Victims of the Wall

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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.

Dark stele with a black-and-white portrait of a man in a dark suit and tie above a German and English text headed 'Hermann Döbler'
Memorial panel for Hermann Döbler at the Teltowkanalbrücke near Kleinmachnow, with his photograph, photographed in 2023 Photo: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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 watchtower on the East German side. The guards allegedly felt provoked by the pair, possibly because they waved to them. According to the court's findings nearly three decades later, the NCO who opened fire told the soldier beside him on the tower that they would not put up with this, as the two had violated East German territory. According to the research project, he opened fire at once; the reports written that day by the West Berlin police and by the Stasi both record warning shots first. The guard 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, in the knee, the body and the head. The sources differ on where he died: according to the research project he died in the boat, while the West Berlin police reported the same day that he died after being taken to the hospital in Wannsee. Elke Märtens was hit in 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. In November 1993 the Berlin Regional Court, satisfied that the man who fired had meant to kill, convicted him of manslaughter in conjunction with attempted manslaughter and sentenced him to six years in prison, one of the heaviest sentences ever given to a border guard. According to press reports, the superior who had given the order to fire received a suspended sentence of two years. In March 1995 the Federal Court of Justice rejected both the guard's appeal and that of Hermann Döbler's son, who had sought a conviction for murder, and the sentence became final.

Tall orange column inscribed 'Hermann Döbler' beside a grey post with his portrait panel, on a grassy clearing in front of pine trees
Memorial column for Hermann Döbler near Kleinmachnow, photographed in 2012 Photo: Anszu, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Information panel with an aerial photograph of a canal and bridge with marked points, above text
Map panel at the Teltowkanalbrücke marking the boat route and place of death of Hermann Döbler Photo: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Also died on the outer ring between Berlin-Zehlendorf and Potsdam

Sources

This profile is a summary written for this site from the biography in source 1, which also gives the full account with archival references. Facts taken from other sources are listed below with what they support.

  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. Read online. The biography from which this profile was written, and the source of the dates and place of death.
  2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. Read online.
  3. Report of the West Berlin police president on the border incident, 15 June 1965, transcript in Chronik der Mauer. Accessed 29 September 2026. Read online. Source for: the warning shots, and that he died after being taken to the hospital in Wannsee.
  4. Stasi (MfS) report on the shooting, 15 June 1965 (BStU, MfS, ZAIG Nr. 10717), transcript in Chronik der Mauer. Accessed 29 September 2026. Read online. Source for: the warning burst fired before the guard opened fire.
  5. “Maueropfer”, Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten, 12 August 2006. Accessed 29 September 2026. Read online. Source for: the press reports of a manslaughter conviction and of the superior’s suspended two-year sentence.
  6. “Bootsausflug mit tödlichem Ausgang”, rbb, berlin-mauer.de. Accessed 29 September 2026. Read online. Source for: the press reports of a manslaughter conviction and of the superior’s suspended two-year sentence.
  7. Bundesgerichtshof, judgment of 20 March 1995, 5 StR 378/94 (excerpts on dejure.org). Accessed 29 September 2026. Read online. Source for: the appeal ruling of 1995.
  8. Bundesgerichtshof, judgment of 20 March 1995, 5 StR 378/94 (NJW 1995, 2732), full text on lexetius.com. Accessed 3 October 2026. Read online. Source for: the offence, the dismissed appeals, the watchtower, Elke Märtens' head wound and the guard's words.
  9. “Mauerschützen: Sechs Jahre Haft”, taz (dpa), 18 November 1993. Accessed 3 October 2026. Read online. Source for: the November 1993 verdict of six years for manslaughter and attempted manslaughter.
  10. "Mauerschützen: Urteile bestätigt", taz (AFP), 22 March 1995 Read online. Source for: the criminal proceedings after the death.
  11. 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. The printed handbook from which the online biography is taken.
  12. 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. PDF. Used to cross-check names and dates.
  13. Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke, “The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 1961–1989: Findings of a Research Project”, August 2017. PDF. Source of the classification into escapees, people with no intent to escape, and border soldiers.

Corrections

This profile was corrected on 24 and 28 September and 3 October 2026. Each round of corrections is described in the corrections log:

Further reading

Image credits

Cite this page

“Hermann Döbler”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/doebler-hermann/

Map

The pin position is based on the place of death described in source 1. Base map © OpenStreetMap contributors; course of the Wall in 1989 from Geoportal Berlin (dl-de/zero-2.0). Accessed 23 September 2026.