# 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/