# 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/