Victims of the Wall

All 140 people

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.

Dark panel without a photograph, with a German and English text headed 'Rainer Gneiser', born 10 January 1944, drowned 28 July 1964
Memorial panel for Rainer Gneiser on Lankestraße 2 in Klein Glienicke, photographed in 2023 Photo: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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.

Row of five grey posts with portrait photographs and text panels beside a tall orange column, along a cobbled path in front of trees and an iron fence
Memorial for five victims of the Berlin Wall, including Rainer Gneiser, on Lankestraße 2 in Klein Glienicke, photographed in 2023 Photo: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Information panel with an aerial photograph of a lake shore with marked points labelled with names, above text
Panel with a 1989 aerial photograph marking where the bodies of Rainer Gneiser and others were found, Lankestraße, Klein Glienicke 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-Babelsberg

Sources

This profile is a summary written for this site. Every fact in it is taken from source 1, which also gives the full account with archival references.

  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. Read online. Basis for every fact in this profile, including the dates and place of death.
  2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. Read online.
  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. The printed handbook from which the online biography is taken.
  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. PDF. Used to cross-check names and dates.
  5. 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.

Further reading

Image credits

  • Memorial panel for Rainer Gneiser on Lankestraße 2 in Klein Glienicke, photographed in 2023. OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
  • Memorial for five victims of the Berlin Wall, including Rainer Gneiser, on Lankestraße 2 in Klein Glienicke, photographed in 2023. OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
  • Panel with a 1989 aerial photograph marking where the bodies of Rainer Gneiser and others were found, Lankestraße, Klein Glienicke. OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Cite this page

“Rainer Gneiser”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/gneiser-rainer/

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.