable in Poland, or simply the wish to live freely played a part will probably never be known.

## Sources

1. Translation: Miriamne Fields, “Franciszek Piesik”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180552/piesik-franciszek
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171370/piesik-franciszek
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Franciszek Piesik”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/piesik-franciszek/

---

# Elke Weckeiser (1945–1968)

> Dieter Weckeiser, 25, and his wife Elke, 22, were shot from an East German border watchtower on 18 February 1968 while trying to escape across the Spree opposite the Reichstag building; Elke died that night and Dieter the following day.

- Born: 31 October 1945
- Died: 18 February 1968
- Age at death: 22
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Across from the Reichstag building, near Kronprinzen Bridge; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Tiergarten
- Map position (approximate): 52.52189, 13.37588
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weckeiser-elke/

## Story

Dieter Weckeiser was born on 15 February 1943 in Rhodebach, East Prussia. His father fell on the eastern front that same year, and much of his childhood was spent on the move: his mother fled with him to Elbing in 1944 and westward again in January 1945, and after a few years in the Soviet zone they reached West Germany in 1949, living in refugee centres and shelters. Only in 1954, when his mother remarried, did they settle in Warendorf, Westphalia. As a boy he had tuberculosis, and at seven he spent six months in a sanatorium where his mother could not visit him.

He trained as a furniture upholsterer and met a young woman who had come to Warendorf from East Germany in 1961. His mother and stepfather opposed the relationship, and in July 1962 the couple, she by then pregnant, left for West Berlin without telling them. Unable to establish themselves there, they moved at her urging to Fürstenwalde/Spree in East Germany, where they married and had three children. He worked in several jobs, among them interior decorator and co-driver. The marriage ended in divorce in 1966, and soon afterwards he became seriously ill.

Elke Möbis was born on 31 October 1945. After an apprenticeship as a textile twister she worked as a kitchen assistant in a company canteen in Fürstenwalde. She met Dieter at about the time of his divorce and illness, when she was 20. They married in late November 1966. The following year Dieter saw his mother again for the first time since leaving Warendorf, meeting her daily for a week in East Berlin, since she was not allowed to travel to Fürstenwalde and came over from West Berlin on day visas. He told her he had run into political trouble after drawing on his experience of the West to challenge the official picture of West Germany, and that he wished to come home to the West.

On the near-freezing evening of 18 February 1968, the couple tried to escape across the heavily guarded Spree in the city centre, diagonally opposite the Reichstag building. They would have had to pass barbed wire and a dog run, climb a three-metre fence, swim the icy river and haul themselves up the wall of the western bank. At about 11 p.m., as they crawled through the first barbed-wire fence, they were spotted from a watchtower and fired on without a challenge; seventeen shots were fired at them from the tower. Elke was hit in the chest and thigh, and Dieter in the head. Elke died that night in the People's Police Hospital; Dieter died the next day after emergency surgery.

To hide what had happened, the Stasi planned a cover story and a deliberate campaign to damage the couple's reputation. It even decided to pay Dieter's debts from state funds so creditors would not ask questions, told his former wife that the couple had died in an accident in a stolen car, and monitored the relatives' mail. His mother, whose enquiries to the East German police were in vain, learned only a year later, through direct contact between the pastors of her home town in the West and of Fürstenwalde in the East, that her son had died trying to escape. Elke's urn was buried in her mother's grave in Fürstenwalde on 7 May 1968, after her half-sister had been required to assure the Stasi that she would forgo a ceremonial burial and a notice in the press. Dieter's urn was withheld from his family and buried at the Baumschulenweg Cemetery in Berlin-Treptow.

The guards were commended and awarded the Medal for Exemplary Border Service at the time, and one was promoted early. Thirty years later they were brought before the Berlin Regional Court. Most of the officers and soldiers stationed at the border had already told police that, objectively, the shooting had not been necessary. In 1997 the guard who had fired was given a suspended sentence of one year and nine months, the court treating the killing as manslaughter of a less serious kind; his superior was acquitted.

Died together with: Dieter Weckeiser (https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weckeiser-dieter/).

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Elke Weckeiser and Dieter Weckeiser”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180553/weckeiser-dieter-and-elke
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171366/weckeiser-dieter-und-elke
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Elke Weckeiser”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weckeiser-elke/

---

# Dieter Weckeiser (1943–1968)

> Dieter Weckeiser, 25, and his wife Elke, 22, were shot from an East German border watchtower on 18 February 1968 while trying to escape across the Spree opposite the Reichstag building; Elke died that night and Dieter the following day.

- Born: 15 February 1943
- Died: 19 February 1968
- Age at death: 25
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Across from the Reichstag building, near Kronprinzen Bridge; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Tiergarten
- Map position (approximate): 52.52189, 13.37588
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weckeiser-dieter/

## Story

Dieter Weckeiser was born on 15 February 1943 in Rhodebach, East Prussia. His father fell on the eastern front that same year, and much of his childhood was spent on the move: his mother fled with him to Elbing in 1944 and westward again in January 1945, and after a few years in the Soviet zone they reached West Germany in 1949, living in refugee centres and shelters. Only in 1954, when his mother remarried, did they settle in Warendorf, Westphalia. As a boy he had tuberculosis, and at seven he spent six months in a sanatorium where his mother could not visit him.

He trained as a furniture upholsterer and met a young woman who had come to Warendorf from East Germany in 1961. His mother and stepfather opposed the relationship, and in July 1962 the couple, she by then pregnant, left for West Berlin without telling them. Unable to establish themselves there, they moved at her urging to Fürstenwalde/Spree in East Germany, where they married and had three children. He worked in several jobs, among them interior decorator and co-driver. The marriage ended in divorce in 1966, and soon afterwards he became seriously ill.

Elke Möbis was born on 31 October 1945. After an apprenticeship as a textile twister she worked as a kitchen assistant in a company canteen in Fürstenwalde. She met Dieter at about the time of his divorce and illness, when she was 20. They married in late November 1966. The following year Dieter saw his mother again for the first time since leaving Warendorf, meeting her daily for a week in East Berlin, since she was not allowed to travel to Fürstenwalde and came over from West Berlin on day visas. He told her he had run into political trouble after drawing on his experience of the West to challenge the official picture of West Germany, and that he wished to come home to the West.

On the near-freezing evening of 18 February 1968, the couple tried to escape across the heavily guarded Spree in the city centre, diagonally opposite the Reichstag building. They would have had to pass barbed wire and a dog run, climb a three-metre fence, swim the icy river and haul themselves up the wall of the western bank. At about 11 p.m., as they crawled through the first barbed-wire fence, they were spotted from a watchtower and fired on without a challenge; seventeen shots were fired at them from the tower. Elke was hit in the chest and thigh, and Dieter in the head. Elke died that night in the People's Police Hospital; Dieter died the next day after emergency surgery.

To hide what had happened, the Stasi planned a cover story and a deliberate campaign to damage the couple's reputation. It even decided to pay Dieter's debts from state funds so creditors would not ask questions, told his former wife that the couple had died in an accident in a stolen car, and monitored the relatives' mail. His mother, whose enquiries to the East German police were in vain, learned only a year later, through direct contact between the pastors of her home town in the West and of Fürstenwalde in the East, that her son had died trying to escape. Elke's urn was buried in her mother's grave in Fürstenwalde on 7 May 1968, after her half-sister had been required to assure the Stasi that she would forgo a ceremonial burial and a notice in the press. Dieter's urn was withheld from his family and buried at the Baumschulenweg Cemetery in Berlin-Treptow.

The guards were commended and awarded the Medal for Exemplary Border Service at the time, and one was promoted early. Thirty years later they were brought before the Berlin Regional Court. Most of the officers and soldiers stationed at the border had already told police that, objectively, the shooting had not been necessary. In 1997 the guard who had fired was given a suspended sentence of one year and nine months, the court treating the killing as manslaughter of a less serious kind; his superior was acquitted.

Died together with: Elke Weckeiser (https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weckeiser-elke/).

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Dieter Weckeiser and Elke Weckeiser”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180553/weckeiser-dieter-and-elke
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171366/weckeiser-dieter-und-elke
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Dieter Weckeiser”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weckeiser-dieter/

---

# Herbert Mende (1939–1968)

> Herbert Mende, a 23-year-old floor layer and bricklayer from Potsdam, was shot near the Glienicke Bridge on 8 July 1962 while running for a bus away from the border; he died of his injuries on 10 March 1968.

- Born: 9 February 1939
- Died: 10 March 1968
- Age at death: 29
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Glienicke Bridge; On the outer ring in Potsdam
- Map position (approximate): 52.41346, 13.08896
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mende-herbert/

## Story

Herbert Mende was born on 9 February 1939 to Anastasia and Franz Mende, and grew up with two older sisters in Steinaugrund in Silesia, today Ligota Tulowicka in Poland. In 1945 his mother escaped with the children to Zieran in the Altmark; his father, once freed from British captivity, followed them there. In 1957 the family, who had also taken in a foster child, moved to Potsdam. After an apprenticeship with the state firm 'Ausbau Potsdam', Herbert worked in the city as a floor layer and bricklayer.

On the first Saturday of July 1962 he went dancing at the 'John Schehr' youth club on the eastern edge of Potsdam, not far from the heavily guarded Glienicke Bridge. Just after midnight he left to catch the last bus home. According to a customs officer at the barrier, the young man, who had been drinking, asked him with some irony where the bus to Potsdam left from, and after getting directions walked towards the stop, away from the border.

A police patrol then stopped him to check his papers. He had left his ID at home and could only show his military service registration card, so the officers took him to a guardhouse at the bridge barrier to wait to be collected, which amounted to a preliminary arrest, though he apparently did not realise it. When his bus arrived and turned round, he asked whether they still needed him; receiving no reply, he ran for it. He later told his father that a policeman came out and shouted to two nearby border guards to shoot. After a warning shot, one guard fired twice from 30 metres. From his hospital bed he later wrote that he had seen the bus ahead of him, heard shots and collapsed.

He was taken to the district hospital in Potsdam, where a senior doctor's firm objection kept him from being moved to the army hospital in Drewitz. The wounds to his pelvis and abdomen left him an invalid, in severe pain for months. An internal Interior Ministry report criticised the tactically unsound conduct and poor coordination of the units involved and concluded that firing had not been necessary, and his father was allowed to see the files. But the military prosecutor denied that the marksman was at fault, opened no investigation and would not name him. The family fought for years over his accident insurance until a settlement in June 1966.

After two continuous years in hospital he was sent home in the summer of 1964 in need of constant care, and his mother gave up work to care for him. After long suffering, Herbert Mende died on 10 March 1968 at St. Josef's Hospital in Potsdam, a month after his 29th birthday.

After 1990 his father Franz Mende had an investigation opened against the man who shot his son. The guard can hardly have taken Herbert for an escapee, the biography notes, since he was moving towards Potsdam, not West Berlin. The case was discontinued in autumn 1996, reopened after the father's complaint, and closed again in February 1997 after the gunman said he had only meant to frighten him. Franz Mende objected again, pointing out that there had been no escape attempt that could have justified any use of firearms, but the Brandenburg attorney general declined to press charges, finding a conviction unlikely.

## Sources

1. Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Herbert Mende”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180554/mende-herbert
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171367/mende-herbert
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Herbert Mende”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mende-herbert/

---

# Bernd Lehmann (1949–1968)

> Bernd Lehmann, an 18-year-old lathe operator from East Berlin who hoped to become a sports teacher, drowned on 28 May 1968 after becoming caught in underwater barbed wire in the Osthafen harbour while swimming towards West Berlin.

- Born: 31 July 1949
- Died: 28 May 1968
- Age at death: 18
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree; On the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (approximate): 52.49679, 13.45064
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/lehmann-bernd/

## Story

Bernd Lehmann was a Berliner. He came into conflict with the law as a young boy; a police report listed correctional measures going as far as placement in residential care, and he later served several prison sentences for theft, fraud and forgery. At fifteen he made his first escape plan, to drive a stolen car to the inner-German border and force his way across with a weapon, but according to a police report he was called to account for it before he could try.

In the youth cell of the prison where he was held that year, inmates talked of daring ways to escape, and he began to plan to steal a plane from the airfield of the "Society for Sports and Technology" near Falkenrehde. He asked a fellow prisoner to get him a weapon. When the two met again in February 1968, this supposed friend was working as a Stasi informant and passed on everything Bernd told him.

After his release from his last prison term, for burglary, in December 1967, the 18-year-old worked as a lathe operator at an electrical appliance plant in Treptow; he took no pleasure in the work and was not allowed to change jobs. Much of his small wage went on compensation payments. He dreamed of becoming a sports teacher and planned to gain his tenth-grade qualification at an adult education centre. His model was his mother, who worked as a swimming teacher in East Berlin. He does not seem to have believed he could achieve this in East Germany. In May 1968 the informant reported that he now saw the plane only as a last resort and thought the border to West Berlin too heavily guarded; he believed the inner-German border offered better chances.

His final attempt was perhaps a sudden decision. The evening before, he quarrelled with his family; he told his mother he had been missing work and meant to become a waiter, and she, fearing new trouble, threatened to report him. Late that night he left, went into the Spree and swam from the direction of Treptow Park towards Osthafen, probably hoping to cross near the Flutgraben. He did not know that barbed wire had been laid underwater. He became entangled about 20 metres from the channel and drowned. His death is recorded as 28 May 1968.

Early in the evening of 28 May 1968 his clothes, with his identity card in the side pocket of his jacket, were found in bushes near the Soviet memorial in Treptow. Five days later a border soldier found his body, dressed only in swimming trunks and a green turtleneck sweater.

## Sources

1. Lydia Dollmann, “Bernd Lehmann”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180555/lehmann-bernd
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171368/lehmann-bernd
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Bernd Lehmann”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/lehmann-bernd/

---

# Siegfried Krug (1939–1968)

> Siegfried Krug, a 28-year-old West German living in Frankfurt am Main, was shot on Pariser Platz on 6 July 1968 after walking unarmed from the East towards the Brandenburg Gate, and died an hour later.

- Born: 22 July 1939
- Died: 6 July 1968
- Age at death: 28
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Pariser Platz in front of the Brandenburg Gate; On the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Tiergarten
- Map position (approximate): 52.51636, 13.37887
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/krug-siegfried/

## Story

Siegfried Krug was born in Stettin on 22 July 1939. Driven from his home during the war, he fled with his parents and sister to Erfurt at the end of February 1945. There, after leaving school, he trained as a high-voltage electrician. The Stasi regarded him as oriented towards the West; according to its records, cycling was his passion and he had made tours as far as Austria and Italy. Shortly before the Wall was built he fled to West Germany. His married sister, who had also left East Germany, lived near Marburg, and when their mother joined them a little later the family was together again in the West.

He moved to Frankfurt am Main and seemed to be doing well; on visits to Marburg he was well dressed and sometimes arrived in his employer's Mercedes. He told his family he worked for a publisher, though in fact he sold newspaper subscriptions door to door. He was engaged, and the couple planned to marry in Frankfurt in summer 1968.

In early July 1968 he told his fiancée he was going to Berlin and would return, but did not know when; he told his sister he did not want to marry and would disappear for a long time. On 5 July he flew to West Berlin. The next evening he crossed at Friedrichstrasse at about 6.30 p.m. and, an hour later, stepped out of a taxi at the Brandenburg Gate. With a white briefcase holding, among other things, about 1,100 West German marks in large notes, he ducked under the barrier and walked calmly across Pariser Platz towards the Gate. Why he did this, where the taxi took him and what the money was for remain unanswered.

He was the only civilian on the square. A guard called on him to stop; he reportedly answered that he wanted to go to the Brandenburg Gate and walked on. The guard fired a burst of warning shots into the air, and two more guards came running and blocked his way with their weapons drawn. When one of them warned that he would shoot, he calmly replied that they would not shoot anyway, and walked on between them, apparently certain that no one would open fire in such a visible place. After about 50 metres, with 250 still to go, he stopped, turned and walked back towards the guard behind him, who had fired the last warning shots. He was unarmed. When he was a few metres away the guard fired a single burst, and all three bullets struck him, in the stomach, chest and upper arm. He was quickly taken out of sight to the People's Police Hospital and died there about an hour afterwards.

As was customary, the guard was transferred and decorated, though some soldiers who knew what had happened protested, and in his report a lieutenant colonel of the border troops concluded that, given the guards' superior numbers, the guard ought to have acted differently. Only when questioned by police in 1992 did he learn that his shots had been fatal. The Berlin Regional Court convicted him of manslaughter and gave him a two-year suspended sentence; the verdict said he had simply shot an intruder who was obviously no longer dangerous and was unprotected and defenceless.

Only the Stasi knew that the dead man was a West German citizen, not an East German trying to flee. They had his body cremated and buried anonymously in Treptow, and made sure that East German authorities would not answer any inquiries about him. His fiancée, mother and sister never heard anything from the East German authorities; for years he was considered missing and they hoped he would come home. They learned of his death only in 1991.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Siegfried Krug”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180556/krug-siegfried
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171313/krug-siegfried
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Siegfried Krug”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/krug-siegfried/

---

# Horst Körner (1947–1968)

> Horst Körner, a 21-year-old police officer from Wolfen, was shot dead in the border area of Klein Glienicke on 15 November 1968 during an escape attempt, after he had fired on a border patrol and killed the soldier Rolf Henniger.

- Born: 12 July 1947
- Died: 15 November 1968
- Age at death: 21
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Babelsberg Palace Park; On the outer ring between Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.40844, 13.10101
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/koerner-horst/

## Story

Horst Körner was born in Wolfen on 12 July 1947. After secondary school he attended the vocational school of the state-owned film factory there, and by summer 1967 he was a qualified mechanic with his school-leaving certificate. Instead of military service, which he may have wished to avoid, he became a candidate for the Criminal Police in Bitterfeld, and that same year he was promoted to the rank of Unterwachtmeister.

One of his main tasks was dealing with property crime, work that did not satisfy him. In early March 1968 he asked to leave the police and applied to study veterinary medicine at a college in Beichlingen. His superiors probably convinced him that his application, made without their approval, was hopeless; under pressure, he withdrew his request and agreed to a plan to train as an officer. He was a party member and was regarded as promising. In September 1968 he was sent to a police training school in Potsdam. Outwardly he seemed to have come to terms with things, but the farewell letter to his parents that he carried when he fled shows that he had by no means accepted his situation at work; in it he wrote that he had not really lived for a long time.

On 15 November 1968 he stood in for a colleague on guard at the school from 9 to 11 p.m. A few days earlier he had quarrelled with his girlfriend, which may have been what decided him. He asked for the outer post, managed to leave it with his weapon, and walked along the railway tracks across the Havel Bridge to Potsdam City station. From there he probably made his way through the Babelsberg Palace Park towards Klein Glienicke, opposite the Glienicke Bridge. It is not known whether he knew this difficult stretch of the border or not.

Two border guards on patrol in a vehicle saw a man in police uniform standing behind a tree and at first took him for the local People's Police officer responsible for that area. According to the Stasi's findings, when they reversed and he realised he had been seen, he opened fire, hitting the driver, Lance Corporal Rolf Henniger, in the chest and head and killing him. The second soldier got out of the vehicle and shot Horst Körner down with several bursts from his machine pistol; he died at the scene. He had written on an envelope that he would rather die than be caught. Rolf Henniger, the soldier who lost his life, had apparently been thinking about escaping himself.

The next day the Stasi searched his parents' home and told them what had happened. His body was cremated on Stasi orders, and he was buried in Greppin near Bitterfeld with only close family present. The authorities kept his identity from the public; the party-controlled media spoke only of an armed provocateur and murderer and gave no further details. Rolf Henniger was buried in Saalfeld in a large propaganda ceremony. Klaus Schütz, then mayor of West Berlin, described both men as victims of inhumanity. An investigation by the Berlin public prosecutor's office into the guard who shot Horst Körner was opened in 1992 and discontinued in early 1994, as his use of the weapon was deemed justified as self-defence.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Horst Körner”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180557/koerner-horst
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171365/koerner-horst
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Horst Körner”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/koerner-horst/

---

# Rolf Henniger (1941–1968)

> Rolf Henniger, a 26-year-old border soldier and trained train driver from Saalfeld, was shot dead on 15 November 1968 in Babelsberg Palace Park by a fleeing East German policeman, Horst Körner, who was himself shot dead by Henniger's platoon leader.

- Born: 30 November 1941
- Died: 15 November 1968
- Age at death: 26
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: East German border soldier killed on duty
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Babelsberg Palace Park; On the outer ring between Klein Glienicke (Potsdam city district) and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.40844, 13.10101
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/henniger-rolf/

## Story

Rolf Henniger was born on 30 November 1941 in Saalfeld in eastern Thuringia. After school he trained with the German railway to become a train driver. He had only just married when he was called up to the border troops in November 1967. After training he was posted as a military driver and border guard to a regiment in Potsdam-Babelsberg, and in October 1968, on the state's anniversary, he was promoted early to lance corporal, which was not unusual on such occasions.

On the evening of 15 November 1968, two weeks before his 27th birthday, he was driving his platoon leader in a Trabant on a control patrol through the border area at Babelsberg Palace Park; his superior was to be the only surviving witness of what followed. Shortly before the checkpoint at the bridge over the Teltow Canal into Klein Glienicke, the platoon leader spotted a uniformed man behind a tree, whom he at first took for the local People's Police officer, and ordered Rolf to reverse. The man was Horst Körner, a 21-year-old East German police constable who was trying to flee to West Berlin with a loaded machine pistol. Seeing that he had been noticed, he fired through the windscreen at close range. Rolf Henniger, hit in the head and chest, collapsed at the wheel. The platoon leader let himself drop out of the vehicle and shot Horst Körner dead.

This account comes from the Stasi's investigation report, which the Berlin public prosecutor later did not question. At the time, however, the details were kept secret; the state news agency reported only that an armed provocateur had tried to force his way through the border and that a border soldier had been fatally injured.

On 21 November 1968 he was buried in Saalfeld with great propaganda ceremony, in which his family had no say. His coffin, draped in the flag, was driven through the town on an open truck. He was posthumously promoted to sergeant and decorated, and a stadium and youth collectives were named after him; for years he was commemorated as a hero. The platoon leader, who was also a Stasi informant, was sent by the city commandant to visit the family on Rolf's birthday, and the Stasi instructed him to sound out their mood and hide the fact that the shots had come from an East German policeman.

Rumours spread in Saalfeld, and the family doubted the official story. According to the Stasi, his stepfather suspected that Rolf himself had wanted to flee and had been shot down by border troops. Apparently Rolf had told close family members that he meant to flee, and relatives in southern Germany also knew of his plans. For years his relatives were left wondering how he had really died. Only in the 1990s, after the archives were opened, did the circumstances come to light. His closest relatives kept as a family secret, hidden from the state, that Rolf Henniger had probably been waiting for his own chance to escape.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Rolf Henniger”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180611/henniger-rolf
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171364/henniger-rolf
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Rolf Henniger”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/henniger-rolf/

---

# Johannes Lange (1940–1969)

> Johannes Lange, a 28-year-old decorative painter from Dresden, was shot dead on 9 April 1969 near Fritz-Heckert-Strasse on the border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Kreuzberg, just short of the Wall, after eight border soldiers fired 148 shots.

- Born: 17 December 1940
- Died: 9 April 1969
- Age at death: 28
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near Fritz-Heckert-Strasse; On the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (approximate): 52.50505, 13.42225
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/lange-johannes/

## Story

Johannes Lange was born in Dresden on 17 December 1940 and trained as a decorative painter. For a time he was a volunteer helper with the East German police. On 31 March 1959 he fled to West Germany, but returned two years later, before the Wall was built, telling the East German authorities that he wanted to avoid service in the West German army. The authorities did not overlook his earlier flight: in 1962 a court sentenced him to a year in prison for having evaded East German military registration by leaving the country illegally.

After his release, a Stasi report claims, his parents allegedly turned him out, and he went to live in Dresden with his girlfriend and her children. They had a child together. In summer 1968 the relationship ended, and his call-up to the National People's Army was approaching. In early August he tried to cross from Czechoslovakia into West Germany, but was arrested and returned; in October he received a suspended sentence of a year and three months, and he was then banned from all travel. He worked as an unskilled labourer for a building combine in Dresden and lived in its workers' hostel, where he was last seen on 30 March 1969.

On 9 April 1969 soldiers watched him examine the border area at the corner of Adalbertstrasse and Fritz-Heckert-Strasse, near the hospital in Berlin-Mitte, and walk away. He came back at about 10 p.m. as darkness fell, got over the inner fence and anti-tank obstacles unseen, but set off the alarm as he climbed the signal fence, and coloured lights helped the guards in the watchtower to locate him.

Guards in two watchtowers and newly arrived relief soldiers opened fire: eight soldiers fired 148 shots. Just before he reached the last obstacle, the concrete wall three and a half metres high, five bullets struck him from behind in the head, the neck and the thigh, and he died immediately. His body was dragged behind a watchtower out of sight of the West. According to a Stasi informant, a paramedic from the nearby hospital who wanted to give first aid was brusquely sent away. A few days later the guards were decorated and promoted. Bullets struck buildings on both sides, including the Bethanien Hospital in Kreuzberg, and patients in the East Berlin hospital shouted at the guards, calling them murderers.

The next day West Berliners put up a wooden cross and laid a wreath; its ribbon said that the free citizens of Berlin mourned him and would not forget him. The West German government and the Berlin Senate condemned the shooting, as did the three Allied commandants. His body was cremated at the Baumschulenweg Crematorium, and his ashes were buried shortly afterwards in his father's urn grave at the Neustädtische Cemetery in Dresden. Almost 30 years later the Berlin Regional Court convicted one guard, who had been 19 at the time and had been deeply affected by the shooting, of attempted manslaughter and gave him a youth sentence of a year and three months, suspended on probation; it could not prove that the other guards had aimed at Johannes Lange.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron, “Johannes Lange”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180558/lange-johannes
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171362/lange-johannes
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Johannes Lange”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/lange-johannes/

---

# Klaus-Jürgen Kluge (1948–1969)

> Klaus-Jürgen Kluge, a 21-year-old pattern maker from Schönow near Bernau, was shot dead on 13 September 1969 as he tried to climb the Wall near the Helmut-Just Bridge, south of the Bornholmer Strasse crossing.

- Born: 25 July 1948
- Died: 13 September 1969
- Age at death: 21
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near the Helmut-Just Bridge; On the sector border between Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (approximate): 52.55097, 13.39838
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kluge-klaus-juergen/

## Story

Klaus-Jürgen Kluge was born on 25 July 1948 in Schönow near Bernau. He went to the local secondary school, graduated after the tenth grade, and in spring 1969 completed an apprenticeship as a pattern maker.

As he grew older he became increasingly critical of East Germany. A Stasi informant reported that he had repeatedly spoken negatively about supply shortages and compared everything with what he saw as the good development in West Germany. A Stasi assessment noted that he belonged to no party or organisation, called his attitude to the state negative and said that his long hair and wide bell-bottom trousers made him look decadent. In 1969, the year an acquaintance or friend of his escaped to the West, he was due to begin his service in the NVA, the East German army he detested, in November. By then, at the latest, he seems to have concluded that fleeing was his only way out.

On the afternoon of 13 September 1969 he left his parents' home, saying he was going to a dance. Instead he travelled to East Berlin, and at about 8.40 p.m. he entered the border area in the former S-Bahn triangle south of the Bornholmer Strasse crossing. Near the Helmut-Just Bridge he got past the first barriers unseen, but set off an alarm on the signal fence.

A soldier came down from the watchtower deliberately slowly; he was afraid of having to shoot and hoped an animal had tripped the alarm, as had often happened before. At the foot of the tower he fired a flare that dazzled him. The guard leader, still in the tower, saw the young man at the Wall, and when the soldier below did not respond to his order to arrest him, he rushed down himself. Running towards the Wall, without a warning call or warning shot, he fired two aimed bursts from the hip at a distance of about 60 metres as Klaus-Jürgen Kluge already lay with his upper body on the top of the Wall. Hit by two bullets in the chest and foot, he fell and died of his injuries within minutes.

His body was soon taken to the watchtower and from there to the People's Police Hospital in Mitte; to the Stasi's satisfaction, West Berlin police and French military police arrived to light up and photograph the scene only after it had been removed. The next day the regiment commander decorated and rewarded the guards involved. His parents were told of his death only after he had been cremated, and the Stasi obliged them to tell relatives and acquaintances that he had died in an accident in Berlin. His urn was buried in Schönow cemetery on 8 October 1969 under Stasi surveillance. In 1997 the Berlin Regional Court gave the man who fired a suspended youth sentence of one year and four months; the soldier under his command was acquitted. Two years later the former regiment commander and chief of staff were tried for aiding and abetting manslaughter and sentenced to one year and three months and one year in prison respectively.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron, “Klaus-Jürgen Kluge”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180559/kluge-klaus-juergen
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171363/kluge-klaus-juergen
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Klaus-Jürgen Kluge”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kluge-klaus-juergen/

---

# Leo Lis (1924–1969)

> Leo Lis, a 45-year-old dairy worker and father of seven from Hennersdorf in Saxony, was shot dead on 20 September 1969 while crossing the border strip near the Nordbahnhof station in Berlin-Mitte.

- Born: 10 May 1924
- Died: 20 September 1969
- Age at death: 45
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near the Nordbahnhof station; On the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (approximate): 52.53317, 13.38768
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/lis-leo/

## Story

Leo Lis was born on 10 May 1924 in Beuthen in Upper Silesia, today Bytom in Poland. He lived in Hennersdorf in Saxony with his wife and their seven children, and worked as a dairy milker for an agricultural cooperative. What made him want to leave East Germany is not known.

On 19 September 1969 he left his family and took the train to East Berlin. The next evening, at about 8 p.m., he entered the border area near the Nordbahnhof station. He got round a dog run, but set off an alarm as he crawled under the signal fence. A guard came down from his tower but could not find him in the dark.

The guards on the two towers opposite opened uncontrolled fire; the soldier on the ground had to take cover, and one of the towers came under fire by mistake. A call to cease fire went unheard. The shooting stopped only when Leo Lis, who had got past the patrol road and the anti-tank obstacles, lay still. He had been critically wounded in the chest, and a paramedic pronounced him dead in the border strip. In all, 78 shots were fired. One bullet struck the garden window of a house in West Berlin, narrowly missing a retired couple watching television.

Residents on both sides watched from their windows and shouted at the guards. That night, in protest, young people threw stones at the border installations, shouting insults, and the French city commander condemned the shooting in the strongest terms as new proof of contempt for human life. The guards were decorated. When they were eventually called to account, the investigation was discontinued in April 1997, as prosecutors accepted they had believed their orders were lawful.

His wife was not told until 27 September 1969, after his body had already been cremated. A Stasi officer posing as a prosecutor's employee told her that her husband had been fatally injured while trying to leave East Germany illegally and, without further explanation, handed her the death certificate and a few of his belongings. She had to agree to invite only close family to the funeral and not to publish a death notice, and the family's post was watched afterwards. On 29 October 1969 his urn was buried in Kamenz, in the presence of his widow and children, his stepmother from West Germany, his sister and a few colleagues from his cooperative.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron, “Leo Lis”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180560/lis-leo
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171361/lis-leo
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Leo Lis”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/lis-leo/

---

# Christel Wehage (1946–1970)

> Eckhard Wehage, 21, and his wife Christel, 23, took their own lives on 10 March 1970 at Berlin-Schönefeld airport after their attempt to divert an East German airliner to the West failed.

- Born: 15 December 1946
- Died: 10 March 1970
- Age at death: 23
- Cause of death: Suicide after a failed escape attempt
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Berlin-Schönefeld airport
- Map position (area): 52.39085, 13.51595
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wehage-christel/

## Story

Eckhard Wehage was born on 8 July 1948 in Berssel. As a 14-year-old he tried with a friend to leave by boat across the Baltic Sea, but before they could set off the two drew suspicion; on 10 May 1963 the People's Police arrested them in Grevesmühlen and sent them back to their parents. On 21 August of the same year he tried again, alone, planning to go by train to Czechoslovakia, and was arrested in Adorf in the Vogtland. This time he was charged with fleeing the republic, and on 18 October 1963 the youth criminal chamber of the Halberstadt district court gave the 15-year-old a suspended eight-month prison sentence.

After this he appeared to have accepted his situation. From 1967 he served in the East German navy, the Volksmarine, having signed up as a professional soldier for ten years; he trained at the non-commissioned officers' school in Stralsund and served as chief petty officer on a de-mining boat. During this time he met Christel Zinke from Wolmirstedt, born on 15 December 1946, who worked as a psychotherapist at the district hospital in her home town.

They married soon afterwards and hoped to start a family, but they could not choose where to live or work. For years they tried to obtain a shared flat in a place where both could be employed. In their farewell letters to their parents they explained that only with children would they have had a chance of a flat, after an indefinite wait, but that under such uncertain circumstances they could not afford to have children; that, they wrote, would only make the dilemma greater. In the spring of 1970, when their hopes for a flat were dashed, they decided to escape by hijacking an aircraft. Eckhard took two pistols and ammunition from his unit's armoury before a short leave.

After a flight to Dresden on 9 March was cancelled, they booked a flight to Leipzig for the next day and spent the night at the Schönefeld airport hotel, where they wrote their farewell letters to their parents. In his, Eckhard wrote that if their plan failed, he and Christel would end their lives. Just before 8 o'clock on 10 March 1970 they boarded an Interflug AN-24 with 15 other passengers.

Soon after take-off Eckhard, holding his pistol, told the stewardess to have the pilots fly to Hanover. She signalled an emergency to the cockpit in code. When the cockpit did not respond, he fired at the lock of a door until it opened, but a second door could not be forced. While the stewardess persuaded the desperate couple to agree to a landing at Tempelhof instead of Hanover because of a supposed lack of fuel, the crew, who could watch what was happening through the door's peephole, turned back. Seconds before touchdown a surprised passenger called out that they were back in Schönefeld. Realising their attempt had failed, Christel and Eckhard returned to their seats while the plane landed, and then took their own lives.

The Stasi placed both sets of parents under surveillance and persuaded them to tell others that the couple had died in a car crash on an icy road. Rumours linking their deaths to the failed hijacking nevertheless persisted. On 26 March 1970 the Stasi minister personally awarded the crew the NVA Merit Medal in gold. After cremation in East Berlin, Christel and Eckhard were buried in Magdeburg with close family present; their urns were later moved to Magdeburg's West Cemetery. A former schoolfriend of Christel said she had been horrified and sad that this young life had ended in this way. An investigation opened by the Berlin public prosecutor in 1996 was discontinued in June 1997, because there was no indication of any criminal act on the part of the East German authorities.

Died together with: Eckhard Wehage (https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wehage-eckhard/).

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Christel Wehage and Eckhard Wehage”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180561/wehage-eckhard-and-christel
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171355/wehage-christel-und-eckard
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Christel Wehage”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wehage-christel/

---

# Eckhard Wehage (1948–1970)

> Eckhard Wehage, 21, and his wife Christel, 23, took their own lives on 10 March 1970 at Berlin-Schönefeld airport after their attempt to divert an East German airliner to the West failed.

- Born: 8 July 1948
- Died: 10 March 1970
- Age at death: 21
- Cause of death: Suicide after a failed escape attempt
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Berlin-Schönefeld airport
- Map position (area): 52.39085, 13.51595
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wehage-eckhard/

## Story

Eckhard Wehage was born on 8 July 1948 in Berssel. As a 14-year-old he tried with a friend to leave by boat across the Baltic Sea, but before they could set off the two drew suspicion; on 10 May 1963 the People's Police arrested them in Grevesmühlen and sent them back to their parents. On 21 August of the same year he tried again, alone, planning to go by train to Czechoslovakia, and was arrested in Adorf in the Vogtland. This time he was charged with fleeing the republic, and on 18 October 1963 the youth criminal chamber of the Halberstadt district court gave the 15-year-old a suspended eight-month prison sentence.

After this he appeared to have accepted his situation. From 1967 he served in the East German navy, the Volksmarine, having signed up as a professional soldier for ten years; he trained at the non-commissioned officers' school in Stralsund and served as chief petty officer on a de-mining boat. During this time he met Christel Zinke from Wolmirstedt, born on 15 December 1946, who worked as a psychotherapist at the district hospital in her home town.

They married soon afterwards and hoped to start a family, but they could not choose where to live or work. For years they tried to obtain a shared flat in a place where both could be employed. In their farewell letters to their parents they explained that only with children would they have had a chance of a flat, after an indefinite wait, but that under such uncertain circumstances they could not afford to have children; that, they wrote, would only make the dilemma greater. In the spring of 1970, when their hopes for a flat were dashed, they decided to escape by hijacking an aircraft. Eckhard took two pistols and ammunition from his unit's armoury before a short leave.

After a flight to Dresden on 9 March was cancelled, they booked a flight to Leipzig for the next day and spent the night at the Schönefeld airport hotel, where they wrote their farewell letters to their parents. In his, Eckhard wrote that if their plan failed, he and Christel would end their lives. Just before 8 o'clock on 10 March 1970 they boarded an Interflug AN-24 with 15 other passengers.

Soon after take-off Eckhard, holding his pistol, told the stewardess to have the pilots fly to Hanover. She signalled an emergency to the cockpit in code. When the cockpit did not respond, he fired at the lock of a door until it opened, but a second door could not be forced. While the stewardess persuaded the desperate couple to agree to a landing at Tempelhof instead of Hanover because of a supposed lack of fuel, the crew, who could watch what was happening through the door's peephole, turned back. Seconds before touchdown a surprised passenger called out that they were back in Schönefeld. Realising their attempt had failed, Christel and Eckhard returned to their seats while the plane landed, and then took their own lives.

The Stasi placed both sets of parents under surveillance and persuaded them to tell others that the couple had died in a car crash on an icy road. Rumours linking their deaths to the failed hijacking nevertheless persisted. On 26 March 1970 the Stasi minister personally awarded the crew the NVA Merit Medal in gold. After cremation in East Berlin, Christel and Eckhard were buried in Magdeburg with close family present; their urns were later moved to Magdeburg's West Cemetery. A former schoolfriend of Christel said she had been horrified and sad that this young life had ended in this way. An investigation opened by the Berlin public prosecutor in 1996 was discontinued in June 1997, because there was no indication of any criminal act on the part of the East German authorities.

Died together with: Christel Wehage (https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wehage-christel/).

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Eckhard Wehage and Christel Wehage”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180561/wehage-eckhard-and-christel
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171355/wehage-christel-und-eckard
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Eckhard Wehage”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wehage-eckhard/

---

# Heinz Müller (1943–1970)

> Heinz Müller, a 27-year-old commercial clerk living in West Berlin, was shot on 19 June 1970 after he ended up, intoxicated, inside the border grounds near the Schilling Bridge; what had happened to him became known only after reunification.

- Born: 16 May 1943
- Died: 19 June 1970
- Age at death: 27
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near the Schilling Bridge; At the sector border between Berlin-Kreuzberg and Berlin-Friedrichshain
- Map position (approximate): 52.50925, 13.42953
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mueller-heinz/

## Story

Heinz Müller was born in Rostock on 16 May 1943 and grew up with foster parents in Medebach in the Sauerland region of West Germany. It has not been possible to establish when or how he came to the West. He trained as a commercial clerk and then took a temporary job at a department store in West Berlin. His foster father later told police that he liked to spend weekends in East Berlin, visiting acquaintances and often eating out.

On the afternoon of 18 June 1970 he stood for hours on a viewing platform by the Wall in Kreuzberg, a bottle in his hand, gesturing towards the East and calling out words that residents in Friedrichshain could not make out. The border soldiers took note of him. At about 1:50 a.m., intoxicated, he went over the Wall. Whether he fell, climbed over or was pushed by someone is not known. He probably realised where he was only when he found himself in the floodlights, and he wandered, disoriented, through the border grounds.

A guard in the nearby watchtower at the Schilling Bridge fired two bursts at him from about 200 metres and hit him in the hip. He cried out for help. Witnesses watching from their flat nearby in East Berlin called to the guards to help him. He was dragged to a bunker and given first aid, but another hour passed before an army vehicle took him to the People's Police Hospital. An immediate operation could not save him, and he died at about 4:50 a.m.

His body was cremated on 31 July 1970 and the urn buried in the Baumschulenweg Cemetery. The guard who fired was commended and decorated; the others received gifts and extra leave, and were not told that Heinz Müller had died. His East German death certificate gave an East German address; the Stasi presumably passed him off as an East German citizen so that enquiries from the West would lead nowhere.

In West Berlin no one knew what had happened. After missing three days of work he was dismissed, and on 3 July a colleague reported him missing; firemen opened his flat and found only a tidy room. His foster parents searched for him and his foster father kept asking the police for news, fearing he had been arrested in the East, but the East German authorities said nothing. Only after reunification did the truth emerge. The guard who fired was charged in November 1991, and the Berlin Regional Court gave him a suspended two-year youth sentence; after the Federal Court of Justice rejected an appeal, the verdict became final on 19 April 1994.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron, “Heinz Müller”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180562/mueller-heinz
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171357/mueller-heinz
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Heinz Müller”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mueller-heinz/

---

# Willi Born (1950–1970)

> Willi Born, a 19-year-old tractor driver doing his military service, left his unit and entered the border area near Bergfelde on 7 July 1970. Cornered by border soldiers in a patch of woods, he took his own life.

- Born: 19 or 29 July 1950
- Died: 7 July 1970
- Age at death: 19
- Cause of death: Suicide after a failed escape attempt
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the outer ring between Bergfelde (Oranienburg district) and Berlin-Reinickendorf
- Map position (area): 52.65968, 13.30708
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/born-willi/

> Note on the sources: The sources disagree on his date of birth. The official 2017 list of the 140 victims and the header of the English biography give 19 July 1950; the header of the German biography gives 29 July 1950. Both biographies say he died on 7 July 1970, three weeks before his 20th birthday, which fits 29 July.

## Story

Willi Born was born in July 1950. He had six younger siblings and spent his early childhood in Klein-Marzehns in the Belzig district. His mother died while he was still young, and at the age of 13 he spent a period in a children's home in the Königswusterhausen district before going back to his father, who had remarried. By then the large family had made a new home in Lindow in the Mark Brandenburg.

He trained as an agricultural technician and then worked as a tractor driver at the agricultural cooperative in Lindow, where his father also worked. In 1969 he married, and the young couple soon moved to Velten, just north of Berlin. The couple had little time to build a life together, because at 19 he had to do his military service with the motorised rifle regiment in Oranienburg.

In the early hours of 7 July 1970, three weeks before his 20th birthday, he left his unit, at first unnoticed. As he made his way into the border area near Bergfelde, north of Berlin, in broad daylight, his absence had already been noticed at the barracks; a search was ordered and all border posts were told to keep a closer watch. At around 10:30 a.m. a guard saw him and fired a warning burst. Pursued by a number of border soldiers, he took cover in a strip of woodland. There he was cornered, and before a guard could arrest him, he shot himself. He died instantly.

His family buried him in the cemetery in Lindow. His parents suspected that private problems had led to his flight and his death. A greetings card for his 20th birthday was returned to his parents, and his stepmother kept it in his memory.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron/Maria Nooke, “Willi Born”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180563/born-willi
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171359/born-willi
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Willi Born”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/born-willi/

---

# Friedhelm Ehrlich (1950–1970)

> Friedhelm Ehrlich, a 20-year-old soldier from Thuringia near the end of his service, entered the border grounds in Glienicke/Nordbahn after drinking on 2 August 1970. After he had been arrested, a guard shot him in the leg, and he bled to death.

- Born: 11 July 1950
- Died: 2 August 1970
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near Leipziger Strasse/Staerkstrasse; On the outer ring between Glienicke/Nordbahn (Oranienburg district) and Berlin-Reinickendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.63752, 13.30723
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/ehrlich-friedhelm/

## Story

Friedhelm Ehrlich was born on 11 July 1950 in Nägelstedt in Thuringia and grew up as an only child with his parents in Gräfentonna. He trained as a machine fitter and was called up to the National People's Army in May 1969. He was close to his parents and wrote to them often; a letter from him arrived the day after he died. They later told the Berlin public prosecutor's office that he did not much like being a soldier, but that nothing, not even that last letter, suggested he meant to flee.

In early August 1970 he was serving his last weeks with the border company at Glienicke/Nordbahn. According to a Stasi report written after his death, his superiors rated his work as satisfactory, though there had allegedly been shortcomings in his military discipline, and his ideological unsteadiness was put down to western books, enthusiasm for beat groups and western radio stations.

On the warm afternoon of 2 August 1970 his leave was delayed because he was ordered to clean the barracks out of turn for what was described as a minor lapse of discipline. Angry about this, he then met others from his unit at a bar, and during the evening he went round the village's bars with the room-mate who had had to clean alongside him. On the way back he suddenly ran off; his friend assumed he was hurrying back to the barracks.

At around 10:15 p.m. he entered the border grounds, but not in the manner of an escapee: having been drinking, he broke slats from the inner fence and whistled loudly as he made his way as far as the patrol road. When a guard heard him and called on him to stop, he did so at the second call and was arrested, led away from the border and made to lie face down on the unlit street. Two other guards took over. According to the Stasi, he suddenly raised himself up, shouted a dare to shoot, threatening that otherwise he would shoot, and reached towards a back pocket; one of the two, a lance corporal, concluding that he was armed and about to use the weapon against him, fired a single shot at very close range that struck his thigh and the main artery of his left leg.

He was unarmed, as the other guard, a non-commissioned officer, found when he checked him; the NCO took his papers but apparently gave no first aid, and the ambulance came 20 minutes later. He died shortly afterwards at the People's Police Hospital, having bled to death. The Stasi's account leaves questions open: how the lance corporal could see his movements in the dark, whether he should not have known that a soldier on leave could not possibly be carrying a weapon, why he was given no first aid, when the heavy bleeding from which he died could probably have been stopped on the spot, and why, if he had wanted to flee, he had not done so while on duty at the border. Family and friends ruled out an escape attempt, if only because he had less than three months of service left, and suspected he had wanted to provoke the guards or might simply have lost his way; the barracks lay only a little over 100 metres from the border.

On 3 August 1970 a military prosecutor informed his parents of his death. Unusually, their home was not searched and they were not questioned, which puzzled them, and in the years that followed they were told only that the case was closed. His body was brought to Gräfentonna on 6 August, and shortly before the funeral they were allowed to see him in the cemetery mortuary, prepared so that no injuries were visible. At the end of 1990 his parents filed a criminal complaint with the Berlin public prosecutor's office; the investigation that followed was discontinued in mid-June 1994, the prosecutors accepting that the former lance corporal who fired the shot, also a Stasi informant, had mistakenly believed he was acting in self-defence.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Friedhelm Ehrlich”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180564/ehrlich-friedhelm
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171356/ehrlich-friedhelm
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Friedhelm Ehrlich”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/ehrlich-friedhelm/

---

# Gerald Thiem (1928–1970)

> Gerald Thiem, a 41-year-old West Berlin foreman and father of two, was shot by East German border guards on 7 August 1970 after climbing into the border strip between Neukölln and Treptow; his daughters learned the truth only in 1994.

- Born: 6 September 1928
- Died: 7 August 1970
- Age at death: 41
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the corner of Kiefholzstrasse and Puderstrasse; On the sector border between Berlin-Neukölln and Berlin-Treptow
- Map position (exact): 52.48387, 13.46168
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/thiem-gerald/

## Story

Gerald Thiem was born in Berlin on 6 September 1928. He lived in Britz, in West Berlin, with his wife and their two daughters. A pipe layer by trade, he worked as a foreman for a building firm.

On Friday 7 August 1970 he did not come home after work. His wife knew he liked a drink on payday and was not worried at first, but as the hours passed she grew anxious; he had promised to take the girls on a steamboat trip the next day. She would never learn in her lifetime what had become of him.

That evening, having drunk heavily, he was near the Wall between Neukölln and Treptow. Why he was there is not known. He insulted the border soldiers and at about 11:15 p.m. climbed over first the old and then the new Wall, in what was then a confusing stretch of the border, heading towards East Berlin. When a soldier called out to him and tried to arrest him, he ran on through a railway underpass and came out straight into the glare of the border lights and the field of fire of two more guards, who opened fire at once. In all, six guards took aim at him and fired a total of 177 bullets at him from several positions until he fell into the anti-vehicle trench. At about 11:35 p.m. the guards recovered him and took him to the rear area, from where an ambulance brought him to the People's Police Hospital in Berlin-Mitte; when he arrived there after midnight, he had already died of gunshot wounds to the chest.

Although he could easily have been arrested without shots being fired, the most zealous guards were awarded the border troops' performance badge the next day, and all the other guards involved received bonuses in kind. The Stasi knew who he was from the papers he carried. But because the West had not connected his sudden disappearance with the shooting at the Wall, the East decided to conceal his death: the killing could have disturbed the détente diplomacy from which the SED leadership hoped to gain international recognition, only days before the Moscow Treaty was signed. A Stasi file note of 10 August 1970 recorded that the case was to be treated and closed as an unknown body, with every measure taken to keep it secret. He was cremated, registered as an unknown dead man, and on 22 September 1970 his ashes were scattered at the cemetery beside the Baumschulenweg Crematorium.

In West Berlin the shots had been heard, but police had no reason to link them with the missing-person report his wife had filed. She extended her search to East Berlin, only to be told by the East German attorney general that her husband was not on East German territory. At her request he was declared dead on 10 June 1981, with 31 December 1975 recorded as the date of death.

Only in the autumn of 1994, after West Berlin investigators came across the case in border troop and Stasi files, did his daughters learn what had happened to their father. His wife, Charlotte Thiem, had died by then. In mid-1998 the Berlin Regional Court convicted two of the guards of jointly committed manslaughter and gave each a suspended youth sentence of one year and three months.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Gerald Thiem”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180565/thiem-gerald
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171358/thiem-gerald
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Gerald Thiem”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/thiem-gerald/

---

# Helmut Kliem (1939–1970)

> Helmut Kliem, a 31-year-old East German police officer and father of two, was shot on 13 November 1970 after he took a wrong turn by motorcycle towards the border gate in Falkenhöhe and turned back; he bled to death.

- Born: 2 June 1939
- Died: 13 November 1970
- Age at death: 31
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In Falkenhöhe near Pestalozzistrasse; On the outer ring between Falkensee (Nauen district) and Berlin-Spandau
- Map position (approximate): 52.56075, 13.14566
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kliem-helmut/

## Story

Helmut Kliem was born in Ebereschenhof on 2 June 1939. From 1957 he served as an East German police officer, and after years of guard, patrol and local station duty he had recently been assigned, with the rank of head constable, to the works security unit of the locomotive and electrical plant in Hennigsdorf. He lived in Staaken, right on the border with the West Berlin district of Spandau, with his wife and their two children.

On 13 November 1970 he came home from a night shift at about 6.45 a.m. His wife had already taken the children to daycare on her way to work. His half-brother Bernhard, who had the day off, came to visit, and the two went to the Volkshaus restaurant in Staaken for lunch with beer and schnapps. They were looking forward to the weekend and meant to go to a Carnival party that evening.

At around 3 p.m. they set off on Helmut Kliem's motorcycle with sidecar; the plan was to collect his wife from her early shift and then the children. Absorbed in conversation, he missed the turning to her workplace, drove straight on, overlooked the signs marking the border area, and stopped about ten metres short of the gate into the border grounds. He had plainly taken the wrong road, and he turned the motorcycle round. Perhaps he did not take the soldier's order to stop seriously, or perhaps he did not hear it, or any warning shot, over the engine; either way, he accelerated away.

The guard at the gate aimed at the tyres from about 30 metres and fired seven shots; he later claimed he had not realised that his rifle was set to automatic fire. A bullet passed through Helmut Kliem's shoulder blade and struck the artery and vein in his upper arm; his brother was hit in the hand. Helmut Kliem braked, got off the motorcycle, took a few steps towards the guard and collapsed. Guards held back a local resident who ran to help. The brothers received medical treatment only an hour later, after an ambulance had taken them to Staaken Hospital, and by then it was too late for Helmut Kliem. He died at about 4.30 p.m.

Even under the border troops' own rules the shooting was not justified, as there had been no apparent attempt to cross the border. Yet the military prosecutor did not investigate; the guards were decorated and promoted that same day. His wife waited in vain at 4 p.m. and walked the children home. She learned of his death only on 14 November, was not told how he had died, and was refused permission to see his body and was falsely told that it had already been cremated. Bernhard was taken from hospital to a Stasi remand prison, held for three weeks on suspicion of attempting to leave East Germany illegally, and then released with the death described to him as an accident.

Both his wife and his half-brother were sworn to secrecy, and rumours circulated in Staaken. The supervisor of the police "Border Work Group" in Nauen, who apparently learned what had really happened during questioning at the hospital, handed in his weapon in protest and announced that he was leaving border service. Helmut Kliem's urn was buried in the cemetery in Falkensee on 4 February 1971. The guard who had fired, who had been awarded a medal and from whom the fatal outcome had been kept hidden until the 1990s, was convicted by the Potsdam Regional Court in 1997 of manslaughter together with attempted manslaughter and given a youth sentence of one year and eight months, suspended on probation.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Helmut Kliem”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180566/kliem-helmut
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171354/kliem-helmut
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Helmut Kliem”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kliem-helmut/

---

# Hans-Joachim Zock (1940–1970)

> Hans-Joachim Zock, a 30-year-old waiter and chemical worker from Halle-Neustadt who had endured years of Stasi suspicion, drowned in the Spree in mid-November 1970 while trying to swim to West Berlin.

- Born: 26 January 1940
- Died: Between 14 and 17 November 1970
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Drowned between November 14 and 17, 1970; In the Spree River; At the sector boundary between Berlin-Friedrichshain and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (area): 52.50925, 13.42953
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/zock-hans-joachim/

## Story

Hans-Joachim Zock was born in Berlin on 26 January 1940 and last lived in Halle-Neustadt. Everything known about him comes from Stasi files, which reflect the secret police's view of him. As a teenager he trained as a page and waiter at the East German government guesthouse in East Berlin, but was dismissed for alleged lack of discipline after going to the cinema in West Berlin with other apprentices. In December 1956 he moved to West Germany, settling in Bad Salzuflen, and returned to East Berlin in June 1960. The Stasi files also record, without further background, two convictions: in 1961 for causing grievous bodily harm and in 1965 for embezzlement to the detriment of state property, each with a suspended sentence.

From 1965 he worked at the Buna chemical plant, first as a loader and later in the carbide factory, and he belonged to the workers' militia and the factory's youth organisation leadership. Yet whenever something went wrong at the plant, he came under suspicion: after machinery was damaged in 1965, after a break-in at the militia's gun room, and after youth organisation pamphlets were defaced with political remarks in 1970. He was repeatedly interrogated for hours or investigated in secret, yet nothing was found against him: the machinery damage was never solved, the gun-room burglar turned out to have no link to him, and in the pamphlet case he was kept under investigation even after the person responsible had been identified. Even the Stasi finally had to record that none of its questioning of him had ever established an offence.

On 20 May 1970 he was dismissed without notice, and although he found work as a waiter in Halle, he stopped turning up for work there in early August 1970 and was dismissed without notice. On 12 November he wrote to his aunt in West Germany explaining that he planned to escape. He described interrogations lasting 15 hours after a 12-hour shift, and believed the mistrust stemmed from his years in the West, to which he was not allowed to return.

On 13 November 1970 he left home in Halle-Neustadt, saying he was going to look for work, and took the train to Berlin. That evening he spent hours in a bar with a relative of his first wife, telling her he missed his child and wanted to pay a visit; she said he was not drunk when he left. Four days later his coat and suit were found on the bank of the Spree, on the premises of a building materials plant. The autopsy placed his death at some point between 14 and 17 November, most probably by drowning, as no other injuries were found. What finally led him to attempt the crossing can no longer be established.

On 17 December 1970 the East Berlin water police recovered his body near the heating plant in Mitte. Sealed watertight in his clothing were his identity papers, several photographs of a child, presumably his son, and the stamped letter to his aunt. He had been registered as missing since 24 November 1970.

## Sources

1. Text: Nora Prüfer, translated by Miriamne Fields, “Hans-Joachim Zock”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/183186/zock-hans-joachim
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171360/zock-hans-joachim
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Hans-Joachim Zock”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/zock-hans-joachim/

---

# Christian Peter Friese (1948–1970)

> Christian Peter Friese, a 22-year-old motor mechanic from Naumburg, was shot dead on Christmas night 1970 in the border strip at the Köllnische Heide railway embankment in Johannisthal, a few metres short of the last fence.

- Born: 5 January 1948
- Died: 25 December 1970
- Age at death: 22
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the Köllnische Heide rail embankment in Johannisthal; At the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.47108, 13.47215
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/friese-christian-peter/

## Story

Christian Peter Friese was born in Munich on 5 January 1948 and grew up as an only child with his mother in Naumburg. Her husband had been missing since 1944 and was later declared dead, and his natural father does not appear in the records. After school he trained as a motor mechanic, moved with his fiancée to Karl-Marx-Stadt, but soon returned to Naumburg alone, where he worked as a motor mechanic for the Reichsbahn.

In his spare time he volunteered at a youth club in Naumburg. Its director praised his commitment and called him a good role model for the young people; she said he gave up leading the club because of his evening classes. The Stasi told a different story: he allegedly had a poor reputation in his neighbourhood because of his liking for western beat music, had spread decadent views of art and held an unstable attitude towards social development in East Germany, and for this reason, it said, he had had to be replaced as club leader.

At the end of 1992 his mother told the Naumburg police that he had said several times he would leave for the West if the chance arose. According to her, he disagreed with the way things were in East Germany and, above all, did not want to do military service in the National People's Army. A friend's failed escape in 1968, which ended in prison, did not deter him; he told his mother they would not catch him.

At the end of 1970 he lived in the same building as his mother. When she called for him on Christmas Eve he was gone, without a goodbye or a letter, and a photo album, a tape recorder and some clothes were missing. Her first thought was that he had gone to Berlin to escape. That evening he took a train to East Berlin, hid in a small allotment colony near the border in Treptow and watched the border grounds.

At around midnight he climbed the inner fence unseen, but set off an alarm as he crawled through the signal fence and jumped the tripwires behind it. The area was well lit and overlooked by two watchtowers and by an alarm group posted on Christmas night on the Köllnische Heide railway embankment. Five border guards fired 98 shots. He tried to hide in the anti-vehicle trench, ran on when the firing briefly stopped, came under fire again and collapsed a few metres from the last fence. He was hit in the legs, and according to one of the guards he cried out about his legs; he died in the border strip from a gunshot wound through his abdomen and chest.

The shots woke residents on both sides, and bullets struck trees and houses in West Berlin. The West Berlin Senate and the American city commander protested, and the West Berlin police opened an investigation. On Christmas Day a western television report about a young man killed at the Wall made his mother fear it was her son. Only on 7 January 1971 did the Stasi tell her he was dead, claiming he had crashed a car into a tree, that his body was already cremated, and forcing her to sign a statement promising to tell her acquaintances the same story. His urn was sent to Naumburg a month after his death and buried in the municipal cemetery under Stasi surveillance.

Twenty-eight years later the Berlin Regional Court acquitted the border guards involved, as neither an intent to kill nor the identity of the guard who actually killed him could be established.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Christian Peter Friese”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180567/friese-christian-peter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171353/friese-christian-peter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Christian Peter Friese”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/friese-christian-peter/

---

# Rolf-Dieter Kabelitz (1951–1971)

> Rolf-Dieter Kabelitz, a 19-year-old from Potsdam, was shot by a border guard on 7 January 1971 in the border grounds near Bergfelde after he had turned back from the border, and died in hospital in Hennigsdorf on 30 January 1971 without seeing his family.

- Born: 23 June 1951
- Died: 30 January 1971
- Age at death: 19
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the outer ring between Bergfelde (Oranienburg district) and Berlin-Reinickendorf
- Map position (area): 52.65968, 13.30708
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kabelitz-rolf-dieter/

## Story

Rolf-Dieter Kabelitz was born on 23 June 1951. When he was four his mother, divorced from his father, remarried, and he grew up in Potsdam with her and his stepfather, a captain in the East German police. Relations with his stepfather were strained; his parents, both party members, thought him undisciplined and disliked his long hair. He gave up a lathe operator apprenticeship at the locomotive works in Babelsberg, and in August 1969 his parents found him a job at the Warnow shipyard in Rostock. He handed in his notice there, to take effect on 10 January 1971, wanting to work nearer home, which led to a row that spoiled the family's New Year.

Early on 4 January 1971 he left home, saying he was going back to Rostock for a late shift. Where he spent the next three days is not known. On 7 January he took the S-Bahn to Oranienburg and walked back along the snow-covered tracks through Birkenwerder to Hohen Neuendorf. In the early evening darkness he left the tracks near Bergfelde and headed towards the border. At about 7.55 p.m., as he tried to get past the first obstacles, he set off an alarm device and alerted the guards.

At first he kept moving towards West Berlin. When he realised he was being followed by guards with tracking dogs, he turned back towards the railway, dropping his bag so he could run faster. His footprints in the snow were easy to follow. At about 9.45 p.m. one of the guards found him standing behind a tree. Although he was surrounded over a wide area and was moving away from the border, a first lieutenant fired an aimed burst in his direction, supposedly after calling out to him. Two bullets hit him in the pelvis and thigh. According to a note by one of his Stasi guards, he said that after someone called out behind him he had heard no warning shot, only the double report of a submachine gun. Half asleep in hospital, he spoke of a dog crouching in front of him, which may suggest that he was being guarded by a dog and dared not move.

He was taken, critically injured, to the Friedrich Wolf Hospital in Hennigsdorf. Although he was weakened by blood loss and shock and not fully conscious, the Stasi began questioning him as soon as he arrived, at 2 a.m. Doctors reported that a gunshot wound through the intestine had put his life in danger, but on 9 January the Stasi and the director of the Oranienburg district court came to the hospital, announced the arrest warrant to him while he was intermittently unconscious after an operation, and took him into pre-trial detention. The Stasi guarded him around the clock at his bedside, and staff were forbidden to admit visitors or tell his relatives anything. He repeatedly insisted to his interrogators and guards that he had not meant to flee but had lost his way; the Stasi did not believe him.

Infection spread through his body over the following weeks. He was operated on twice and briefly improved, but on 30 January doctors diagnosed pneumonia, and he died at 11.50 that night. In his 23 days in hospital he did not see a single member of his family again. His body was cremated and his ashes buried.

West Berlin knew nothing at first; a defector later reported the incident but said the unnamed fugitive had been arrested unharmed. An investigation opened in July 1991 could not establish whether he had strayed into the border area by mistake or had meant to escape. Of the two guards who had fired, one said he had fired into the air, which his fellow guard confirmed; the first lieutenant who had fired the burst at him had died in 1986, and the Berlin public prosecutor discontinued the investigation on 15 August 1994 without bringing charges.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Rolf-Dieter Kabelitz”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180568/kabelitz-rolf-dieter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171352/kabelitz-rolf-dieter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Rolf-Dieter Kabelitz”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kabelitz-rolf-dieter/

---

# Wolfgang Hoffmann (1942–1971)

> Wolfgang Hoffmann, a 28-year-old West Berliner who had fled the East in 1961, was arrested at the Friedrichstrasse station crossing while trying to visit his mother, and died on 15 July 1971 after jumping from a window of the police building in Treptow.

- Born: 1 September 1942
- Died: 15 July 1971
- Age at death: 28
- Cause of death: Fatal fall or accident
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: From the East German police inspection building in Berlin-Treptow; After being arrested at the Friedrichstrasse station border crossing
- Map position (area): 52.52086, 13.38709
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hoffmann-wolfgang/

## Story

Wolfgang Hoffmann was born in Berlin on 1 September 1942. His mother brought up Wolfgang and his elder brother Peter, born five years before him, in Berlin-Johannisthal; their father had gone to war as a soldier and was reported missing in 1944. Wolfgang trained as a lathe operator and worked as a toolmaker at an Academy of Sciences institute in Adlershof. Like most residents of Johannisthal and Adlershof, the family used to cross into Neukölln to shop or go to the cinema, until the Wall ended this in the summer of 1961.

On 24 August 1961 he escaped over the barbed wire to West Berlin with a colleague, without telling his mother or brother; he may have wanted to avoid pressure to join the army. A warrant for his arrest followed in the East. In the West he seems to have settled in quickly. He was athletic and played football for 1st FC Neukölln, and wrote to his mother about his successes, though letters, read by the Stasi, could say little. From the late 1960s, he allegedly said under interrogation, he had had no fixed home or job, lived in a hotel room and played roulette. His family in the East knew nothing of this.

On the evening of 14 July 1971, almost 29 and apart from his mother and brother for ten years, he was overcome by the wish to see his mother. At that time West Berliners had practically no way to visit East Berlin. At around 10.40 p.m. he went to the checkpoint at Friedrichstrasse station without a visa, probably after drinking, and demanded to be let through; turned away, he insisted on being allowed to visit his mother. When the border officials asked for his identity card and he handed it over, he seemed suddenly to grasp the danger he was in as a former refugee and tried to leave, but he was followed and arrested on a platform used by Western travellers, as others looked on.

Wanted since 1962, he was taken to the police building in Treptow, questioned at 2 a.m. and held in a basement cell. Just after 8 a.m. on 15 July 1971 he was brought to a room on the second floor to be fingerprinted. He suddenly leapt onto a table and jumped head first through the closed bay window, falling ten metres. He died soon afterwards on the way to hospital. The police recorded a fatal accident, supposing he had not known which floor he was on. His brother pointed out that Wolfgang had walked past the building for years on his way to school.

Apparently fearing that it could disturb the climate of the Four Power negotiations on Berlin, the East German authorities kept his death secret. Everyone involved was sworn to silence and a new death certificate concealed the place and cause. Eight days later the Stasi told his mother a false story of gambling debts, drink and suicide; in shock, she agreed to an anonymous urn burial and promised to keep silent. His brother Peter was told of the supposed debts and an additional lie, that Wolfgang had been found dead in the border area. Neither was allowed to see him. At the memorial service on 20 August 1971 the Stasi limited and watched the guests.

Peter Hoffmann doubted the official account from the start. After their mother died in 1986, from 1990 he turned to authorities, hospitals, archives and Berlin senators for answers, and eventually learned from the Stasi files and the Berlin public prosecutor's office how his brother had died. The Berlin public prosecutor discontinued the proceedings, having found no evidence that anyone else bore criminal responsibility for his death. After the Four Power Agreement on Berlin came into effect, East Germany granted an amnesty to everyone who had left before 1 January 1972, almost exactly fifteen months too late for Wolfgang Hoffmann and his family.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Wolfgang Hoffmann”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180569/hoffmann-wolfgang
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171349/hoffmann-wolfgang
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Wolfgang Hoffmann”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hoffmann-wolfgang/

---

# Werner Kühl (1949–1971)

> Werner Kühl, a 22-year-old garden labourer from West Berlin, was shot dead in the border strip on 24 July 1971 after he and his friend Bernd Langer, who was wounded, had climbed the border fence from Neukölln to reach East Berlin.

- Born: 10 February 1949
- Died: 24 July 1971
- Age at death: 22
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near the bridge at Britzer Allee/Baumschulenweg; On the sector border between Berlin-Neukölln and Berlin-Treptow
- Map position (approximate): 52.45905, 13.47202
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kuehl-werner/

## Story

Werner Kühl was born in West Berlin on 10 February 1949. He left school in 1963 and worked as a garden labourer for various firms. His parents lived apart; he was registered at his father's address, while his mother looked after him. His life was unsettled, with repeated spells without work or a home.

In 1968–69, in a youth welfare hostel, he met Bernd Langer, a young man of the same age who had grown up in East Berlin with his grandmother and moved west to his father in 1966, but longed to go back. Bernd had suffered lasting health problems since a motorcycle accident in childhood. In July 1971 the two found a few days' work as transport workers, lived together in a guesthouse, and often talked of moving to East Germany, where they believed life could be better for them.

On Saturday 24 July 1971, a warm day, they took the S-Bahn to Neukölln with their luggage and walked to the Britzer Zweigkanal, where there was a bathing spot. There Werner proposed, perhaps on the spur of the moment, that they cross the border strip into East Berlin. Bernd objected that it was too dangerous and pointed out they could simply use a crossing point, but let himself be persuaded. They waited by the fence until dark and at around half past ten at night climbed over it, leaving most of their bags behind.

A man in a nearby allotment reported them to a watchtower. Taking them for East Germans trying to flee, the guards opened fire. Bernd Langer was wounded several times. Werner Kühl reached a border gate on the eastern side unhurt but could not open it; as he ran back, a bullet passed through his shoulder and chest and he collapsed at the anti-vehicle trench. His friend crawled to him, called to him and lay down beside him. Werner Kühl bled to death within minutes.

The shooting came during delicate negotiations over Berlin, and both sides used it. Without investigating, the West Berlin police released eyewitness observations to the press, and western media first reported a failed escape by three East Germans stopped by gunfire; East Berlin claimed that two West Berliners had committed a serious border provocation and had been injured, without mentioning a death. Only ten days later did East Germany admit that Werner Kühl had been killed, and the West Berlin police withdrew their account. The Stasi considered inventing evidence against him and, in agreement with the East German prosecutor-general's office, decided to have his body cremated, in its own words to prevent it being misused for political demonstrations in West Berlin.

Bernd Langer was released on 30 August 1971 and handed over to the West Berlin police, together with the urn containing Werner Kühl's ashes. A false death certificate gave the date of death as 26 July 1971. His family buried him in the St. Johannes Cemetery am Nordufer in Berlin-Wedding. The guards had been decorated; in May 2000 one of them was convicted of manslaughter as a co-perpetrator and given a youth sentence of a year and two months, suspended on probation, the other having died.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Werner Kühl”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180570/kuehl-werner
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171351/kuehl-werner
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Werner Kühl”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kuehl-werner/

---

# Dieter Beilig (1941–1971)

> A West Berlin worker who had protested against the Wall in the early 1960s, Dieter Beilig climbed the Wall at the Brandenburg Gate on 2 October 1971, was arrested on the eastern side and shot inside a border troop command post.

- Born: 5 September 1941
- Died: 2 October 1971
- Age at death: 30
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near the Brandenburg Gate; On the sector border between Berlin-Tiergarten and Berlin-Mitte
- Map position (exact): 52.51541, 13.37962
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/beilig-dieter/

## Story

Dieter Beilig was born in Berlin on 5 September 1941 and grew up in Kreuzberg, in the American sector. He came from a modest background. His father had been killed as a soldier in the Second World War, and he never knew him; his mother did not find him easy as he grew up, but for her only son she remained an important figure throughout his life. He left a baker's apprenticeship, later worked as an unskilled labourer at the federal printing office, and lived in a flat on Köpenicker Strasse near the Spree.

He was 20 when the sector borders were closed in August 1961, and he refused to accept the division of his city. He protested on the streets throughout the early 1960s; in July 1962 he was briefly arrested for throwing smoke bombs over the Wall. In August 1962, at the demonstrations marking the first anniversary of the Wall and following the death of Peter Fechter, he was photographed in the front row carrying a large wooden cross. He later wrote that he was a worker who despised every kind of totalitarian dictatorship, and that he loved freedom and human dignity.

In April 1964, in circumstances that remain unexplained, he fell into the hands of the Stasi. In the West it was suspected at the time that he had been abducted to East Berlin; the Stasi files, however, claim that on 29 April 1964 he arrived drunk at the Friedrichstrasse crossing and asked to contact the Stasi. After endless interrogations and months in pre-trial detention, he was charged over his activities against the Wall, and in December 1964 the East Berlin city court sentenced him to twelve years in a penitentiary. He was held in Brandenburg Penitentiary, at times in solitary confinement. In 1966 the Federal Republic bought his freedom, and he was released to the West that September, long before his sentence was due to end.

Back in Kreuzberg he kept a low profile, though he probably held on to his convictions. On the morning of Saturday 2 October 1971, a month after the Four Power Agreement of September 1971, he climbed onto the Wall at the Brandenburg Gate. Whether he meant to support or oppose the new policy towards the East is not known. West Berlin police told him to come down; instead he jumped to the eastern side, calling out for freedom for Germany.

No one in the West could see what followed. According to border troop and Stasi reports, he was arrested at once and taken to the border regiment's command post in the Academy of Arts building on Pariser Platz, trying on the way to break free. There he was made to wait in a small room under the guard of two soldiers. The border guards' account states that he tried to escape through the window at about 9:43 a.m. and was shot in the upper body from close range, without warning. He probably died immediately.

The Stasi then placed his fingerprints on the weapon so that the shooting would look like self-defence. Once it was clear there had been no outside witnesses, they concealed his death entirely. A lawyer engaged by his mother tried in vain to reach the East German authorities, and she died in 1988 never having found out what became of him.

After the end of the GDR, investigations into the man who had fired the shot uncovered the killing and its cover-up; he turned out to be a former border troop officer who had since died, so he was never charged. Three former Stasi members charged with shielding him by falsifying evidence were acquitted by the Berlin Regional Court in June 1999 because the charge could not be proved with the necessary certainty. His fate became widely known in 2003, when the Academy of Arts was being renovated, and markings on the floor of the reopened building now show where the command post stood. His body was cremated at the Baumschulenweg Crematorium in Treptow; where his remains were buried is still not known.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Dieter Beilig”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180571/beilig-dieter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171350/beilig-dieter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Dieter Beilig”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/beilig-dieter/

---

# Horst Kullack (1948–1972)

> Horst Kullack, a 23-year-old transport worker from Grossziethen, was shot on New Year's Eve 1971 while trying to reach West Berlin and died of his injuries on 21 January 1972.

- Born: 20 November 1948
- Died: 21 January 1972
- Age at death: 23
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the outer ring between Grossziethen (Königs Wusterhausen district) and Berlin-Tempelhof
- Map position (approximate): 52.38224, 13.42504
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kullack-horst/

## Story

Horst Kullack was born on 20 November 1948, the eldest of five children, and grew up in Grossziethen, a village near the border south-east of Berlin. He struggled at school and left after eighth grade. Without vocational training, he found work as a transport worker in Zeesen and helped on the family's small farm, caring for the cattle and the garden. An uncle and his grandmother lived in West Berlin.

His childhood was hard. According to a Stasi report, villagers said he had been beaten more than he was fed, and his mother believed the beatings explained his slowness and his isolation. He had few friends, and people in the village did not take him seriously. After speaking with his mother, the Stasi noted that he was said to suffer from depression and occasionally spoke of suicide.

He had tried to escape once before and, according to his father, had been fined for it. In 1968 he was investigated for slandering the state after allegedly insulting border soldiers, and after saying in a bar, while drunk, that he wanted to flee to his grandmother in West Berlin, he was dragged off by soldiers to their barracks. A psychiatric report found that he could not be held criminally responsible, and so he was spared imprisonment.

On 31 December 1971 he set off towards the border after dark; his father later thought he may have meant to visit relatives in Neukölln. At about 10 p.m. he knocked at the window of a house inside the security area and asked whether he had reached the border, saying he was going to West Berlin. The resident, an SED member, reported him to the local People's Police officer, who informed the border guards. Horst Kullack nevertheless climbed the inner fence and, bent low, got as far as the wall, when a searchlight was suddenly turned on him. Without first calling out to him, the two guards each fired two aimed shots at him; hit in the stomach by one of the bullets, he collapsed, badly wounded.

Before giving first aid, the guards hid him, bleeding heavily, in the anti-vehicle trench; he was then taken in a Trabant jeep to the rear area and only there given medical care. The New Year's fireworks had apparently drowned out the shots, and the aim was to keep the events from being seen from West Berlin. When his father came to the hospital, the staff at first denied that his son was there; only after he protested loudly was he allowed to see him. One doctor quietly expressed disgust at the shooting. Despite five operations at the Königs Wusterhausen District Hospital, Horst Kullack died on 21 January 1972.

He was buried in the family grave in Grossziethen on 29 January 1972; his relatives in the West were not given permission to enter East Germany. His death became known in the West when his uncle filed a criminal complaint. On 1 November 1995 the Potsdam Regional Court convicted the two guards of joint manslaughter and gave each of them a suspended youth sentence of a year and three months, and one of them apologised to his father. A memorial cross on Wittelsbacher Strasse in Lichtenrade, on the western side, has long remembered him.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Horst Kullack”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180572/kullack-horst
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171347/kullack-horst
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Horst Kullack”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kullack-horst/

---

# Manfred Weylandt (1942–1972)

> Manfred Weylandt, a 29-year-old stoker from East Berlin facing a prison term, was shot while swimming across the Spree towards West Berlin on 14 February 1972 and drowned; his body was recovered near the Schilling Bridge.

- Born: 12 July 1942
- Died: 14 February 1972
- Age at death: 29
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near the Schilling Bridge; In the Spree between Berlin-Friedrichshain and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (approximate): 52.50925, 13.42953
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weylandt-manfred/

## Story

Manfred Weylandt was born in Berlin on 12 July 1942; his mother raised him together with his two sisters. He finished only seven years of school and got by as an unskilled worker, and between 1957 and 1970 he served various prison sentences for different offences. His second marriage, in the autumn of 1970, seemed to bring some stability. He worked as an assistant stoker at a filter and carburettor factory beside the Wall near the Ostbahnhof in Friedrichshain, trained as a boiler attendant and, according to a Stasi report, did his job with discipline.

Then, however, the Friedrichshain district court sentenced him again, to two years for theft of socialist property. From then on he expected to be arrested any day; according to his wife's statements as recorded by Stasi officers, he turned to alcohol and took pills for his sleeplessness to master his fears. On 13 February 1972 a letter told him to report to Rummelsburg Penitentiary on 1 March. He did not want to return to prison; he had often talked with his wife about escaping, and it now seemed his only option. On the afternoon of 14 February he and his wife quarrelled because he had spent their last money on alcohol and a guitar, and at around 9.30 p.m., heavily drunk, he left their home in Adlershof. He was last seen at around 10.30 p.m. in a bar in Friedrichshain, which he reportedly left saying he was going to pull off something the world could only dream of.

He cycled to his workplace and, unseen by the night shift, climbed onto a shed roof and slid down a heating pipe into a dog run in the border area without any guard dog barking. The Stasi later found that employees of the plant had been feeding the border dogs, and he apparently knew he had nothing to fear from them. He took off his jacket and scarf, crossed the border area to the embankment wall of the Spree, slipped into the icy water and swam towards the West Berlin bank. At around 11:30 p.m., when he was halfway across, two border guards saw him and, when he did not respond to their shouts, fired until he disappeared from view. A bullet struck the back of his head, and he sank and drowned.

Divers found his body near the Schilling Bridge on the afternoon of the next day. It was taken away fastened to the underside of a boat, so that it could not be seen from the West Berlin bank. The guards were decorated and given a bonus. The Stasi identified him from his fingerprints two days after his death but did not tell his wife, instead investigating his family, friends and colleagues to make sure the truth stayed hidden. His wife tried to report him missing on 15 February 1972, but the People's Police accepted her report only six days later; she enquired at hospitals and prisons in vain, fearing he might have taken his own life.

His body was cremated on 13 March 1972. The next day his widow was told only that he had been recovered from the Spree near the Museum Island, which was not where he had been found, and already cremated; how he died was not mentioned. His urn was buried at the Baumschulenweg cemetery on 21 March 1972 without his relatives present. The family learned the truth only more than twenty years later. Twenty-one 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.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Manfred Weylandt”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180573/weylandt-manfred
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171346/weylandt-manfred
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Manfred Weylandt”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weylandt-manfred/

---

# Klaus Schulze (1953–1972)

> Klaus Schulze, an 18-year-old unskilled worker from Falkensee, was fatally shot in the chest by border guards on 7 March 1972 at Falkenhöh, across from the Eiskeller exclave, while his friend made it over the last fence.

- Born: 13 October 1953
- Died: 7 March 1972
- Age at death: 18
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near Falkenhöh, across from the Eiskeller exclave; On the outer ring between Falkensee (Nauen district) and Berlin-Spandau
- Map position (approximate): 52.58011, 13.13616
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schulze-klaus/

## Story

Klaus Schulze was born on 13 October 1953 in Falkensee, a town on the edge of West Berlin. At 14 he had already tried, without success, to get to West Berlin; as a minor he was not charged. The difficult circumstances of his upbringing may have been behind that attempt. He attended the Geschwister-Scholl school in Falkenhöh from 1960 to 1968 but fell behind, later gave up training as a cattle breeder, and got by as an unskilled worker.

He spent most of his time with a group of young people his own age of the kind the Stasi dismissed as groups of loafers or "negative" youth groups. Like such groups all over East Germany at the time, they wanted anything but to live as their parents had. In East Germany, however, being without a steady job brought trouble. After he and his friend Dieter Krause left their jobs at the Hennigsdorf steel mill in the summer of 1971, the Falkensee council warned them to find work at once, and they had been threatened with a re-education work camp. On 5 March 1972 he was reprimanded again for absenteeism. Both young men wanted to leave East Germany as soon as they could.

A friend of theirs had a plot in Falkenhöh right on the border. The two looked at the area once by day and once by night, and noticed that overgrown vegetation gave cover and that one light in the control strip was out. Late in the afternoon of 7 March 1972 they went round several bars in Falkensee, and at about 8 p.m. they set off on foot for Falkenhöh. Their friend was not at home and knew nothing of the plan. They took a 2.7-metre ladder from his shed and carried it into the border strip.

They crossed the signal fence with the ladder, not realising they had triggered an alarm. Klaus, carrying one end of the ladder bent low, tripped over a wire and fell behind. Dieter Krause reached the last fence, 2.5 metres high on a steep concrete slope, set the ladder against it, and got over amid heavy fire from the two guards. Klaus Schulze was hit in the chest by a bullet that tore his aorta and lungs.

The next day his sister was questioned and told only that her brother had died dishonourably. Three days after his death, a public prosecutor and Stasi officers told his parents he had died in an accident during an attempt to break through the border for which he himself was to blame, and pressured them to agree to cremation. His belongings came back to them against a receipt: one pair of black men's shoes. Stasi informants kept watch on the family, and their mail was read. His urn was buried in the cemetery in Falkensee on 3 April 1972; the young people of the town, who had hoped to turn the funeral into a protest against the order to shoot, were not told the date.

In spring 1991 his siblings asked the Berlin senator for justice to investigate, and in autumn 1994 the two guards were charged. The proceedings against one were discontinued because he was permanently unfit to stand trial; the other, who said he had deliberately fired over the ladder, was acquitted in early 1997 by the Potsdam Regional Court.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Klaus Schulze”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180574/schulze-klaus
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171348/schulze-klaus
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Klaus Schulze”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schulze-klaus/

---

# Cengaver Katrancı (1964–1972)

> Cengaver Katrancı, an eight-year-old boy from Kreuzberg, fell into the Spree at the Gröbenufer near the Oberbaum Bridge on 30 October 1972 and drowned; the river there belonged to East Berlin, and West Berlin rescuers were never allowed to go in.

- Born: 1964
- Died: 30 October 1972
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge; On the sector border between Berlin-Kreuzberg and Berlin-Friedrichshain
- Map position (approximate): 52.50207, 13.44282
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/katranc-cengaver/

## Story

Cengaver Katrancı was born in 1964. He lived in the West Berlin district of Kreuzberg with his mother, who came from Turkey, and his three siblings.

Shortly after 1 p.m. on 30 October 1972, eight-year-old Cengaver was playing with a friend on the Gröbenufer, the Spree embankment in Kreuzberg about 100 metres from the Oberbaum Bridge crossing. While the boys fed the swans from the narrow edge of the quay, Cengaver suddenly toppled into the cold river. Screaming, his friend rushed off to find help. A fisherman nearby, once he understood what the boy was telling him, sent him on to the nearby customs post for help, hurried to the spot and began to undress, but he realised that the whole width of the river here belonged to East Berlin and that he could be shot if he went in. He did not jump.

West Berlin customs officers alerted the police and fire brigade and came to the bank. They waved to the crew of an East German fire boat escorting a tanker, but it stopped only briefly and went on. From about 1.30 p.m. the West Berlin police negotiated with border troops on the Oberbaum Bridge, while two West Berlin divers stood ready on the quay, waiting in vain for permission to enter the water. An East Berlin water police boat, hailed and waved over from the western bank, hesitantly edged a little closer, then turned away and was at once caught up by a border troops' speedboat: it had crossed the middle of the river into a zone forbidden to it. A crowd that the police estimated at several hundred people gathered on the bank and could only watch.

An East Berlin lifeboat reached the scene at about 2.30 p.m., and a search began. Half an hour later a diver surfaced with the boy close to the bank. A stretcher stood ready and the boy could have been handed over, but the diver did not swim the two metres to the West Berlin bank; he swam back to the border troops' boat. Any move by the diver with the boy towards the western bank could have been treated by the guards as an escape attempt.

That evening his mother was allowed into East Berlin with two relatives to identify her son at the Charité, after which he was brought back to West Berlin. She asked for him to be buried in Ankara. After his death the Berlin Senate announced that it would seek an agreement with East Germany on help in accidents in the border waters; it took many rounds of talks, and the deaths of three more children in the Spree, before one was reached in 1975.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron, “Cengaver Katrancı”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180575/katranc-cengaver
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171345/katranc-cengaver
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Cengaver Katrancı”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/katranc-cengaver/

---

# Holger H. (1971–1973)

> Holger H., a 15-month-old boy, suffocated on 22 January 1973 while hidden with his mother in a crate on a truck passing through the Drewitz border crossing, as his parents fled East Germany.

- Born: 1971
- Died: 22 January 1973
- Cause of death: Fatal fall or accident
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Drewitz border crossing/ Dreilinden command post ("Checkpoint Bravo"); On the outer ring between Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.40736, 13.19193
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/h-holger/

## Story

Holger H. was born in 1971. His parents, Ingrid and Klaus H., had met in Moscow on a youth travel programme. Little is known of why they wanted to leave East Germany, but after their son was born they were sure they did not want to spend their lives there. His father, who had tried to escape across the Baltic Sea at 17, had been branded a "republic fugitive" and had few career prospects. His mother, a young teacher, probably suffered under the political paternalism of the time. They wanted to leave for their own sake and for Holger's: they did not want him to grow up with the constraints they had known.

One night in January 1973 a truck belonging to a West Berlin acquaintance stopped at a car park on the transit motorway. The 23-year-old father climbed into one large empty crate on the back; the 20-year-old mother and 15-month-old Holger hid in another. At the Drewitz border crossing, the driver later told the West Berlin police, the inspection took longer than usual.

Holger was unwell, with a middle-ear infection and bronchitis, and his nose was probably blocked. When he began to cry, his frightened mother tried in vain to quieten him and, panicking, held his mouth shut, not realising that he could not breathe through his nose. The truck passed through undetected. About 300 metres further on the crates were opened, and his mother at once held her son out to the helpers at the western checkpoint. Holger was no longer breathing, and every attempt to revive him failed.

His burial was planned for a cemetery in Berlin-Marienfelde. A commemorative column to him was put up near the Drewitz-Dreilinden Border Crossing memorial at Stahnsdorfer Damm/Europapark.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Holger H.”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180576/h-holger
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171343/h-holger
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Holger H.”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/h-holger/

---

# Volker Frommann (1944–1973)

> Volker Frommann, a 28-year-old from Unterpörlitz in Thuringia who had been imprisoned as a teenager for a political act, jumped from a moving S-Bahn train between Pankow and Schönhauser Allee stations, about 50 metres from the border area, on 1 March 1973. He died of his injuries on 5 March.

- Born: 23 or 24 April 1944
- Died: 5 March 1973
- Age at death: 28
- Cause of death: Fatal fall or accident
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near the Pankow S-Bahn station; On the sector border between Berlin-Pankow and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (area): 52.55949, 13.39736
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/frommann-volker/

> Note on the sources: The sources disagree on his date of birth. The official 2017 list of the 140 victims and the headers of both the English and the German biography give 23 April 1944; the text of the German biography gives 24 April 1944.

## Story

Volker Frommann was born on 23 April 1944 in Unterpörlitz, near Ilmenau in Thuringia, the only child of Marie and Heinrich Frommann. His father was a production manager at a state-owned machine works, and his mother worked from home for a doll factory. He grew up alongside a cousin in the house the family shared with his uncle, did well at school, and in summer 1960 graduated from the middle school in Ilmenau.

His closest friend was Rainer Michelidse, whose father had been denounced in 1945 and picked up by the Soviet secret service; the family lost all trace of him after he was interned without ever being sentenced. Both were active in the Protestant youth congregation, critical of the official youth organisation, and preferred western radio for news and music. In 1959 they travelled to East Berlin to visit West Berlin secretly. In April 1960, when the village was declared fully collectivised, the two believed the farmers had been pressured into joining. During the party celebration they slipped out unnoticed, threw an iron cow chain over the village's high-voltage line and caused a short circuit that plunged the festivities into darkness.

The Stasi arrested the two boys on 11 August 1960. Both 16 and defenceless against the Stasi's interrogation methods, they were played off against each other and pressed into "confessions". On 17 November 1960 the Suhl district court sentenced them under adult criminal law to three years' penal servitude for acts of violence endangering the state, plus six months for theft of public property: four tins of pineapple taken from the storeroom of the village cultural centre. The court dismissed his father's view that it had been a youthful prank; the total damage was no more than 320 marks. At the Torgau youth prison he was punished with days of solitary confinement in a basement cell for asking for a Bible. He trained there as a metalworker, read classical literature, painted and drew. After two years in prison he and his friend were amnestied and released from Torgau on 10 August 1962, on three years' probation.

Back home he continued his metalwork training. The following year he tried to escape from East Germany but was arrested in Czechoslovakia, handed back to East Germany and sentenced to another prison term, which he apparently served until 1964 in the Untermaßfeld penitentiary. Work as a fitter and later at a glass-painting firm left him unfulfilled; his cousin recalled that the daily routine was not his world. He read Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Kant and Plato and wrote about them to his friend. His applications to study theology and to attend the Dresden art school both failed, and in East Germany people with such a record often had a hard time professionally.

Besides his work, the psychological after-effects of prison apparently weighed more and more on him; he went into psychotherapy and learned autogenic training. In the second half of the 1960s he married a doctor; after some years away, the couple returned to Unterpörlitz in the early 1970s and lived a withdrawn life. Neither his friend nor his cousin knew what led him to try to escape again in 1973.

At about 12:45 a.m. on 1 March 1973 he jumped from a moving S-Bahn train between Pankow and Schönhauser Allee, about 50 metres from the border area, probably meaning to use the line's closeness to the border to reach West Berlin. He lay badly injured beside the tracks. Shortly afterwards a Volkspolizei patrol found him, no longer responsive, and an ambulance took him to the hospital in Berlin-Friedrichshain. First examinations showed a spinal injury and that his life was in acute danger. He died of his injuries on 5 March 1973.

Through a nurse at the hospital, who had attended the same nursing school as his wife and his cousin's wife, his family learned only vaguely that he had been found badly injured near the Wall. His parents came to the service at the Baumschulenweg Crematorium, and his father bribed a cemetery official to open the coffin once more before the cremation so they could say goodbye. He is buried in Unterpörlitz, in a grave he now shares with his parents. In the early 1990s his parents tried in vain to learn more about how he died.

## Sources

1. Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Volker Frommann”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180577/frommann-volker
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171344/frommann-volker
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Volker Frommann”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/frommann-volker/

---

# Horst Einsiedel (1940–1973)

> Horst Einsiedel, a 33-year-old engineer and father from East Berlin, was shot dead on 15 March 1973 as he climbed the Wall from the Pankow municipal cemetery, where his father was buried. The Stasi hid his death from his wife for months.

- Born: 8 February 1940
- Died: 15 March 1973
- Age at death: 33
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Pankow municipal cemetery; On the sector border between Berlin-Pankow und Berlin-Reinickendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.57081, 13.38603
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/einsiedel-horst/

## Story

Horst Einsiedel was born in Berlin-Pankow on 8 February 1940. After an apprenticeship in metalwork he gained a high school degree at a workers' and farmers' faculty, then studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University in Dresden. In 1967, now an engineer, he moved with his wife and their daughter, born in 1966, to Berlin-Weissensee. His last job was with a state-owned firm in Heinersdorf.

Because he refused to join the SED, the ruling party, he had little prospect of promotion, while his superiors, promoted as party members, were often no match for him professionally. He talked with his wife about fleeing to West Berlin, where his sister had lived since 1951 and his mother since 1969, but she felt it was too dangerous with their young daughter. She later attributed his decision to go alone to his not wanting to put his family in unnecessary danger, and told the Berlin police as a witness in 1992 that he had probably hoped to bring them over later.

Early on 15 March 1973 he told his wife he was going to an emergency dentist for a bad toothache, and drove his Trabant to the Pankow cemetery, where he often visited his father's grave. The last cemetery fence was only 30 metres from the first house in West Berlin. He had planned carefully: he cut the chain holding two ladders at a tool shed, climbed the inner fence, and crossed the signal fence, setting off an alarm. He had set the folding ladder against the concrete wall and was climbing up to its top when the two guards in a watchtower 200 metres away, who had spotted him, opened fire at once. Hit in the neck and chest, he fell from the ladder and died shortly afterwards from his wounds.

While the West German government and the West Berlin Senate protested that same day, the guards were awarded a medal for exemplary border service and a cash bonus that afternoon. When her husband had still not come home by about 8 a.m., his wife called the emergency dental service and learned he had never been there; the next day she noticed that all his personal papers were missing and realised what must have happened.

The Stasi drafted cover stories for his disappearance and ordered all 42 people who knew the truth to stay silent. Not knowing that she was by now a widow, his wife was questioned repeatedly by Stasi officers at the police headquarters on Alexanderplatz and even asked for photographs of her husband to help the search for him. At the end of March she was told his car had been found unlocked in a forest and that he had probably been the victim of a violent crime. At the end of May she was told that he had drowned and been found in the Havel near Potsdam, and was advised by the Stasi not to identify the body, which was said to be badly decomposed and had in fact already been cremated without her knowledge. All she was given was a falsified death certificate giving 17 March as the date of death.

On 5 July 1973, under Stasi surveillance, his urn was buried in his father's grave, at the very place where his escape had begun. In early 1999 the Berlin Regional Court convicted the two guards of manslaughter and gave them suspended prison sentences of a year and three months; the case against their commander, for aiding and abetting manslaughter, was discontinued in 2002 because he was permanently unfit to stand trial. At the end of an investigation opened in 1996 against Stasi officers and a doctor, the Berlin public prosecutor's office concluded that the cover-up amounted to falsification of records, but the case had to be discontinued in August 1997 because the offence was by then time-barred.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Horst Einsiedel”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180578/einsiedel-horst
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171340/einsiedel-horst
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Horst Einsiedel”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/einsiedel-horst/

---

# Manfred Gertzki (1942–1973)

> Manfred Gertzki, a 30-year-old engineer from Karl-Marx-Stadt, was shot by the Spree near the Reichstag on 27 April 1973 despite home-made body armour; a Stasi report says an officer then pushed him into the river. He was cremated as an unknown man.

- Born: 17 May 1942
- Died: 27 April 1973
- Age at death: 30
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Close to the Reichstag building; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Tiergarten
- Map position (approximate): 52.5189, 13.38022
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gertzki-manfred/

## Story

Manfred Gertzki was born in Danzig on 17 May 1942. He lost his father and brother in the Second World War, and in 1945 his mother fled with him to Eisenach; they later settled in Chemnitz, then Karl-Marx-Stadt, where he trained as a sheet metal worker. After air force service he studied mechanical engineering, worked at the state-owned Robotron research centre, and in 1972 completed evening studies at the city's technical university, graduating as a qualified engineer with the top grade.

He was a track and field athlete who won prizes in the discus and shot put at district championships between 1967 and 1973, and, as his friends later recalled, he created the rotating sun for the Galilei sculpture in the Stadthalle, Chemnitz's civic hall. After his mother died in 1967, his only close relatives lived in West Germany. How and when he decided to start a new life in the West cannot be traced, but he planned meticulously, sending some belongings to the West in advance.

He made a bullet-proof vest by riveting 2-millimetre metal plates onto oilcloth and sewing it into his jacket, and fixed a movable steel face mask to a motorcycle helmet, carrying 50 kilograms of equipment in all. He was confident it would protect him. His friends knew of his plan and had scouted the border with him. Two days before he fled, he left a letter for his relatives with a friend, to be sent if there was no news of him after four weeks.

Early in the evening of 27 April 1973 he entered the border area close to the Reichstag, where the Spree Canal was being enlarged and the border installations were temporarily under construction. He broke the lock of the inner fence gate and, sheltered by the embankment, made his way along the Spree towards the Wall. For a few metres he would be visible from a watchtower close by; he probably did not expect the part played by a second tower about 300 metres away at the Kronprinzen Bridge.

Guards in the near tower fired on him at close range. He fell, or threw himself, to the ground and seemed to be hit, but crawled on and got over the next-to-last fence. Then shots came from the tower across the river, and, hit, he collapsed at the water's edge and lay motionless, two metres from the last fence and the West Berlin line. Passers-by, British military personnel and West Berlin police gathered on the Spree bank close by, shouting their disgust, but no one dared to intervene. According to a Stasi report, an officer who had given him no first aid then pushed him into the Spree, and the weight of his equipment took him to the bottom. About two hours later, at around 7:40 p.m., fire brigade divers recovered his body.

The western press reported the shooting at the Reichstag the next day. Because no one in East Germany appeared to be missing him, the Stasi had him registered as an unknown man; a false death certificate was issued on 14 May 1973, and on 15 May he was cremated at Baumschulenweg as an unknown dead man and buried anonymously in the urn grove there.

The Stasi's belief that no one knew was mistaken. His friend mailed the letter, which reached his uncle and aunt in early July 1973, and the next day sent an anonymous note telling them Manfred was no longer alive. In autumn 1997 three former guards were tried; as there had been no post-mortem, it was unclear whether he died from his wounds or drowned. Two were acquitted, and the guard leader who had fired from 300 metres, then 19, was convicted of attempted manslaughter with conditional intent and, under juvenile law, sentenced to one year, suspended on probation. On 27 April 2013, the 40th anniversary of his death, a memorial notice from his friends Gerhard, Hartwig and Roland appeared in the Freie Presse Chemnitz.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Manfred Gertzki”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180579/gertzki-manfred
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171341/gertzki-manfred
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Manfred Gertzki”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gertzki-manfred/

---

# Siegfried Kroboth (1968–1973)

> Siegfried Kroboth, a five-year-old boy from Kreuzberg, fell into the Spree near the Brommy Bridge while playing on 14 May 1973 and drowned while rescuers from West Berlin were not permitted to enter the water.

- Born: 23 April 1968
- Died: 14 May 1973
- Age at death: 5
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree near the Brommy Bridge; On the sector border between Berlin-Kreuzberg and Berlin-Friedrichshain
- Map position (approximate): 52.50521, 13.43618
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kroboth-siegfried/

## Story

Siegfried Kroboth was born in West Berlin on 23 April 1968. He lived in Kreuzberg with his parents and his 13-year-old brother. Some years earlier the family had fled from the eastern part of the city to the West.

On the morning of 14 May 1973 Siegfried was playing with a friend on the Kreuzberg bank of the Spree near the Brommy Bridge, which had been destroyed in the war. They ventured as far as the quay wall, and the five-year-old slipped and fell into the water. His friend shouted for help, and a 12-year-old girl ran 200 metres to a fire alarm box and set it off at 11.55 a.m. Within minutes a West Berlin police car was there.

Siegfried kept himself above the water for a while, holding his hand over his mouth, but his strength gave out and he went under just before the Schilling Bridge. Along this stretch the whole width of the Spree belonged to East Berlin, so the police had no authority to go in. Fire brigade divers arrived at 12.07 but, not authorised to go into the water, had to wait idly on the Gröbenufer. An East German border boat came close but its crew did not respond when the police called out where the boy had fallen in and how they might recover him. His mother, who had arrived by then, could only watch in tears as the recovery was delayed.

Only after the West Berlin fire officer had contacted an East German officer at the Oberbaum Bridge was a boat with divers sent. The first diver went in at 12.45 p.m., others followed, and they searched according to the directions called from the western bank, but never answered offers of help, as they were forbidden contact with the West. At about 3.50 p.m., four hours after the accident, they brought the boy's body out of the water and took it to East Berlin. It was handed over to his parents at the Oberbaum Bridge crossing early on 16 May 1973.

It was the second such incident in six months, and it came shortly before the basic treaty between the two German states was due to take effect on 21 June 1973, placing a strain on relations between them. There were strong calls in West Berlin for an agreement allowing rapid help in future, and eight days after his death officials of the West Berlin Senate and of the East German government held preliminary talks. Yet it took until spring 1976 before rescue posts with lights visible from the watchtowers were set up along a good six kilometres of the water border in West Berlin. For his parents it was a second great loss: five years earlier, to the day, their 21-year-old daughter had been murdered in East Berlin.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron, “Siegfried Kroboth”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180580/kroboth-siegfried
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171342/kroboth-siegfried
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Siegfried Kroboth”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kroboth-siegfried/

---

# Burkhard Niering (1950–1974)

> Burkhard Niering, a 23-year-old conscript in the East German police from Halle, was shot on 5 January 1974 at the Checkpoint Charlie crossing while trying to reach West Berlin armed and with a hostage; he died shortly after 9 p.m.

- Born: 1 September 1950
- Died: 5 January 1974
- Age at death: 23
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the Friedrich-/Zimmerstrasse border crossing ("Checkpoint Charlie"); On the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (exact): 52.50743, 13.39038
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/niering-burkhard/

## Story

Burkhard Niering was born on 1 September 1950 in Halle an der Saale. After his parents' divorce, when he was eight, his mother raised him and before long married again. He quit school early, in the 9th grade in 1966, and trained as a plumber and installer. He did not join the "Ernst Thälmann" pioneer organisation or the FDJ, which the Stasi later blamed on the influence of his parents' home. His interests, according to the files, lay in literature and the theatre.

In May 1973 he was called up for military service with the East German police and served in a mobile squad stationed in Basdorf, north of Berlin. His superiors found him unobtrusive and very fit for service, and he received two distinctions, but an informant reported that he considered the service a pointless waste of his youth. He is said to have told a fellow soldier that he would leave East Germany at the first opportunity. After Christmas leave in 1973, which he spent with his mother and stepfather, his room-mates said he seemed changed, avoided conversation and gave a depressed impression. According to a Stasi report, on 30 December he wrote to his birth father about the psychological problems of uniformity, its levelling effect on people and the resulting undermining of individuality.

On the evening of 5 January 1974 he was guarding his barracks alone, and left unnoticed with his weapon. How he reached the city centre so quickly is unclear; his food voucher was found on the F 109 highway, and the Stasi surmised that he had hitched a ride, but it is more likely that he had arranged a lift with someone who knew the area. At around 7.35 p.m. he appeared at the Friedrichstrasse crossing, Checkpoint Charlie, in winter uniform with a machine pistol, and forced a Stasi passport control sergeant to walk ahead of him towards West Berlin, firing into the air. One of the other passport officers, who had meanwhile raised the alarm and taken up position, fired at him from cover and missed.

He had about 150 metres to cover inside the crossing. The sergeant deliberately walked slowly and, by his own account, asked what Niering wanted and was told that he wanted to get across. At the lowered barrier of the exit post the guards lay down with their weapons ready. When Niering told the sergeant to crawl under the barrier, the sergeant dropped and rolled aside, and two guards fired from cover, hitting Niering in the lower back. Within three minutes he had been carried to the watchtower out of public view. He died in the People's Police Hospital shortly after 9 p.m. The Stasi officers involved received combat medals, and the Stasi later used film of the incident for training.

A West Berlin customs officer and two U.S. soldiers witnessed the events, and the West German government, the Berlin Senate and the Allied commanders condemned the guards' conduct. In January 1991 his mother filed a criminal complaint against Erich Honecker, Erich Mielke and the guards, arguing that it was not right to invoke the laws in force in a state without the rule of law. The Berlin prosecutors discontinued their investigation in September 1997, concluding that, because the violence had come from Burkhard Niering himself and hostage-taking and desertion are also crimes in the Federal Republic, the guards would have been entitled to arrest him and use their weapons under West German law as well. In legal terms, the family did not receive the justice they sought.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Burkhard Niering”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180581/niering-burkhard
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171338/niering-burkhard
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Burkhard Niering”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/niering-burkhard/

---

# Czesław Jan Kukuczka (1935–1974)

> Czesław Jan Kukuczka, a 38-year-old Polish fireman and father of three, was shot in the back during a Stasi operation at the Friedrichstrasse station border crossing on 29 March 1974 and bled to death that evening.

- Born: 23 July 1935
- Died: 29 March 1974
- Age at death: 38
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Friedrichstrasse station border crossing in Berlin-Mitte
- Map position (exact): 52.52086, 13.38709
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kukuczka-czesaw-jan/

## Story

Czesław Kukuczka was born on 23 July 1935 in Kamienica, in Limanowa county in Poland, and went to primary school there up to seventh grade. A local periodical, Gorczańskie Wieści, counted him among the most active and imaginative young people of the area. At 17 he was recruited to help build Nowa Huta, the new socialist workers' town on the edge of Krakau, but he soon came home; according to an anonymous report by a delegate from Nowa Huta, he said the work was unbearable and talked others out of volunteering.

In October 1953 he was sentenced to two and a half years for alleged embezzlement, and was paroled in November 1954. He married, and he and his wife had three children. After a spell with a building company he served for several years in the fire brigades of Jaworzno, Limanowa and Bielsko-Biała, reaching the rank of junior fire brigade master. He told Polish officials he hoped to emigrate to the United States, where he had two aunts.

On 3 March 1974 he failed to turn up for work, and nothing more was known of his whereabouts until 29 March. At around 12.30 p.m. that day he came to the Polish embassy on Unter den Linden in East Berlin. There he told Polish security officials that unless he was allowed through the Friedrichstrasse crossing into West Berlin by 3 p.m., he would blow up the embassy with a bomb he claimed to be carrying; he held a stuffed briefcase on his knees. When he spoke of his family, according to one report, he had tears in his eyes. The Polish side informed the Stasi, and a deputy Stasi minister decided that he should be put out of action, if possible outside the embassy.

A Stasi officer issued him a substitute passport with an exit visa, and he was assured that the photograph could be taken at the border. At about 2.40 p.m. he left the embassy and was driven by a plain-clothes Stasi officer to the departure hall at Friedrichstrasse station. That afternoon, during the checks, he was shot in the back. Schoolgirls aged 15 to 17 from Bad Hersfeld on their way back to West Berlin saw it happen; a newspaper later quoted them as saying that a man in civilian clothes had fired from a distance of two metres.

Rather than being taken to the nearest hospital, he was driven several kilometres to the Stasi prison hospital in Hohenschönhausen, where he died from loss of blood during surgery at 6.32 p.m. The briefcase held all kinds of things, among them a shaving brush, shoe polish and sewing thread, but no explosives. Only after the "Bild" newspaper reported the shooting did a Stasi report, dated 4 April 1974, claim that he had threatened two border guards with a pistol and that one of them had then shot him. All the evidence suggests that this story was fabricated afterwards to justify his killing. The autopsy established that he had been shot in the back.

East German and Polish officials kept the case quiet, and his family was not consulted about cremation. On 24 May 1974 his widow, Emilia Kukuczka, received his urn and belongings, and the next day the head of the Kamienica municipality reported that a church funeral had taken place with close family. A Stasi officer involved and the head of the Polish operational group in East Berlin were later decorated. His identity was connected to the shooting only in the late 1990s, through a review of autopsy records. In December 2005 Berlin prosecutors closed the case, unable to identify the gunman with certainty. The shot in his back went unpunished.

## Sources

1. Filip Gańczak/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Czesław Jan Kukuczka”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/183519/kukuczka-czesaw-jan
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/183511/kukuczka-czesaw-jan
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Czesław Jan Kukuczka”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kukuczka-czesaw-jan/

---

# Johannes Sprenger (1905–1974)

> Johannes Sprenger, a 68-year-old pensioner, father of nine and local councillor, was shot dead by a border guard on 10 May 1974 in the death strip near Hornkleepfad in Altglienicke; why he went to the border remains unknown.

- Born: 3 December 1905
- Died: 10 May 1974
- Age at death: 68
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near the Hornkleepfad in Altglienicke; On the sector border between Berlin-Treptow und Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.41808, 13.52429
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/sprenger-johannes/

## Story

Johannes Sprenger was born on 3 December 1905 in Greifenhagen in Pomerania, today Gryfino in Poland. A trained road construction worker and father of nine, he lived with his second wife in Lüttenhagen/Weitendorf in the Neustrelitz district. Though already drawing a pension, he still worked on the farm of the Dolgen cooperative. He had joined the KPD before 1945, was politically active in the SED, the ruling party, and had sat on his village council since retiring in 1970. He stood again in the local elections of 1974.

He had lung cancer, though no one in his village knew and even he had not been given a clear diagnosis. By April 1974 he seemed to sense that he was seriously ill. He was treated at a special clinic in Berlin-Buch, where doctors decided against surgery because of his age. Three days before he died, on a visit home, he told his wife that he would return in a coffin, without explaining more.

On the afternoon of 9 May 1974 he went with two other patients to a nearby bar, and left at around 7:30 p.m. He was next seen about five hours later, more than 30 kilometres away at the other end of the city, in the border area between Altglienicke and West Berlin. How he got there, and why, is unknown. As a pensioner he was free to travel to the West and had done so in 1970 and 1972. In 2000 the Berlin Regional Court suggested that he had presumably not intended to flee but had perhaps gone into the border area to have his life ended by the guards' fire, echoing the Stasi's own speculation; his biographers point out that there is no proof of this and considerable reason to doubt it. It also remains unclear how a weakened man managed to climb the inner fence.

At about 12:40 a.m. guards on the "Entenfarm" watchtower saw a man walking towards them between the inner fence and the signal fence, making no attempt to cross further barriers. According to the guards, he kept walking after they called out to him. When he was 60 to 80 metres from the tower, the head guard gave the order to shoot, and the other guard, without firing a warning shot, fired a burst of five shots. Hit in the head and neck, Johannes Sprenger fell. The guards could easily have arrested him, yet both received a merit badge.

No one else seemed to have noticed, and the Stasi decided to hide what had happened. Although he carried identification, his body was kept as that of an unknown man, with no autopsy. On 19 May, the day he was re-elected to his council, Stasi officers posing as police told his wife and a son that he had gone missing from the clinic. They later claimed he had been found strangled in woods near the clinic, a clear suicide, and persuaded the family to agree to cremation without seeing him. The urn came by post, and he was buried in his home village on 1 June 1974.

His wife doubted the suicide story all her life. The truth came out only in 1997, two years after her death, in the course of the criminal investigation of the guards who shot him; the Berlin Regional Court later sentenced both, for joint manslaughter, to suspended prison sentences of nine months each.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Johannes Sprenger”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180582/sprenger-johannes
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171337/sprenger-johannes
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Johannes Sprenger”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/sprenger-johannes/

---

# Giuseppe Savoca (1968–1974)

> Giuseppe Savoca, a six-year-old boy from Kreuzberg, fell into the Spree from the Gröbenufer bank near the Oberbaum Bridge on 15 June 1974 and drowned; the river there belonged to East Berlin and West Berlin rescuers were not allowed to help.

- Born: 22 April 1968
- Died: 15 June 1974
- Age at death: 6
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge; On the sector border between Berlin-Kreuzberg and Berlin-Friedrichshain
- Map position (approximate): 52.50165, 13.44384
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/savoca-giuseppe/

## Story

Giuseppe Savoca was born in West Berlin on 22 April 1968. His parents were Italian immigrants, and he lived with them and his two younger sisters in Kreuzberg.

On Saturday 15 June 1974 the six-year-old was playing with a friend on the Gröbenufer, the riverbank in Kreuzberg. His friend, a Turkish boy, later said that they had only wanted to look at the fish. Shortly after 10 a.m. Giuseppe slipped under the railing and began poking a stick into the water below the quay wall, perhaps hoping to reach a toy. Stretching further and further out, he lost his balance and fell into the river. While he struggled in the water, his playmate ran off to find help.

In that area the water belonged entirely to East Berlin. From the Oberbaum Bridge, about 60 metres away, an East German border guard saw the boy fall through his binoculars and reported it to the command post of the border regiment's boat company. Soon afterwards, independently of that report, a border troop patrol boat passed close to the spot, and an adult brought by Giuseppe's friend called out that a child was in the water. The coxswain paused and then carried on. He later explained that he had seen no air bubbles and took the call to be a provocation. He added that he had not been allowed to cross the barrier line in the river without an explicit order from the regiment's commander and prior notice to the guards at the Oberbaum Bridge crossing.

Only after receiving that order did he turn back, beginning a search with a second boat at about 10:25 a.m. A number of West Berliners gathered on the bank, none of whom attempted a rescue, and West Berlin police and firemen arrived ten minutes later, but, as in earlier cases at the Gröbenufer, the border guards would not let them take part. His mother later told the West Berlin press that a woman had told her East German border guards had threatened with their guns a man who had wanted to rescue her son. Recovery work began only at around 10:45 a.m., when a team of divers from the East German border regiment arrived, and Giuseppe was brought out of the water about an hour after he fell, then taken to East Berlin.

That evening his parents were allowed into East Berlin to identify their son at the Charité forensic institute. His body was returned to West Berlin on 19 June 1974, and the East German government billed the parents 54.50 German marks for this. "Neues Deutschland" then claimed, falsely, that every necessary step had been taken at once; the West Berlin press accused the border guards of obstructing and delaying the rescue.

For months, talks between the West Berlin Senate and the East German government about emergency rescues on the border waters had produced no result. Only after the death of another child, Çetin Mert, did they sign an agreement on 29 October 1975 allowing rescue from the West Berlin side in an emergency, once rescue posts on the bank had signalled to the guards. Those posts were put up along the water border in the spring of 1976.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron, “Giuseppe Savoca”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180583/savoca-giuseppe
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171339/savoca-giuseppe
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Giuseppe Savoca”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/savoca-giuseppe/

---

# Herbert Halli (1953–1975)

> Herbert Halli, a 21-year-old electrician and construction worker from Brandenburg, was shot on 3 April 1975 at Zimmerstrasse near Otto-Grotewohl-Strasse in Berlin-Mitte while turning back from an escape attempt; the Stasi hid the true cause of his death from his family.

- Born: 24 November 1953
- Died: 3 April 1975
- Age at death: 21
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Zimmerstrasse/at the corner of Otto-Grotewohl-Strasse; On the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (exact): 52.50739, 13.38588
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/halli-herbert/

## Story

Herbert Halli was born on 24 November 1953 in the city of Brandenburg and trained as an electrician. He married while doing his military service in Torgelow, and a son was born soon afterwards, but the marriage did not last. Even before his divorce at the end of 1974 he moved from Brandenburg to East Berlin. After working on various building sites he was taken on by a state construction company involved in building the Palace of the Republic. He lived in a workers' dormitory in Lichtenberg, where he and his roommate founded an FDJ youth club and he became its deputy director. At the same time he applied to join the SED, the ruling party.

On 3 April 1975 he stood his colleagues the customary drinks to mark his start on the Palace of the Republic site. The drinking began as early as 3 p.m., and at about 9 p.m. he left, very drunk, without saying goodbye. He took the No. 32 bus towards the border in Mitte, refused to get off at the last stop, or perhaps had fallen asleep, and in a brief scuffle with the driver lost his wallet and papers. He then walked towards the border.

At around 9.45 p.m. he climbed a two-metre metal mesh fence and the inner wall near the corner of Zimmerstrasse and Otto-Grotewohl-Strasse. Approaching the last wall, he touched the signal fence and set off the alarm. After a warning shot he threw himself down, then got up and ran back towards the inner wall; he had clearly abandoned his attempt. From about 100 metres the guard leader, standing, fired a single shot from his Kalashnikov and hit him in the back as he was about to climb back over the inner wall not far from what was then the House of Ministers. He was taken to the People's Police Hospital in Mitte, where he died of his injuries at around 10.45 p.m.

No one in West Berlin seemed to have noticed. With the Helsinki conference approaching, the Stasi decided to hide what had happened. Police records were erased, the date of death was moved to 4 April, and the death certificate recorded an accident. The public prosecutor was deceived with a falsified report on the finding of the body, which invented a witness who had supposedly found him dead in a construction pit with no external injuries. The guard who fired received a medal four days later and was not told that his shot had killed. His mother reported him missing on 10 April. Two weeks later, once the authorities were certain that nothing had been seen from either side, the Stasi told her and his workplace that he had fallen, heavily drunk, into a construction pit.

Under Stasi pressure his mother did not view his body and agreed to cremation, and the family was refused benefits on the grounds that he had caused his own death. He was buried on 8 May 1975 in his father's grave in Brandenburg-Plaue, amid wide sympathy; the false date was later carved on his headstone. Few people had known of his thoughts of escape. He is said to have once shown his mother the border in Mitte and remarked that it would be quite easy here, and in 1995 his former wife wrote that he had always wanted to go to his brother in Kiel. What finally led him to try remains unknown. A threatening letter he had found in his dormitory shortly before may have played a part, but this is uncertain.

His mother said in 1995 that she had never believed the accident story, and a remark made shortly after his death by a friend in the People's Police, that the circumstances had been manipulated, fed her first doubts. The truth came to light only after the Stasi files were opened. In 1995 investigators found the concealed circumstances, and in November 1996 charges were brought against the guard. He told the court convincingly he regretted what he had done and that it weighed heavily on him. In June 1998 he was convicted of manslaughter and given a suspended one-year prison sentence.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Herbert Halli”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180584/halli-herbert
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171335/halli-herbert
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Herbert Halli”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/halli-herbert/

---

# Çetin Mert (1970–1975)

> Çetin Mert, a boy from Kreuzberg, drowned on his fifth birthday, 11 May 1975, after falling into the Spree from the Gröbenufer near the Oberbaum Bridge while reaching for his ball; the river there belonged to East Berlin.

- Born: 11 May 1970
- Died: 11 May 1975
- Age at death: 5
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge; On the sector border between Berlin-Kreuzberg and Berlin-Friedrichshain
- Map position (approximate): 52.50207, 13.44282
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mert-cetin/

## Story

Çetin Mert was born on 11 May 1970. His parents were Turkish, and he lived in Kreuzberg, in West Berlin, with them and his two brothers.

Sunday 11 May 1975 was his fifth birthday, and his parents planned a picnic in the countryside. While the family got ready, Çetin went out to play ball with neighbourhood children on the Gröbenufer; he had just been given new trainers for his birthday. The ball rolled down the bank into the Spree. He tried to reach it with a stick and fell into the water, which along this stretch belonged entirely to East Berlin.

West Berlin police and firemen were there within minutes, at about 12:30 p.m. Firemen searched along the bank with a rod, and a fire chief asked the East German authorities on the Oberbaum Bridge, without success, for permission to carry out a rescue. Passers-by called out to the border guards, but no one from the West dared enter the guarded water. An East German boat arrived only at about 1:10 p.m., and about an hour later border troop divers recovered Çetin's body just five metres from the western bank. Stasi files later showed that two border troop scouts had seen him fall in, and even photographed it, but had no way to report it until much later.

He was the fourth child in three years to drown while playing near the Oberbaum Bridge. Despite protests from his family and others gathered on the bank, his body was taken to the forensic institute of the Charité in East Berlin, and it was only days later that it was returned to his parents. In the days that followed there were repeated protests at the spot; about 2,000 members of West Berlin's Turkish community demonstrated. His memorial service in West Berlin became a mass demonstration.

As a first response, the West Berlin Senate had the four openings to the bank welded shut and a wire-mesh fence put up in front of the quay wall, together with large warning signs in German and Turkish, and East German border troops were secretly ordered to keep a boat stationed opposite the Gröbenufer from 8 a.m. until sundown. Talks on emergency help at the sector border, under way without result since June 1973, finally led to an agreement signed on 29 October 1975, and rescue poles were installed along the water border in spring 1976.

Çetin Mert was buried in Düzce, his parents' hometown. Since then, his family has held a religious ceremony in his memory every year on the day of his death.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Çetin Mert”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180585/mert-cetin
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171336/mert-cetin
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Çetin Mert”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mert-cetin/

---

# Herbert Kiebler (1952–1975)

> Herbert Kiebler, a 23-year-old metal worker from Mahlow, was shot dead by border guards near Highway 96 on 27 June 1975; the Stasi disguised his death as a suicide far from the border.

- Born: 24 March 1952
- Died: 27 June 1975
- Age at death: 23
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: West of Highway 96; On the outer ring between Mahlow (Zossen district) and Berlin-Tempelhof
- Map position (approximate): 52.37622, 13.41759
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kiebler-herbert/

## Story

Herbert Kiebler was born in Mahlow, on the southern edge of Berlin, on 24 March 1952. His father died in 1965. Herbert lived with his mother and his younger sister; his three older siblings had already left home. From February 1975 he worked as a presser at a metal plant in Berlin that produced semi-finished goods.

On the warm evening of 26 June 1975, the 23-year-old was at a tavern in Mahlow with his group of friends when a fight broke out, probably over card-sharping and gambling debts. He came off worst. He arrived home the worse for drink at around 10 p.m., hurt in body and spirit; his sister, then 15, later told the People's Police that he had wept with shame and spoken of suicide. Half an hour later he left, leaving a farewell note in which he told his mother they would meet again either in prison or in West Germany, and that if he should die he wished her every happiness. He told his little sister he wanted to go over to the other side; she tried to stop him and ran after him but lost sight of him.

He spent the night on the move, and his brother later learned that he had taken a bus to Drewitz and then come back to Mahlow. At around 12.30 a.m. he got past the signal fence near what was then Highway 96, not knowing that he had triggered an alarm. Two border guards drove out to search, found the tracks where he had crawled, and took up position. As he was about to climb out of the anti-vehicle trench, they spotted him and opened fire, although, as they later admitted, they could easily have arrested him. Hit by a bullet in the chest and upper arm, he collapsed and bled to death at the scene.

It was only weeks before the final act of the CSCE was due to be signed in Helsinki, and the party leadership wanted no reports of deaths at the Wall. Because nobody seemed to have noticed the escape attempt, the Stasi staged his death as a suicide and moved the scene to woodland far from the border. Foresters, People's Police officers, registrars, pathologists and state attorneys were all drawn into the deception.

His mother, alarmed by the farewell letter, reported him missing on the morning of 27 June. On 3 July the family was told that a forester had found his body in woodland in Potsdam-West and that he had taken his own life with a knife. His older brother could not understand why Herbert would have travelled more than 40 kilometres in the middle of the night to do so; when he asked, the Potsdam state attorney repeated the official story but refused to show any photographs of the body. The family did not believe the official version. They feared he might have fallen victim to the men who had beaten him that evening, and, having heard rumours of shooting at the border on the night he disappeared, they did not rule out an escape attempt either. He was buried in Mahlow cemetery on 11 July 1975, with the mourners watched by the Stasi. Denied a last look at him, his relatives secretly entered the chapel at night, opened the coffin and saw the bullet wounds.

His mother kept asking the police for the truth. Her daughter later said that the lies had destroyed her; she received psychiatric treatment and died, embittered, in 1993. Only in the 1990s, when prosecutors investigated and the family could read the Stasi files, did the truth emerge. The guard who fired the fatal shot had been decorated, and his company commander, who had given the guards their orders, had also been honoured. A quarter of a century later the Potsdam Regional Court convicted them of manslaughter and of aiding and abetting manslaughter respectively, and gave them suspended sentences of 24 and 15 months. His sister, a witness at the trial, sensed no remorse. Since 2012 a memorial column has stood near the place where he died, where for some years the district of Teltow-Fläming, the Berlin borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg and the municipality of Blankenfelde-Mahlow have remembered him on anniversaries.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Herbert Kiebler”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180586/kiebler-herbert
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171334/kiebler-herbert
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Herbert Kiebler”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kiebler-herbert/

---

# Lothar Hennig (1954–1975)

> Lothar Hennig, a 21-year-old from Sacrow near Potsdam who had no intention of fleeing, was shot in the back by a border guard on Weinmeisterweg on 4 November 1975 as he ran home from the bus, and died early the next morning.

- Born: 30 June 1954
- Died: 5 November 1975
- Age at death: 21
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Weinmeisterweg in Sacrow (Potsdam county district)
- Map position (approximate): 52.42984, 13.09952
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hennig-lothar/

## Story

Lothar Hennig was born in Potsdam on 30 June 1954 and grew up in Sacrow, a village exclave near Potsdam that lay so close to the border that all of it was border territory. Entry required a special pass, there was a very strong military presence, and the single access road was barred and guarded. Lothar knew the rules well, and a few ways around them. His siblings remembered him as a fun-loving, rather crazy character who often surprised people with unusual ideas and pranks. He loved music, knew the Western scene well and ran discos where he played Western hits while persuading the cultural authorities that he kept to the prescribed quota of East German music.

He was not happy in his apprenticeship at the state-owned VEB Geräte- und Reglerwerk Teltow, where the work was unhealthy, and in May 1975 he moved to PGH Auto Service in Potsdam. He had many friends and was on good terms with his neighbours and even with the border guards, which made him of interest to the Stasi. Why he agreed in April 1975 to become an unofficial informer, supposedly out of conviction, can no longer be established. His handling officer credited him with reliability, but his reports were judged operationally worthless, and he was apparently not prepared to betray people unconditionally: once, after a summer party, he met a soaking-wet man asking the way to West Berlin, did not report him and let him go, for which his Stasi handler severely reprimanded him.

On 4 November 1975 he came back from Potsdam, where he had met his Stasi handler and then gone to a bar. His cousin, the bus driver, told him there was an escape alarm in Sacrow and warned him to be careful; the village was swarming with extra guards. As the only passenger, he was let off at the corner of Weinmeisterweg, and, as he always did, he ran the 400 metres to his parents' house. It was late, foggy and dimly lit. A guard on special duty found this suspicious, although Lothar was running away from the border, not towards it, and called on him to stop, or so he later said. The guard fired what he claimed was a warning shot into the ground; either that bullet, deflected, or a second one struck Lothar in the back. The weapon and scene were never forensically examined, and although the two guards gave first aid, it was almost an hour before a doctor arrived.

He was taken to the Drewitz Army Hospital and declared dead at about 1.30 a.m. According to the autopsy report later written at the army hospital in Bad Saarow, he had died of internal bleeding from a ruptured lung. At midday the Stasi told his mother he had died, and a state attorney then told the family, falsely, that he had died in an accident of his own making. By then word of the shooting had already spread through Sacrow, and the family openly voiced their incomprehension and surprised the officials with how much they knew. He was buried on 14 November 1975 in Potsdam-Babelsberg. His mother's appeal to the East German defence minister brought no answers (he referred her to the military judicial authorities), and the death certificate hid the true cause. Although the killing was a crime even under East German law, the military prosecutor opened no investigation, and soon afterwards the family sought to leave Sacrow.

According to the Stasi's reports on the mood in the village, the previously friendly relations between residents and the border troops broke off abruptly. Even among the guards and NCOs, for all their approval of the shooting, the Stasi noted a certain reserve; one staff sergeant was recorded as saying it was a rotten business that they had shot an innocent man. On 26 June 1996 the Potsdam Regional Court convicted the guard who fired of bodily injury resulting in death and gave him a suspended youth sentence of one year and two months. The court accepted that he had not meant to kill, and took into account in mitigation that he regretted the act and had apologised to the family, which, Lothar's sisters recalled, he did only when the judge asked him to. Lothar Hennig had never intended to flee.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Maria Nooke, “Lothar Hennig”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180587/hennig-lothar
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171333/hennig-lothar
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Lothar Hennig”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hennig-lothar/

---

# Dietmar Schwietzer (1958–1977)

> Dietmar Schwietzer, an 18-year-old newly qualified communications worker and radio enthusiast from Magdeburg, was shot dead by border soldiers on 16 February 1977 near Berliner Allee, between Schönwalde and Spandau, a few metres short of the Wall.

- Born: 21 February 1958
- Died: 16 February 1977
- Age at death: 18
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near Berliner Allee; On the outer ring between Schönwalde (Nauen district) and Berlin-Spandau
- Map position (approximate): 52.59685, 13.15523
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schwietzer-dietmar/

## Story

Dietmar Schwietzer was born on 21 February 1958 in Magdeburg and grew up with his parents and a sister. Radios fascinated him from childhood: he mended sets for friends and neighbours and built his own station, which could not transmit but could listen in to international amateur radio. Through the radio section of the pre-military Society for Sport and Technology he was able to transmit, and the international radio network became his private world; neither his parents nor his teachers knew of his contacts.

After the 10th grade he trained as a communications worker at the German postal service's district office in Magdeburg. Less interested in discos than other apprentices, he spent his time with his equipment. Because he seemed so well adjusted, and because the Stasi saw a use for him as a communications specialist, he was chosen for the Stasi's "Felix Dzierzynski" guard regiment, where he was to start as a radio operator on 1 April 1977.

On 15 February 1977 he received his trade certificate and proudly showed it to his father, then left for a party at the "International" hotel in Magdeburg, where he stayed only briefly and drank a glass of cola. No one knew what he intended. Thirty years later his parents still wondered whether he was trying to leave everything behind after his girlfriend's sudden death earlier that year, or to escape recruitment by the Stasi. He set off on his motorcycle with his documents, his savings and 110 West marks from his grandparents in West Germany, rode about 100 kilometres in near-freezing cold to Hennigsdorf and continued by bus.

He crossed the Niederneuendorfer Canal from Schönwalde and, early on 16 February, crept across a field to the border. After watching for a long time through binoculars, he went through the inner fence and a dog run, and shortly after 7 a.m. set off an alarm at the signal fence. As he ran towards the Wall, 30 metres away, four soldiers in two watchtowers fired 91 shots. Three bullets struck him a few metres from the Wall; a shot to the back of his head killed him. The guards pulled him into the anti-vehicle trench, out of sight of the West. The border troops later used his case in training as a good example, criticising only the amount of ammunition used.

He was buried at the Neustädter Cemetery on 23 February under Stasi observation. His parents protested at the highest level: on 10 April 1977 his father sent the funeral bill to Erich Honecker and demanded that his son's killer pay it. The family was then kept under constant surveillance, questioned many times and threatened with prosecution if news of the death reached the West. Two months later the Stasi paid the bill of 383.40 marks, at first intending this only as a temporary measure, but in the end it did not reclaim the sum from the family.

In mid-December 1989 his parents demanded clarification and compensation; the East German military state prosecutor later arranged for them to receive the second half of his life insurance, which had been held back, but their other claims came to nothing. One of the four soldiers had died; on 29 November 1995 the Potsdam Regional Court gave the other three suspended youth sentences of one year and three months each for joint manslaughter. At the time each had received a badge for exemplary border service and a bonus of 150 marks; none of them, they credibly told the court, had been proud of it.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Dietmar Schwietzer”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180588/schwietzer-dietmar
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171331/schwietzer-dietmar
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Dietmar Schwietzer”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schwietzer-dietmar/

---

# Henri Weise (1954–1977)

> Henri Weise, a 22-year-old trained toolmaker from Ranis in Thuringia whose applications to leave East Germany were refused, probably drowned in May 1977 trying to cross the Spree; his body was found at the Marschall Bridge water barrier in July.

- Born: 13 July 1954
- Died: Probably May 1977
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Drowned, probably in May 1977; In the Spree; On the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Tiergarten
- Map position (area): 52.51923, 13.38023
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weise-henri/

## Story

Henri Weise was born on 13 July 1954 in Pössneck, the eldest of three sons, and grew up in Ranis, Thuringia; his parents worked as a driver and a sales clerk. In a curriculum vitae written for an application, he emphasised that at the secondary school in Ranis he had been trusted as brigade leader and deputy group chairman and had been in charge of sports and cultural activities. He trained as a toolmaker at the Carl Zeiss company in Jena, finishing in February 1974. His parents had divorced the year before, and his father had moved to East Berlin; Henri stayed with his mother in Ranis, working as a window and building cleaner, a rock driller and a heating technician. His mother later described him as a loner.

In May 1976 he applied for the first time to emigrate to West Germany. That August he was arrested near the Elbe at Wittenberge on suspicion of trying to cross the border. From prison he demanded to be released from East German citizenship and asked the West German Permanent Mission for asylum. He denied any plan to flee and was released on 19 October 1976, but his application was refused, and a second request was finally rejected in November 1976.

He kept looking for a way out. An attempt to obtain a Polish passport led to his being reported to the police on "suspicion of planning an illegal border crossing", though no arrest warrant followed. He complained to the authorities that he was no longer allowed to work as a heating technician and now had to work as a labourer, protested that this breached the UN human rights charter and the East German constitution, and he threatened to take his case to the West German press. From January 1977 at the latest the Stasi kept him under intensified surveillance. In March 1977 he was told his application had been rejected for good.

On 17 May 1977 he visited his father in East Berlin. After a few hours he left, saying he would be back in half an hour. Where he went is not known. He probably tried to get across the Spree to West Berlin and died in the attempt.

On 27 July 1977 border soldiers at the Marschall Bridge water barrier in Berlin-Mitte found a body caught in it. It had probably been in the water for about two months. The pathologist could not determine a cause of death but found no signs of violence. He was identified from an old jaw injury and dental records. His mother, who had been questioned by police in early June, learned of his death through the death certificate; she was not allowed to see his body.

Henri Weise was cremated in East Berlin on 1 September 1977, and his urn was buried in Ranis. An investigation in the early 1990s could not establish a conclusive cause of death or exactly what had happened, and the proceedings were discontinued on 27 September 1995.

## Sources

1. Lydia Dollmann, “Henri Weise”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180589/weise-henri
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171332/weise-henri
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Henri Weise”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weise-henri/

---

# Vladimir Ivanovich Odintsov (1960–1979)

> Vladimir Ivanovich Odintsov, an 18-year-old Soviet soldier from the Elstal garrison, was shot dead in Seeburg on the night of 2 February 1979 by an East German policeman; he and his patrol leader had taken him for a missing armed deserter.

- Born: 1960
- Died: 2 February 1979
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Soviet soldier shot at the border; the study counts him with, but separately from, the people with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Dorfstraße in Seeburg; On the outer ring between Seeburg (Potsdam-county district) and Berlin-Spandau
- Map position (area): 52.50861, 13.12056
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/odintsov-vladimir-ivanovich/

## Story

Vladimir Ivanovich Odintsov was born in 1960 and grew up in eastern Russia. At 18 he was doing his military service with the artillery regiment of the Soviet garrison at Elstal, west of Berlin, whose soldiers were housed in several places including the former 1936 Olympic Village. Two letters and a New Year card addressed to him were found on his body; the letters dealt mostly with ordinary personal matters and news of relatives. Little else about his life is recorded in the files.

According to later Soviet information, he had been assigned that day to guard the vehicle fleet in the winter camp. At about 11 p.m. on 1 February 1979 he handed his Kalashnikov to the sergeant on duty and said he was walking to Dallgow or Seeburg to visit a pub. His supervisor apparently let him go, although leaving was irregular. The files give no motive and do not show whether the pub was his true destination. It was a cold night, a few degrees below freezing, with snow a few centimetres deep on the ground; wearing a padded army jacket but no coat, he walked for nearly an hour and a half to Seeburg. He apparently did not know that the restaurant there was closed on Thursdays.

That evening two East German policemen had been posted in Seeburg, a kilometre from the West Berlin border, to watch for a different Soviet soldier, Wladimir Kisimow, who had gone missing with a Kalashnikov and ammunition. They had been told to act against Soviet soldiers only if absolutely necessary. At around half past midnight they saw a man walking down the middle of the main road and, by their own account, took him for the deserter, although he wore no coat and had handed in his Kalashnikov before leaving.

According to the policemen, they called on him to stop; when he kept going, the patrol guard fired a warning shot without orders and, on the patrol leader's order to fire, shot again. He lay down in the snow, stood up when told, but did not raise his hands; after a further warning shot he was on the ground again, and then, they said, he tried to run away once more. The patrol guard said that when the patrol leader called to him to shoot, he first fired a burst from the hip at about ten metres and then an aimed burst of about three shots from about 15 metres; forensic investigators put the distance of the fatal shot at 18 metres. A bullet entered his back and passed through his heart and lung. According to the patrol leader, when he returned from phoning headquarters about ten minutes later he found that Vladimir Odintsov was dead. No alcohol was found in his blood. Contrary to the policemen's statements, a police crime-scene sketch shows that he had been going back the way he came, not towards the F2 road and the border.

On 5 March 1979 it was decided not to open a preliminary investigation against the gunman, on the grounds that the officers had believed him to be the missing soldier and had acted within the rules on firearms. Twenty-two hours after the shooting, the soldier they had been searching for was arrested by Soviet troops near Merzdorf. Why Vladimir Odintsov set out for Seeburg that night, what his family was told, and where he is buried are questions the files found so far do not answer.

## Sources

1. Translation: Miriamne Fields, “Vladimir Ivanovich Odintsov”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/183815/odintsov-vladimir-ivanovich
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/183814/wladimir-iwanowitsch-odinzow
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Vladimir Ivanovich Odintsov”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/odintsov-vladimir-ivanovich/

---

# Ulrich Steinhauer (1956–1980)

> A 24-year-old carpenter from the Baltic coast serving as an East German border soldier, Ulrich Steinhauer was shot dead on 4 November 1980 near Schönwalde by his junior guard, who then escaped to West Berlin.

- Born: 13 March 1956
- Died: 4 November 1980
- Age at death: 24
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: East German border soldier killed on duty
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near Schönwalde, across from Eiskeller; On the outer ring between Schönwalde (Nauen district) and Berlin-Spandau
- Map position (approximate): 52.58953, 13.14062
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/steinhauer-ulrich/

## Story

Ulrich Steinhauer was born on 13 March 1956 in Behrenshagen, near the Baltic Sea, the third of six children. His father worked as a warehouse clerk at a state-owned fibre board factory in Ribnitz-Damgarten, and his mother brought up the children at home. After school in Behrenshagen and Damgarten he trained as a carpenter, qualifying in 1973 and staying on with the agricultural enterprise as a skilled worker. His youngest sister, Ilona, remembered him as careful with money, saving for holidays; each summer he toured East Germany with a tent.

In November 1979 he was called up to the border troops, first with Border Training Regiment 40 in Oranienburg and, from May 1980, with Border Regiment 34 in Gross Glienicke. Like most of his comrades, he counted the days until release. He told his superiors he would use his weapon only in an extreme emergency, and, according to his sister, he hoped to get through his 18 months without ever having to shoot. On 2 November 1980 he wrote to his parents and sister that he had been made guard leader, ending the letter by counting the 172 days he still had to serve. The letter arrived on 7 November, three days after his death.

On 4 November 1980 he was on duty as guard leader from 1 p.m. on the Staaken-Schönwalde section, opposite Eiskeller in the West Berlin district of Spandau. His partner was a newly assigned junior guard who, unknown to him, had chosen this stretch of the border for an escape. Shortly after 4 p.m. the junior guard put his plan into action. If his own later account is to be believed, he unplugged the border communication system without his guard leader noticing, then readied his gun; the noise made Ulrich Steinhauer turn round and take his own gun from his shoulder. The junior guard said he then called on Ulrich Steinhauer to throw down his weapon, fired warning shots and then five shots when his guard leader supposedly aimed at him. The fatal bullet, however, had entered Ulrich Steinhauer's back and pierced his heart. He died before a doctor arrived.

Border soldiers first carried his body and weapon out of the death strip, then on orders put them back roughly where they had lain. This, and the fact that one of them could no longer recall where he had found which weapon, meant that a reliable forensic investigation, of the kind later falsely presented to the West Berlin prosecutor-general, was possible only to a limited extent. For a day his body lay in the border strip in view of western media. The junior guard climbed the Wall at a low point, reported to the West Berlin police and was taken into custody. The West Berlin prosecutor-general's office refused East Germany's extradition request.

West Berlin prosecutors charged him with murder, but the youth chamber of the Berlin Regional Court held that it was not proven with sufficient certainty that the fatal shot in the back had been fired first, so the trial was opened for manslaughter; in the autumn of 1981 he was convicted and given a youth sentence of six years. The court said that in a conflict between freedom and life, life takes priority. After further appeals, the sentence was reduced to four years and nine months, on probation. Through informants, the Stasi followed his new life in West Germany closely; it first planned to bring him back to East Germany and then tried to drive him to suicide with threatening letters.

East Germany posthumously promoted him to sergeant and decorated him. He was buried with military honours on 12 November 1980 at the Old Cemetery in Ribnitz-Damgarten, in a funeral arranged by the authorities without any say from his family. A school, a border company, streets and a boxing tournament were named after him, and wreaths were laid on his grave on set dates. His family could not escape this. His sister Ilona later said that her brother had only been doing his service, and that he was taken from the family a second time when he was made into a hero.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Ulrich Steinhauer”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180612/steinhauer-ulrich
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171329/steinhauer-ulrich
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Ulrich Steinhauer”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/steinhauer-ulrich/

---

# Marienetta Jirkowsky (1962–1980)

> Marienetta Jirkowsky, an 18-year-old textile worker from Spreenhagen known to friends as "Micki", was shot on 22 November 1980 at Florastrasse in Hohen Neuendorf as she climbed the Wall behind her fiancé and a friend, and died in hospital that morning.

- Born: 25 August 1962
- Died: 22 November 1980
- Age at death: 18
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Florastrasse, across from the Invaliden Settlement; On the outer ring between Hohen Neuendorf (Oranienburg district) and Berlin-Reinickendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.66047, 13.28474
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/jirkowsky-marienetta/

## Story

Marienetta Jirkowsky was born on 25 August 1962 in Bad Saarow and grew up in Spreenhagen in Brandenburg, the only child of her parents. She trained as a skilled textile worker at a tyre combine in Fürstenwalde. Her friends called her "Micki"; her friend Falko V. later described her as small, free-spirited and fun-loving, and said that they had only wanted to live in peace, without constant prohibitions.

Falko V. had long thought of escaping. In spring 1980 he and Marienetta met Peter W., who had repeatedly applied to leave East Germany. Marienetta loved him; her friends could not understand why she stayed with him, given how he treated her, and she could not understand why they did not accept her love. When she turned 18 the two became engaged and planned to move in together that autumn. Her parents opposed the relationship and obtained a police order forbidding him to contact her. From then on the three waited for a chance to leave, and planned their escape for the night from 22 November 1980 into the following morning. Peter W. built a ladder that could be taken apart.

On 21 November they looked for a crossing point in East Berlin, judged the spot they had looked at unsuitable and took the S-Bahn to Hohen Neuendorf, where Peter W. knew the border. They arrived at about half past midnight, got a first look over the inner wall, and, contrary to their original plan, decided to go that same night. Unknown to them, a Stasi informant among their friends had betrayed the plan, and the two men narrowly escaped an arrest planned for early that morning. For three hours they watched the border and encouraged one another.

At about 3.30 a.m. they climbed the inner wall. The two men crossed the signal fence without setting off the alarm, but when Marienetta followed, it went off. Both men reached the top of the outer wall as guards opened fire from a watchtower. Falko V. jumped down on the western side. Peter W. lay flat on the wall and reached down for Marienetta, who, standing on the top rung, was too short to grasp the top. Her hands had already reached the top of the Wall when a bullet struck her and she fell from the ladder. She was taken to hospital in Hennigsdorf for emergency surgery, and died there at 11.30 a.m. from a gunshot wound to the abdomen.

That same day the French city commander, on behalf of all the Allied commanders, protested against the shooting. The Stasi tried to stop any information about her death from getting out and planned to discredit the two men in the West; an informant even removed the cross the two men put up opposite the crossing point in early February 1981. Falko V. campaigned publicly for her memory, filing a criminal complaint for murder against the East German defence minister and chaining himself to the Soviet embassy gate in Madrid. Her father was at first told only that she had been arrested at the border; he learned two days later that she had been shot. No death notice was allowed, and on 14 December 1980 her urn was buried in Spreenhagen before her close family, with the town almost sealed off by the Stasi. Fifteen years later the youth chamber of the Neuruppin Regional Court convicted one of the guards who had fired of manslaughter in a less serious case and gave him a youth sentence of one year and three months, suspended on probation.

Her parents never recovered from losing their only child. In 2003 the memorial cross put up for her in the West became part of the "White Crosses" memorial on the banks of the Spree, and in late 2006 a memorial column was erected on Florastrasse near where she tried to cross. She is also commemorated at the German Forest Youth Tower, a former border troops command post in Bergfelde, at the Berlin Wall Memorial and in the Chapel of Reconciliation. When the Hohen Neuendorf council decided in 2009 to name a square after her without consulting her family, they objected; her aunt, speaking for the family, said it was better to let the dead rest in peace, and that this had also been her parents' last wish.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Marienetta Jirkowsky”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180590/jirkowsky-marienetta
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171330/jirkowsky-marienetta
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Marienetta Jirkowsky”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/jirkowsky-marienetta/

---

# Peter Grohganz (1948–1980)

> Peter Grohganz, a 32-year-old metalworker and father of two born in Premnitz, drowned in the Spree east of the Oberbaum Bridge in the winter of 1980–81, apparently while trying to reach West Berlin; his body was found on 9 February 1981.

- Born: 25 September 1948
- Died: Between 10 December 1980 and 9 February 1981
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spree River east of the Oberbaum Bridge; Between Berlin-Friedrichshain and Berlin-Kreuzberg
- Map position (approximate): 52.49655, 13.44982
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/grohganz-peter/

## Story

Peter Grohganz was born in Premnitz on 25 September 1948. Both his parents worked at the town's synthetic fibre plant, his mother in the rayon department and his father, a former police officer, in plant security. Both were members of the ruling SED, yet evidently the family had not broken off contact with relatives in the West, including an aunt in Hamburg. Peter trained as a metalworker, finishing in mid-1966, and later wrote that his mother had brought him up with socialist values; he had become a Young Pioneer at seven and joined the FDJ youth organisation at 14.

At 17 he was recruited by the Stasi as an informant under the code name "Runge", and he continued in this role during his military service, which included a posting to an officers' school. What drew him to the Stasi is not clear. In 1969 he was himself accused of stealing state property while on guard duty; he was dismissed from the officers' school, and a week later a military court sentenced him to four months in prison, suspended with a year's probation. The Stasi ended its cooperation with him on 30 October 1969. That same year he married, and he and his wife had two children.

Little is known of the next decade. Though trained as a metalworker, he worked on a construction site. He was fined in 1975 after he had grabbed the deputy mayor of the town where he lived by the jacket during the official's office hours, angry about an earlier fine; he apologised. By then he had a criminal record. In March 1980 he divorced; the family flat went to his former wife and children, and with long housing waiting lists he had little prospect of a home of his own. On 5 April 1980 he wrote by hand to Erich Honecker asking to be allowed to leave East Germany. He no longer wanted to give his labour to a state that had nothing left to spare for him, he wrote, adding that he was still young enough to start a new life.

Such letters were passed straight to the Stasi. Over the following months he went repeatedly to the district council's department of internal affairs, where no one could find his request, and on 2 May 1980 he visited the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic in East Berlin. Local officials believed he had applied to leave in order to speed up his housing application, and decided not to give way on the flat, fearing that this would only encourage further such petitions. Summoned to a fifth meeting, he withdrew his application, saying he had made it out of annoyance. On 23 September he told the Stasi he hoped to start afresh as a driver for the central circus; he had been promised a flat, and he had always wanted to work with animals. He asked for help in getting a regular identity card instead of the restrictive substitute card issued to him because of his criminal record, but was told only that he could rely on the full support of the state once he had shown that he had broken with the past.

In October 1980 he moved to a job as a metalworker at the VEB Steel Plant in Brandenburg and took a second residence there. He worked until 10 December, then took three days off and did not come back. On leaving, he left a letter with a colleague, quoted in a Stasi report, saying she would be surprised when he did not come back, asking that his belongings be given away and that the rest of his wages go to his children.

On the morning of 9 February 1981 the crew of an East German border boat found his body caught in a water barrier in the Spree near the Flutgraben channel, east of the Oberbaum Bridge. Papers in his trouser pocket identified him. He was 32 years old. How and exactly when he entered the ice-cold river is not known; the biography dates his death to some time between 10 December 1980 and 9 February 1981, and frames it as an attempt to flee to West Berlin.

## Sources

1. Text: Hans-Hermann Hertle, translated by Miriamne Fields, “Peter Grohganz”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/183188/grohganz-peter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171328/grohganz-peter
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Peter Grohganz”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/grohganz-peter/

---

# Dr. Johannes Muschol (1949–1981)

> Dr. Johannes Muschol, a 31-year-old West German doctor living with chronic illness, was shot dead on 16 March 1981 after climbing over the Wall from Reinickendorf into the death strip near Kopenhagener Strasse in Wilhelmsruh; East Germany concealed his death.

- Born: 31 May 1949
- Died: 16 March 1981
- Age at death: 31
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near Kopenhagener Strasse in Wilhelmsruh; On the sector border between Berlin-Reinickendorf and Berlin-Pankow
- Map position (approximate): 52.58159, 13.36405
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/muschol-dr-johannes/

## Story

Johannes Muschol was born on 31 May 1949 in Aschau in Bavaria. He was 23 and studying medicine when he was diagnosed with schizophrenia. In 1972 and the years that followed he repeatedly needed treatment for it, yet he still completed his medical degree. Over time the illness became chronic, and in May 1979 he was declared unable to practise his profession until further notice.

On 14 March 1981 he drove with an acquaintance to a house-warming party in West Berlin. On the transit route they quarrelled because he insisted on getting out of the car; his companion later suggested that he had perhaps meant to see an aunt in East Germany he had spoken of. They met again at the party and arranged to drive home together from Bahnhof Zoo at 11 the next morning, but he did not turn up at the agreed time. On the evening of 15 March he was picked up in an old people's home in Treptow, in East Berlin, and brought back to the border with West Berlin. It is not known why he had been in East Berlin, how he was returned, or where he spent the night.

On the morning of 16 March he asked about border security at the western side of the Bornholmer Strasse crossing, then wandered through Reinickendorf asking residents for bread, water and somewhere to wash. Just after 11 a.m., on a clear, sunny day, he climbed from a viewing platform onto the Wall between Alt-Reinickendorf and Wilhelmsruh, ignored a call to come back that a woman watching later said she had made, and jumped down into the death strip towards East Berlin.

One guard came down from the tower to arrest him. Johannes Muschol broke free, got through the anti-tank obstacles and the signal fence, and tried a number of times, without success, to climb the three-metre inner wall. The guard following him called on him to give up. The post leader in the tower reportedly shouted at him to shoot at last. He did not; instead, only a few metres from the apparently confused man, who in his view was about to give up, he talked to him soothingly, and by his own account called to the post leader that he did not want to shoot. Although it was evident that Johannes Muschol could not get over the wall, the post leader then fired three times from the watchtower twelve metres away. All three shots hit him, and he died within seconds. By his own account the guard on the ground then shouted at the post leader, indignant at what he saw as completely needless shots that had also endangered him.

The shooting came at a politically awkward moment, with the president of Austria visiting East Germany that day and the SPD chairman Willy Brandt expected there the next day, and the East German authorities, apparently judging a cover-up more useful to the political climate, hid it. After a post-mortem ordered under his name, a new death certificate recorded him as an unknown man; only 14 days later did the Stasi take the body to the Baumschulenweg crematorium to be cremated, and after 1990 no records showing where the urn lies could be found. The guards were decorated and sworn to secrecy. In the week after the shooting his siblings told the Munich police that they believed the victim might be their brother, and filed a missing person report on 1 June 1981. Months later witnesses identified him, but East Germany told West German diplomats in early 1982 that no Johannes Muschol was known there, and the family's efforts led nowhere until East Germany ceased to exist.

Fifteen years later the post leader who had fired the fatal shots stood trial at the Berlin Regional Court. He expressed regret and said he had never been able to forget what he had done; he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to three years in prison. An investigation into perverting the course of justice and shielding offenders, whose suspects included senior Stasi officers, had to be discontinued in 1998. His grave has still not been found.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Dr. Johannes Muschol”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180591/muschol-dr-johannes
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171325/muschol-dr-johannes
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Dr. Johannes Muschol”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/muschol-dr-johannes/

---

# Hans-Jürgen Starrost (1955–1981)

> Hans-Jürgen Starrost, a 25-year-old construction worker from Berlin, was shot at close range by a police officer on 14 April 1981 on Gudrunstrasse in Sigridshorst, Teltow-Seehof after an escape attempt, and died of his wounds on 16 May 1981.

- Born: 24 June 1955
- Died: 16 May 1981
- Age at death: 25
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Gudrunstrasse in Sigridshorst; On the outer ring between Teltow-Seehof (Potsdam county district) and Berlin-Steglitz
- Map position (approximate): 52.39951, 13.31008
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/starrost-hans-juergen/

## Story

Hans-Jürgen Starrost was born in Berlin on 24 June 1955. After the 10th grade he trained as a skilled construction worker with a state-owned underground engineering combine in Berlin, and then did his military service in the National People's Army. By the age of 22 he had, in the state's terms, fulfilled what was expected of a young East German citizen.

Afterwards he reportedly changed jobs often and at times did not work at all, and he repeatedly tried to avoid the so-called educational measures imposed on him by work collectives and state bodies. At the end of 1979 a court gave him eleven months in prison for impairing public order and security. He had committed no crime; his offence was shirking work. Perhaps, his biographers suggest, he had not yet found where he wanted to live and work. He served his sentence until October 1980 in the Rüdersdorf prison, which was attached to the cement works and was a labour camp that endangered the prisoners' health.

After his release he had to hand in his identity card, take an assigned job and report regularly to a police officer. He soon stopped doing both. On 7 April 1981, when he telephoned the officer, he learned from the officer's wife that he was wanted for breaching the controls imposed on him and was to go back to prison, and he went into hiding. On 13 April the 25-year-old travelled via Schönefeld to Teltow, hoping to stay with a friend from his army days. He did not find him, and in a bar decided to try to cross the nearby border the following night. He later told his interrogators that he had not wanted to go back to prison under any circumstances. On the way he stole a metal ladder from the Sigridshorst housing settlement.

At about 1:10 a.m. two guards heard him trying to climb the inner fence, found the ladder and raised the alarm. He hid on a nearby property, where a police officer saw him and, with the safety catch of his pistol off, ordered him to give up. He ran, was dazzled by a spotlight and was caught by a border soldier who twisted his arm behind his back. The officer then shot him in the stomach at close range. The files contain only the accounts of those involved. According to the soldier, the man stopped at once when he seized his wrist, and then the policeman suddenly stood before him with his pistol raised; the captured man is said to have lashed out with his free right hand. The officer said Starrost had lunged at him and the gun went off. The officer himself told the Stasi that he no longer had any reason to use his weapon, since the man was surrounded; the Stasi's own tests found the pistol could not fire by accident if handled correctly.

Badly hurt, he was taken first to a border base. The border regiment's military doctor diagnosed only a minor injury and raised no objection to a Stasi officer questioning him first; the interrogation had to be interrupted several times for urgently needed medical measures. Only afterwards was he operated on at the army hospital in Potsdam. His kidneys then failed, and a week passed before he was moved to intensive care at the Potsdam District Hospital. It was too late. He died on 16 May 1981 at around 7:30 a.m.

On the day of the shooting the Stasi decided his family should not be told until after the SED party congress. On 20 May 1981 his mother and sister were informed. Contrary to the officer's own statement, they were told that he had attacked the policeman after a warning shot, so that the officer had acted in self-defence, and they were pressed to agree to cremation. His urn was buried in the cemetery in Rahnsdorf on 3 June 1981, with his immediate family present. The investigation of the officer for attempted killing was discontinued in June 1995, the prosecutor accepting that he had not meant to kill.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Hans-Jürgen Starrost”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180592/starrost-hans-juergen
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171326/starrost-hans-juergen
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Hans-Jürgen Starrost”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/starrost-hans-juergen/

---

# Thomas Taubmann (1955–1981)

> Thomas Taubmann, a 26-year-old fitter from Weissensee, died on 12 December 1981 after jumping from a freight train beneath the Böse Bridge at Bornholmer Strasse while trying to escape; the Stasi presented his death as an accident.

- Born: 22 July 1955
- Died: 12 December 1981
- Age at death: 26
- Cause of death: Fatal fall or accident
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Beneath the Böse Bridge; On the sector border between Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (approximate): 52.55481, 13.39838
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/taubmann-thomas/

## Story

Thomas Taubmann was born in Berlin on 22 July 1955. An only child, he was raised in the East Berlin district of Weissensee. His mother was originally from West Berlin, and the family stayed in contact with its many relatives in the West after the Wall divided them. His parents kept their distance from the regime. He was a good swimmer and for a time attended a sports school, until the pressure became too great.

After tenth grade he trained as a machine fitter and then specialised in crane repairs. His employer, valuing his technical ability, sent him in 1977 to an engineering school in Lichtenberg. He was already married, and in 1976 he and his wife had a son. In 1979, however, the marriage broke down and ended in divorce, and he left his studies shortly before finishing his degree. He worked as a waiter and later as an emergency fitter, moved back for a time to his parents' house, and developed a drinking problem he could not overcome.

In the autumn of 1981 he had no money with him while shopping and was caught trying to leave a supermarket with goods he had not paid for. His parents offered to cover the damage, but this was refused, supposedly for educational reasons, and he was due in court in Weissensee on 14 December 1981, where his mother served as a lay assessor. His father thought he probably found this humiliating, above all for his mother's sake. Whether after long reflection or on impulse, he decided to flee. His attempt came during the days when the West German Chancellor and Erich Honecker were meeting near the Werbellinsee.

On the evening of Saturday 12 December 1981, having drunk too much in trying to give himself courage, he climbed unseen onto a freight train that had briefly stopped at Berlin-Pankow station. He jumped down beneath the Böse Bridge, at the Bornholmer Strasse crossing. What followed can only be presumed: the Wall there was almost five metres high, and he probably struck it. The Stasi concluded from the evidence that he then fell under the train and was run over. The driver of an oncoming train later reported a dark object on the tracks, and the transport police recovered his body.

That night investigators found a farewell letter to his parents, dated 11 December, saying he intended to escape via Czechoslovakia into Austria. He may have changed his plans, or he may have laid a false trail to shield his parents. The Stasi decided that the case should be presented as a fatal accident, and the parents were not to be told of the letter. In a lengthy interrogation three days after his death, his father learned that a letter existed but was not allowed to see it; from a few sentences read out to him, all he learned was that the "accident" had happened in the border area near Bornholmer Strasse.

Thomas Taubmann was buried in late January 1982 at the municipal cemetery in Weissensee, with relatives from the West present and the Stasi watching. Because the family had no proof of an escape attempt, they did not make the case public in the West, and his attempt to flee only came to light after 1990. His mother, who died in 1999, never recovered from the loss. Twenty-seven years after his death, his father learned the full circumstances from Stasi files and at last held a copy of the letter, which ended with his promise to be in touch with them by Monday at the latest.

## Sources

1. Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Thomas Taubmann”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180593/taubmann-thomas
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171327/taubmann-thomas
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Thomas Taubmann”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/taubmann-thomas/

---

# Lothar Fritz Freie (1955–1982)

> Lothar Fritz Freie, a 27-year-old from Lower Saxony living in West Berlin, entered East Berlin territory near the Helmut-Just Bridge on 4 June 1982. Shot while leaving as he had been told to, he died of his wounds on 6 June.

- Born: 8 February 1955
- Died: 6 June 1982
- Age at death: 27
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near the Helmut-Just Bridge; On the sector border between Berlin-Wedding and Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg
- Map position (approximate): 52.5529, 13.39796
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/freie-lothar-fritz/

## Story

Lothar Fritz Freie was born on 8 February 1955 in Grossburgwedel in Lower Saxony. After finishing school in 1977 he moved to West Berlin with a school friend, intending to study law, but for reasons that are not known he gave up after four semesters. His official address was his friend's flat, where he turned up only now and then.

For the next few years he struggled in the divided city, without work or money. He was in serious difficulties but did not take his school friend's advice; the friend eventually offered him a meal at least once a week. On one of his visits he said he did not know how he could go on living like this. He no longer had an identity card. When he asked his friend to somehow take him home to West Germany, the friend refused; without an identity card this was hardly possible from West Berlin, and it would have been a very risky favour.

The night of 4 June 1982 was warm and clear, with a nearly full moon. At about 11 p.m. he entered the East Berlin border territory from West Berlin, bare-chested and holding his pullover, and walked north under the Helmut-Just Bridge along the "Allied track", a rarely used line serving the French garrison that ran through an overgrown railway wasteland near the disused Bornholmer Strasse S-Bahn station. What he intended is still unclear; later investigations found nothing to suggest he meant to take his own life.

Near the Böse Bridge two guards were sent to expel him, and from about 30 metres they told him, as a citizen of West Berlin, to leave East German territory. According to the guards, he mumbled something they could not understand, turned, and walked quickly back the way he had come. A few metres to the left he could have crossed into West Berlin, but he probably did not realise it. Meanwhile two guards from the tower at the Helmut-Just Bridge, unaware he had just been told to leave, had been ordered to arrest him. They called on him to stop, and he began to run. One guard fired a warning shot; when he kept running, the guard, who had stumbled and fallen to his knees, fired two aimed bursts at him, and he collapsed on the track.

He told the guards weakly to leave him or shoot him. They dragged him out of sight of the West, then gave first aid; in shock, he said he had wanted to put up a tent. After two emergency operations he died at the People's Police Hospital in the early hours of 6 June from a gunshot wound through the side of his pelvis. He was not drunk; no test was made for other substances. Even under East German law, firing on a West Berliner who was clearly obeying an order to leave was illegal, yet both soldiers were commended and quickly transferred, never learning that he had died.

The West German government, the West Berlin Senate and the French city commander, speaking also for his British and US counterparts, protested strongly. An East German official claimed to the Senate that a West Berliner had insulted and assaulted border soldiers and been arrested, without mentioning that he had died. The Stasi held his body for weeks, had it cremated on 24 August 1982 at Baumschulenweg, and five weeks later his urn was buried secretly in the cemetery's communal urn grounds. Only then did the West German Permanent Mission learn of it. In late 1993 the Berlin Regional Court gave the soldier who fired, 20 at the time, a suspended two-year youth sentence for manslaughter, and in 1995 his guard leader was convicted as a co-perpetrator and given a suspended prison sentence.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Lothar Fritz Freie”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180594/freie-lothar-fritz
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171324/freie-lothar-fritz
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Lothar Fritz Freie”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/freie-lothar-fritz/

---

# Silvio Proksch (1962–1983)

> Silvio Proksch, a 21-year-old from Pankow who had trained as a bricklayer, was shot at the Pankow municipal cemetery on Christmas Day 1983 while trying to reach West Berlin and bled to death in the death strip.

- Born: 3 March 1962
- Died: 25 December 1983
- Age at death: 21
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Pankow municipal cemetery; On the sector border between Berlin-Pankow and Berlin-Reinickendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.57081, 13.38603
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/proksch-silvio/

## Story

Silvio Proksch was born in East Berlin on 3 March 1962. After school he trained as a bricklayer and then worked for a carpentry and joinery firm. He lived in Pankow with his parents and a brother; nine of his siblings had already left home. For a long time he had felt hemmed in by life in East Germany, but he had never told anyone of any concrete plan to escape.

At about 7 p.m. on 25 December 1983 he left his parents' house with his brother. Both had been drinking heavily. Without any preparation, he decided to go to West Berlin; his brother later said he had spoken of wanting freedom. Perhaps family tensions over Christmas played a part. He took only his identity card, his training certificate and his social security card. It was raining and misty. On the way his brother tried to talk him out of it.

At the Bürgerpark in Pankow, by the old Niederschönhausen pumping station near the Panke, his brother stayed behind in front of the cemetery that lay directly on the border. Silvio climbed the cemetery fence and set off an alarm at the signal fence at about 7.30 p.m. A guard in a watchtower called out and fired two warning shots, then shot at him as he kept going towards the concrete wall. A bullet struck his hip and severed an artery and vein. He ran a few more metres and collapsed just short of the concrete wall.

It was a long time before he received medical help, and he bled to death in the death strip. He was pronounced dead at around 9.15 p.m., when he was brought into the People's Police Hospital in Mitte. In 1992 a report from the Franziskus Hospital found that prompt treatment in a properly equipped hospital would very likely have saved his life. The guard was awarded a bronze medal of merit; in November 1994 the Berlin Regional Court convicted him of manslaughter and gave him a prison sentence of a year and nine months, suspended on probation.

His brother heard the shots and told their older siblings, but nobody came to inform the family. Because the incident had gone unnoticed in West Berlin, a Stasi commission decided to cover it up. A sister reported him missing on 28 December; there was no response until 20 January 1984, when the Stasi began interrogating relatives, even a 14-year-old nephew at his school. The Stasi denied that any escape attempt, death or arrest had taken place, threatening the family if they kept asking. His brother was later jailed for more than two years on minor charges, sworn to silence and banned from Berlin.

Only in August 1990, after many letters and complaints, did the East German military prosecutor tell the family what had really happened. The Stasi had taken his body to the military forensic institute at Bad Saarow the day after Christmas. He was never recorded in any East German death register, and his body has been missing without trace since 30 December 1983.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron, “Silvio Proksch”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180595/proksch-silvio
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171323/proksch-silvio
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Silvio Proksch”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/proksch-silvio/

---

# Michael Schmidt (1964–1984)

> Michael Schmidt, a 20-year-old carpenter from Schwanebeck, was shot by border guards on 1 December 1984 as he climbed the last wall near the Wollankstrasse S-Bahn station, and died hours later after medical help was long delayed.

- Born: 20 October 1964
- Died: 1 December 1984
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Schulzestrasse, near the Wollankstrasse S-Bahn station; On the sector border between Berlin-Pankow and Berlin-Reinickendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.56636, 13.39072
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidt-michael/

## Story

Michael Schmidt was born on 20 October 1964 in Bernau near Berlin and grew up in Schwanebeck with a brother and a sister. After school he trained as a carpenter with a building repair company in Pankow. His father said he was not someone to keep his views to himself. When the Bernau military district command pressed him to sign up for three years in the National People's Army he refused, and he flatly rejected service at the border; he is said to have told the recruiters that he had no intention of shooting unarmed people in the back.

He sometimes spoke to colleagues about leaving for the West, and in 1984, as the first large wave of departures from East Germany began, his intention to apply for an exit visa grew firmer. After talking with his parents, and knowing that families were often held to account for their children's actions, he decided against it out of consideration for his brother, who was at university. That November his company sent him to rebuild houses on Wollankstrasse and Schulzestrasse, right by the border, and from the upper floors he could study the fortifications closely.

On the evening of 30 November he went to a youth club disco in Pankow; his friends later felt he had been saying goodbye. He left before midnight. In the early hours of 1 December he entered one of the buildings where he had been working, with a companion who has never been identified, and took two wooden ladders left at the site. He climbed into a back courtyard and over the first barrier, by then alone. Crossing the signal fence set off an alarm, alerting the two guards in a tower about 100 metres away; one fired from the tower, while the other climbed down and fired from the ground. He had reached the last wall and was gripping its top when bullets struck him in the back and knee, and he fell. One of the guards who fired later claimed to have asked him, agitated, what on earth he was doing, and said that he had replied only that they had got him after all.

Witnesses in East Berlin had been sworn to secrecy by the Stasi, but after the Wall fell they described how three more guards arrived, one of whom prodded the wounded man with his foot, and how he was dragged by the legs to the patrol path, loaded onto a military vehicle and taken to the watchtower, out of sight. He begged for help but was merely covered up. Almost an hour passed before he received medical care; at about 4:25 a.m. he was taken by ambulance to the People's Police Hospital in Mitte, where he died at about 6:20 a.m. He was recorded there as "XY". A 1991 medical opinion concluded that quick surgery would almost certainly have saved him, but an investigation into killing by omission over the delay was discontinued in March 1992 because no one could be shown to be responsible.

That morning his parents found his room empty. After western news reported a presumably fatal escape attempt near Wollankstrasse station, they went to the police in Bernau and to nearby hospitals but could learn nothing; for four days the Stasi put them off. On 4 December 1984 the Stasi brought them to the military prosecutor's office, where they were told falsely that their son had attacked a soldier. They were warned that their other son's studies would be ended if details spread. Michael Schmidt was buried in the cemetery in Buch on 10 December 1984 under Stasi surveillance; nearly all his work colleagues came, and were reprimanded for it.

His father was already asking for answers in December 1989. On 5 February 1992 the Berlin Regional Court convicted the two guards of joint manslaughter and gave them suspended sentences of one year and six months and one year and nine months. His death was later among the main charges in the trials of members of the SED Politburo and the National Defence Council.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron, “Michael Schmidt”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180596/schmidt-michael
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171322/schmidt-michael
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Michael Schmidt”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidt-michael/

---

# Rainer Liebeke (1951–1986)

> Rainer Liebeke, a 34-year-old taxi driver and motorcycle racer from Gotha, drowned in Sacrower Lake on 3 September 1986, shortly before his 35th birthday, while swimming towards West Berlin with a friend.

- Born: 11 September 1951
- Died: 3 September 1986
- Age at death: 34
- Cause of death: Drowned
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In Sacrower Lake; On the outer ring between Gross Glienicke (Potsdam county) and Berlin-Spandau
- Map position (area): 52.44045, 13.09741
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/liebeke-rainer/

## Story

Rainer Liebeke lived in his home town of Gotha with his wife and their son. A trained motor mechanic, he worked as a taxi driver for the state-owned company "Kraftverkehr Erfurt". His passion was motorcycle racing: as a member of the Gotha Motor Club he rode in all the major East German races in the 50cc class, and in 1985 he became a licensed racer with the national motor sport association.

Through the sport he became friends with Dirk K. from the Eisenach district, nine years younger, whom he met in 1980. Through Dirk he got to know a West German racer and his family in 1982; the racer also helped them obtain scarce spare parts. In the years that followed the East German riders occasionally met him in Gotha, and in 1986 they holidayed together at Lake Balaton. His frustration with East Germany went back to the early 1970s, when he took a drive in a BMW belonging to a cousin visiting from the West and was fetched from work the next day by the secret police and questioned for hours. His sister said the experience changed him; from then on he felt hemmed in and kept on a tight rein.

After the holiday things went wrong. The association planned to abolish his racing class, and he broke his collarbone in a crash at the Schleizer Triangle race. His family advised him to give up racing, but no sooner was he a little better than he began rebuilding his bike for a larger class, with Dirk's help. Dirk visited him on 1 and 2 September 1986, while he was still on sick leave; Dirk's mother believes this is when they decided to flee together.

On 2 September he told his wife they were going to Karl-Marx-Stadt for spare parts. Instead they took the train to Potsdam and made their way through marsh and reeds to Sacrower Lake, whose eastern shore was border territory and which Dirk knew from his military service. They reached the lake after dark; it was about 500 metres to the far bank, and they had to be wary of the searchlights that lit up the area at irregular intervals. While the younger man swam quickly ahead, Rainer's injured collarbone probably hampered him more and more; in Potsdam he had already asked Dirk to tighten his shoulder bandage. They called softly to each other, but when Dirk reached the far bank, his friend was no longer behind him. Dirk searched for a while, then, not wanting to put himself in further danger, went on through the woods, got through the border installations and swam across the Havel to West Berlin.

A week later two schoolchildren found Rainer Liebeke's body in the lake. His wife, who said she had known nothing of any plan, reported him missing, believing he was alive and had possibly been arrested. The family learned of his death only on 19 September. She was questioned repeatedly, felt ostracised at work, and even their son was stopped at school and questioned about his parents. She was denied accident and life insurance payments. His urn was buried in Gotha on 3 October 1986, and in 1988 she and her son were allowed to move to West Germany. A photograph in the biography shows a commemorative column for him on Kladower Strasse between Sacrow and Kladow.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron, “Rainer Liebeke”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180597/liebeke-rainer
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171318/liebeke-rainer
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Rainer Liebeke”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/liebeke-rainer/

---

# Manfred Mäder (1948–1986)

> Manfred Mäder, a 38-year-old professional driver from Prenzlau, was shot on 21 November 1986 near Karpfenteichstrasse after he and René Gross drove a stolen truck to the Wall; he fell back on the eastern side and bled to death.

- Born: 23 August 1948
- Died: 21 November 1986
- Age at death: 38
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near Karpfenteichstrasse; On the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.48197, 13.46352
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/maeder-manfred/

## Story

Manfred Mäder was born in Prenzlau on 23 August 1948 and worked as a professional driver. At the end of the 1970s he tried without success to reach the West by way of Czechoslovakia. For this he received a prison term of four and a half years, which he served at Bautzen II.

After his release he had hardly any job prospects. His wife, who married him in 1985, later said he had to do the lowliest yard work that nobody else could be found for, and he had to report to the police every week. He moved in with her and her young daughter, in a flat right next to the Wall in Treptow. In the following year the family applied to leave East Germany. Such applicants often waited in complete uncertainty, rarely knowing whether permission would be granted until a final decision had been made, and Manfred Mäder could not bear being left at the mercy of the authorities. When he met René Gross, who had also applied to leave, the two soon agreed to escape to West Berlin ahead of their families. They may have been encouraged by acquaintances who had managed to get away.

On the evening of 20 November 1986 he told his wife that the escape would happen that night; she could not change his mind, and they said goodbye. During the night the two men stole a W 50 truck with a lifting platform almost as high as the Wall. At about 5 a.m. they drove fast towards the border between Treptow and Neukölln, broke through a gate in the inner wall and the signal fence, and stopped alongside the concrete wall facing West Berlin. Guards in two watchtowers and others who came running kept up continuous fire until both men lay dead or badly wounded. Manfred Mäder, who had jumped from the truck onto the top of the Wall, was hit in the left thigh, fell back on the eastern side and bled to death. René Gross, who had given up his escape and taken cover under the truck, was killed by a shot to the head.

Residents of Neukölln were woken by noises like explosions and by submachine-gun fire, but West Berlin police and customs could not see what had happened. Because of the strong western presence on the far side, the Stasi and the border troops decided, for what they called political-operational reasons, not to examine the scene, and removed all traces; the Stasi blocked a public telephone in the regiment, and the soldiers involved had to swear secrecy in writing and had their post checked. The soldiers involved were relieved of duty, given a bronze medal of merit the same day and invited to a banquet. A military prosecutor's investigation was closed two months later, attributing the deaths to the men's own actions.

When western radio reported a failed escape that morning, his wife knew at once that it could only be her husband and his companion. That evening the Stasi took her for questioning to police headquarters in Berlin-Mitte, where she learned he had been shot. She had to sign an undertaking to keep silent and to invite only close family to the funeral, and she was kept under surveillance. He was buried in his parents' grave. She was put off for many months before being allowed to leave East Germany in December 1987.

Almost 18 years later the Berlin Regional Court gave the guard who shot Manfred Mäder a suspended ten-month prison sentence for manslaughter in a less serious case; who shot René Gross could not be established. In 2011 a plaque remembering both men and others who died on the border between Treptow and Neukölln was put up on Kiefholzstrasse, and another plaque for Manfred Mäder was unveiled in Prenzlau.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron, “Manfred Mäder”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180599/maeder-manfred
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171319/maeder-manfred
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Manfred Mäder”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/maeder-manfred/

---

# René Gross (1964–1986)

> René Gross, a 22-year-old driver from East Berlin, was shot dead on 21 November 1986 near Karpfenteichstrasse when he and Manfred Mäder drove a truck through the border fortifications between Treptow and Neukölln in an attempt to reach West Berlin.

- Born: 1 May 1964
- Died: 21 November 1986
- Age at death: 22
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near Karpfenteichstrasse; On the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.48197, 13.46352
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gross-rene/

## Story

René Gross was born in East Berlin on 1 May 1964. He worked as a professional driver for the state-owned company "Kühlautomat Berlin" and, according to a Stasi report, made no secret of his rejection of the GDR. He married in 1985, and that same year applied to move to West Germany. Applicants rarely learned whether they would be allowed to go until a final decision had been made, and faced years of uncertainty about their future.

He could not bear to remain at the mercy of the authorities and wanted to decide his own future. But his wife also wanted to decide for herself, and she preferred to stay in the GDR with her six-year-old son. René met 38-year-old Manfred Mäder, who had also applied to leave, and the two agreed to escape to West Berlin ahead of their families. They may have been encouraged by the success of other people they knew who had got to the West.

At midday on 20 November 1986 he told his wife he was going out on an errand and would be back soon. That night the two men stole a W 50 truck with a lifting platform almost as high as the Wall. At about 5 a.m. they drove at speed towards the border between Treptow and Neukölln, broke through a gate in the inner wall and the signal fence, and after a sharp right turn came to a stop parallel to the border at the foot of the concrete wall facing West Berlin. Guards in two watchtowers and others who came running kept up continuous fire until both men lay dead or badly wounded. René Gross, who had given up his escape and taken cover under the truck, was killed by a shot to the head. Manfred Mäder jumped from the truck onto the top of the Wall but was hit in the left thigh, fell back on the eastern side and bled to death.

The soldiers involved were relieved from duty, decorated that same day (among other things with the bronze Merit Medal of the GDR Border Troops) and invited to a banquet. The East German military prosecutor closed the investigation two months later, on the grounds that the fatal injuries were the result of the men's own actions. Given the strong presence on the West Berlin side, where police and customs officers were trying to find out what had happened, the border troops and the Stasi decided, for what they called political-operational reasons, not to examine the scene and removed all traces. The Stasi blocked the public telephone box at the border regiment, made the soldiers sign declarations of secrecy and checked their post, and the widows of both men were placed under surveillance.

That morning René Gross's wife heard on Western radio about a failed escape between Treptow and Neukölln and feared it involved her husband. In the evening, at the police headquarters in Berlin-Mitte, she was told he was dead. There followed a period of interrogation and surveillance by the Stasi, which hoped to learn more about how the escape had been prepared, and the Stasi forbade her to contact Manfred Mäder's widow. René Gross was buried shortly afterwards in the cemetery in Berlin-Mahlsdorf.

No one was ever held to account for his death, even after reunification. Almost 18 years later the Berlin Regional Court convicted the guard who had shot Manfred Mäder of manslaughter and gave him a suspended ten-month prison sentence, but it could not be established who had killed René Gross.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron, “René Gross”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180598/gross-rene
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171321/gross-rene
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “René Gross”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gross-rene/

---

# Michael Bittner (1961–1986)

> Michael Bittner, a 25-year-old mason from Pankow whose applications to leave East Germany had been repeatedly refused, was shot at the last border wall in Glienicke/Nordbahn on 24 November 1986. The Stasi concealed his death, and his body was never found.

- Born: 31 August 1961
- Died: 24 November 1986
- Age at death: 25
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near Nohlstrasse; On the outer ring between Glienicke/Nordbahn (Oranienburg district) and Berlin-Reinickendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.63449, 13.30794
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/bittner-michael/

## Story

Michael Bittner was born in East Berlin on 31 August 1961. His father died early, and he grew up in Pankow with his mother and his siblings. After school he trained as a mason with a state-owned building repair firm in Pankow, and he spent much of his spare time doing masonry work on his mother's house.

Called up to the National People's Army in May 1980, he was, according to his mother, often harassed there and put in the detention cell for the slightest reason. When he was discharged in October 1981 he was a different person: looking back, she described him as quiet and withdrawn, somehow cowed, and always on edge about being called up again as a reservist. From April 1984 he tried to leave East Germany through applications to emigrate; an official record of his motives noted that he wanted to be free and not be told by the state what to do. He worded his request carefully so as not to harm his mother's and siblings' careers. When yet another application failed in 1986, he decided to escape.

On 23 November 1986 he said goodbye to his brother, telling him that his application had been approved but he did not yet know when he could go; he did not tell his brother or mother that he planned to flee. At around 1:20 a.m. on 24 November he approached the border in Glienicke/Nordbahn, carrying the personal documents he would need in the West. He crossed the inner wall with a wooden ladder, setting off an alarm, and ran across the narrow strip to the final wall. As his hands reached the top, the guards, who had spotted him from about 200 metres away, opened aimed fire. Hit in the back by two bullets, he fell backwards to the ground. At 1:50 a.m. the regiment's doctor declared him dead.

Residents on the West Berlin side, alerted by the shots, watched through gaps in the Wall as he was carried away, and West Berlin police, customs officers and French gendarmes arrived shortly afterwards and tried to take photographs and film of the scene. The shooting was reported widely in the western media, and the Berlin Senate and the West German government condemned the use of firearms, while the three western Allies reacted with outrage.

The Stasi set out to hide his death entirely. Guards and medical staff were sworn to silence, and his death certificate and post-mortem report were destroyed, as was the record of his cremation and burial. To explain his disappearance to his family, the Stasi invented a story that a smuggling gang had taken him to the West, opened a sham investigation against him, and recorded in the Pankow registry that he had emigrated. His body, taken for autopsy to Bad Saarow and collected by a Stasi vehicle on 28 November 1986, has never been traced. His mother feared he was the man reported killed; the East German authorities denied any fatal incident and maintained to the end that he had fled safely to the West.

In January 1990 his mother asked the East German justice minister what had become of her son, but a systematic investigation began only after reunification. At the end of 1997 the youth chamber of the Berlin Regional Court gave the two guards who had fired youth sentences of one year and three months each for manslaughter, suspended; the court held them jointly responsible, although it could not say whose bullets had struck him. Half a year later, in a separate trial, the Berlin Regional Court gave their superiors suspended prison sentences of two years and of ten months. His body was never located, and his mother has continued to hope that someone who knew what happened then will find the courage to tell her where his urn ended up.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron, “Michael Bittner”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180600/bittner-michael
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171320/bittner-michael
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Michael Bittner”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/bittner-michael/

---

# Lutz Schmidt (1962–1987)

> Lutz Schmidt, a 24-year-old driver and father of two from Mahlow, was shot dead by border guards on 12 February 1987 near Rheingoldstrasse between Altglienicke and Rudow, moments after helping his friend onto the top of the Wall; the friend reached West Berlin.

- Born: 8 July 1962
- Died: 12 February 1987
- Age at death: 24
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: Near Rheingoldstrasse, near the Rudower Chaussee border crossing; On the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (area): 52.40628, 13.5208
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidt-lutz/

## Story

Lutz Schmidt was born in Zittau on 8 July 1962. A keen cycle racer whom his sports club considered very talented, he was sent at 14 to the SC Dynamo Berlin youth sports school in East Berlin, finished school there and hoped to race professionally as a sprinter. As he grew older he was less willing to meet the political demands of his trainer, and when he refused to join the SED, the ruling party, he fell out with his club and his sporting career came to an abrupt end.

At 18 he met Karin, and they married soon afterwards. He brought up her young daughter, Viktoria, as his own, and a son, Karsten, followed. He trained as an assembly metal worker, served in the National People's Army as a mechanic and driver until April 1984, and then became a driver for the state-owned firm "Autotrans", hoping this would help him obtain scarce materials for the family's planned house in Mahlow.

Contact with relatives in West Germany and the United States showed the couple how different life in the West was, and they wanted better chances for their children. Fearing disadvantages, they did not apply to leave. When his requests to visit relatives in the West were repeatedly refused, they agreed that he would escape alone and bring the family over later. He and a colleague, Peter Sch., who also wanted to leave, spent weeks using work trips near the border to choose a place. Karin did not want to know the date; they agreed that if his car was in the garage in the morning, he had gone.

Thursday 12 February 1987 was cold and foggy, with visibility under 40 metres. They hoped that the weather would help them, and that there would be no shooting at the border because two West German state premiers were due to visit Erich Honecker the next day. They drove a truck carrying two ladders to Rheingoldstrasse, where the death strip between Altglienicke and Rudow was no more than 50 metres wide. At about 9:20 p.m. they nearly collided with a police car, ran off the road and got stuck, then ran into the fog with the ladders.

Crossing the signal fence set off an alarm, and one ladder was lost in the barbed wire. The other slipped into the soft clay at the foot of the 3.6-metre wall and ended two metres short of the top. Lutz Schmidt, the stronger of the two, pushed his friend up onto the wall, but Peter Sch. could not pull him up after him. Meanwhile two guards ran towards the alarm and, once they could make out the two men in the thick fog, opened fire at close range. Crouching on the Wall, Peter Sch. managed to grasp his friend's hands, but as he pulled he lost his balance and fell to the western side. Lutz Schmidt fell back into East German territory, calling out as he fell: "Peter, hau ab!" ("Peter, get away!"). As he stood up, a bullet struck his chest and heart, and he died in the death strip.

Next morning Karin saw his car in the garage, heard on West German television that only one of two drivers had reached West Berlin, and reported him missing. The following day, at a military prosecutor's office in East Berlin, a military prosecutor and a Stasi officer told her and her father-in-law that he had been shot. The Stasi demanded that they tell everyone he had died in a car accident, and threatened that if they did not cooperate her children would be taken away for adoption and she would be committed to a psychiatric institution. Stasi informers were set on her, and her post and telephone calls were monitored. He was buried on 25 February 1987 in the family grave in Zittau, against her wishes. After American authorities made his death public in mid-March, the Stasi insisted that she and the children leave Mahlow, and the family moved hastily to Zittau that month. Only in the 1990s did his children learn the truth, and Karin discovered that her father-in-law had been a Stasi informant since 1975 and had been used in the cover-up.

Karin Schmidt sought justice as early as February 1990. On 21 March 1995 the Berlin Regional Court convicted the two guards of joint manslaughter and gave each of them a suspended sentence of two years, one a youth sentence and the other a prison sentence; they also had to pay her a symbolic fine. On 13 August 2009 a street in Altglienicke was renamed Lutz-Schmidt-Strasse.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Lutz Schmidt”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180601/schmidt-lutz
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171317/schmidt-lutz
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Lutz Schmidt”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidt-lutz/

---

# Ingolf Diederichs (1964–1989)

> Ingolf Diederichs, a 24-year-old former student from Wismar, jumped from a moving S-Bahn train near the Bornholmer Strasse border crossing on 13 January 1989 while trying to escape to West Berlin. He was caught by the train as he fell and died instantly.

- Born: 13 April 1964
- Died: 13 January 1989
- Age at death: 24
- Cause of death: Fatal fall or accident
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the area of Böse Bridge/Bornholmer Strasse border crossing; On the sector border between Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (approximate): 52.55481, 13.39838
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/diederichs-ingolf/

## Story

Ingolf Diederichs was born in Wismar on 13 April 1964. After leaving school he trained as a repair mechanic, and in September 1986 he began studying vocational education, specialising in mechanical engineering, at the Technical University of Dresden.

A fellow student remembered him as ambitious, technically gifted and determined to finish his degree: a good engineer, though teaching did not suit his strengths. Around the time his classmates were celebrating the halfway point of their course, he was removed from the university. According to the same student, he then sought to study engineering but was not given permission.

The S-Bahn line from Pankow to Schönhauser Allee came within little more than twenty metres of West Berlin near Bornholmer Strasse, where the Wall stood 5.4 metres high and drivers were expected to take trains through without delay. Early in the evening of 13 January 1989 he boarded a train on that line at Pankow, carrying a folding wooden ladder he had made from the slats of a child's cot. At about 6:30 p.m., very close to the Bornholmer Strasse crossing, he jumped from the moving train. As he fell he was caught by the train and dragged along, and he died instantly from head injuries.

An S-Bahn driver saw his body between the mainline and S-Bahn tracks near the Böse Bridge. The Stasi and border troops closed the line between Pankow and Schönhauser Allee until after midnight to recover him and secure evidence. What led him to take such a risk is not known. The Stasi presented his escape attempt as nothing more than an accident, and his relatives were to be told only that he had died after falling from a moving train.

In late August 1994 the Berlin public prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation to establish whether anyone else was responsible for his death. It was closed the following month, as there was no evidence of outside involvement.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Ingolf Diederichs”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180602/diederichs-ingolf
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171314/diederichs-ingolf
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Ingolf Diederichs”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/diederichs-ingolf/

---

# Chris Gueffroy (1968–1989)

> Chris Gueffroy, a 20-year-old waiter from Berlin who had once trained as a gymnast, was shot dead on 5 February 1989 at the Britzer Zweigkanal in Treptow while trying to escape to West Berlin; he was the last person killed by gunfire at the Berlin Wall.

- Born: 21 June 1968
- Died: 5 February 1989
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the Britzer Zweigkanal, near the garden settlement "Harmonie" and "Sorgenfrei"; On the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.45894, 13.46964
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gueffroy-chris/

## Story

Chris Gueffroy was born on 21 June 1968 in Pasewalk and moved to Berlin with his mother at the age of five. In the third grade his talent for gymnastics was spotted and he was sent to the children's and youth sports school of FC Dynamo Berlin, where he hoped for a successful career. But he increasingly felt hemmed in by the state's regimented routine. When he refused to train as an army officer after school, he was not allowed to take the Abitur, the school-leaving examination that qualifies for university, and with that his hopes of a future as an actor or a pilot were gone. He started an apprenticeship at the Schönefeld airport restaurant in September 1985 and afterwards worked as a waiter in several restaurants.

The work paid well, but he often told his mother how much the corruption in the trade disgusted him. His friend Christian G. felt the same. At twenty, Chris found it harder and harder to accept that he would never be free to choose where to live. When he learned early in 1989 that he was to be called up to the army in May, the two friends decided in mid-January to leave East Germany. Friends had told them the order to shoot at the border had been suspended, and they planned their escape for 5 February, believing a state visit by the Swedish prime minister would make shooting unlikely. Both assumptions were wrong: the order was still in force, and the prime minister had already left.

On the evening of 5 February 1989 the two left their shared flat, telling family and friends they were going to Prague. At about 10.30 p.m. they reached the "Harmonie" garden colony in Treptow and watched the border from a tool shed for over an hour. At around 11.30 p.m. they helped each other over the inner wall in front of the Britzer Zweigkanal, which marked the border with Neukölln. Crawling through the signal fence, they set off the alarm. As they ran towards the last metal fence, guards opened fire from two sides. While the two were trying to help each other over, a soldier first shot at Chris's feet and then aimed higher. Chris was hit in the heart and died within minutes.

Christian G. was wounded, arrested and sentenced in May 1989 to three years in prison. Chris's mother had heard the shots that night. Two days later she learned from a friend of his that he had planned to escape; that evening the Stasi took her in for questioning, and she was told her son was dead. His brother managed to place a death notice in the "Berliner Zeitung", which appeared on 21 February 1989. On 23 February well over 100 people attended his funeral at the Baumschulenweg Cemetery under Stasi observation, and a memorial cross was put up that day on the West Berlin side.

After the Wall fell, his mother, Karin Gueffroy, sought the truth about her son's death and on 12 January 1990 filed a criminal complaint against persons unknown. In 1991 four former guards were charged, beginning the first of many such trials. On 20 January 1992 the guard who fired the fatal shot was convicted of manslaughter and given three and a half years; the Federal Court of Justice overturned this and referred the case to another chamber of the Berlin Regional Court, which in March 1994 gave him a two-year sentence, this time suspended on probation.

The protests that followed his death added to pressure on the East German leadership, and on 3 April 1989 Erich Honecker instructed that the order to shoot, whose existence had always been officially denied, should no longer be applied. No one else was killed by gunfire at the Berlin Wall after the shooting of Chris Gueffroy and Christian G. In 2003, for what would have been his 35th birthday, a memorial column was put up at the Britzer Zweigkanal, and on 13 August 2010 Britzer Allee was renamed Chris-Gueffroy-Allee.

## Sources

1. Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Chris Gueffroy”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180603/gueffroy-chris
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171315/gueffroy-chris
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Chris Gueffroy”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gueffroy-chris/

---

# Winfried Freudenberg (1956–1989)

> Winfried Freudenberg, a 32-year-old electronics engineer, flew over the border in a home-made gas balloon on 8 March 1989. After hours adrift over West Berlin, he fell to his death in Zehlendorf, the last person in Berlin to die because of the Wall.

- Born: 29 August 1956
- Died: 8 March 1989
- Age at death: 32
- Cause of death: Fatal fall or accident
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In a hot-air balloon crash in Berlin-Zehlendorf; After flying over the sector border between Berlin-Pankow and Berlin-Reinickendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.42964, 13.22489
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/freudenberg-winfried/

## Story

Winfried Freudenberg was born on 29 August 1956 in Osterwieck in the Harz and grew up in Lüttgenrode in Saxony-Anhalt, close to the inner-German border. After an electrician's apprenticeship he gained his high school degree at evening classes in Halberstadt, then studied information technology in Ilmenau and graduated as an electronics engineer. While he was a student he met Sabine W., who later qualified as a chemist, at a student club, and they married in autumn 1988.

The couple saw no career prospects for themselves in East Germany and, as his wife later explained, would no longer accept being denied the chance to travel, research and have contact with the West. His wife later said that living in the border area, right by the barbed wire and only a few hundred metres from a country he was never allowed to enter, had made his longing for freedom especially strong. Visiting relatives in West Germany shortly before the wedding, he said he was determined to leave, but only with her.

Straight after the wedding they began planning an escape by gas balloon. He took a job in the gas supply department of an energy combine, and they moved to Prenzlauer Berg. Buying polyethylene sheeting in small amounts, from January 1989 they taped together a balloon 13 metres high in their flat and wrapped it in a net of packing string. He kept away from his relatives during this time, which puzzled them; they later understood he had wanted to protect them. By February everything was ready, and they waited for the right wind.

On the evening of 7 March, with a moderate north-easterly wind, they drove to a gas control station near Blankenburg S-Bahn station, to which he had a key through his work, and at around midnight he began filling the balloon. A young man on his way home after finishing work at about 1:30 a.m. saw it and alerted the police. When a police car arrived just after 2 a.m., the couple feared the balloon could not yet carry both of them, and decided he should go alone. He cut the anchor rope and rose into the night.

Alone in the balloon, he rose far too fast and higher than he had calculated. The reconstruction of his route suggests that he crossed into West Berlin unnoticed and reached Tegel airfield, where he probably tried to land, but the release cord seems not to have worked at first. He lost ballast, or dropped it over the airport as a sign that he was in trouble, and now rose higher still. Over Tegel he was caught by a northerly current; the evidence suggests he had risen well above 2,000 metres. Instead of the half-hour flight he had expected, he drifted for hours in freezing cold. At about 7:30 a.m. he was over Zehlendorf, a few hundred metres from East German territory. The exact cause of the crash is unknown; the empty balloon came down in a tree at the corner of Potsdamer Chaussee and Spanische Allee, and he fell into the garden of a villa a few hundred metres away. He died instantly.

Sabine Freudenberg was arrested that morning at their flat, identified from papers lost when the balloon took off; proceedings were opened against her for attempting to breach the border. She refused to be bought free to the West, was given a three-year suspended sentence, and was amnestied on 27 October 1989. Coming weeks after East Germany had signed the Vienna CSCE document on the right to leave one's country, the death caused shock in both East and West.

His body was returned to East Berlin on 7 April 1989, and on 24 April he was buried in Lüttgenrode, with great public sympathy and under Stasi surveillance. The Wall fell eight months and one day after his death. In 2012 a memorial column was dedicated to him on Erdmann-Graeser-Weg in Zehlendorf, near the place where he fell.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Winfried Freudenberg”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/victims/180604/freudenberg-winfried
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171316/freudenberg-winfried
3. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke (eds.), The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: A Biographical Handbook. Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, Berlin 2011.
4. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “140 Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989” (list), Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_140%20Victims_at_the_Wall_List_Internet_engl_FINAL.pdf
5. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/system/files/dokument_pdf/2017_08_08_Hertle_Nooke_140_Victims_Berlin_Wall_FINAL_0.pdf

This profile is a summary written for this site; every fact in it is taken from source 1.

Cite as: “Winfried Freudenberg”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/freudenberg-winfried/

---