Victims of the Wall

All 140 people

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.

Dark stele topped by a coarse-grained black-and-white photograph of a small child's face, above printed German and English text, in dry grass
Memorial stele for Holger H. at the Stahnsdorfer Damm in Kleinmachnow, with a newspaper photograph of him from around 1972, photographed in 2019 Photo: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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.

Tall orange column bearing the name Holger H. and a dark stele with a child's portrait, in a field of dry grass
Memorial column and stele for Holger H. at the Stahnsdorfer Damm in Kleinmachnow, photographed in 2019 Photo: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Dark information panel on an orange column with an aerial photograph of roads and a checkpoint, a route line and circled markers
Panel with a 1989 aerial photograph marking Holger H.'s escape route and the place where he was pronounced dead Photo: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Read more

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. 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. 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 stele for Holger H. at the Stahnsdorfer Damm in Kleinmachnow, with a newspaper photograph of him from around 1972, photographed in 2019. OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
  • Memorial column and stele for Holger H. at the Stahnsdorfer Damm in Kleinmachnow, photographed in 2019. OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
  • Panel with a 1989 aerial photograph marking Holger H.'s escape route and the place where he was pronounced dead. OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Cite this page

“Holger H.”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/h-holger/

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.