# Jörg Hartmann (1955–1966)

> Jörg Hartmann, a ten-year-old boy from Friedrichshain, was shot dead by border guards on 14 March 1966 near the "Sorgenfrei" garden settlement on Kiefholzstrasse in Treptow; his 13-year-old friend Lothar Schleusener was shot with him and died that same evening.

- Born: 27 October 1955
- Died: 14 March 1966
- Age at death: 10
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Kiefholzstrasse near the "Sorgenfrei" garden settlement; On the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.47816, 13.46896
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hartmann-joerg/

## Story

Jörg Hartmann was born in East Berlin on 27 October 1955 and grew up in Friedrichshain. Because his mother was ill and could not look after her children, Jörg and his two younger siblings lived with their grandmother in a small flat in a rear building on Schreinerstrasse. His third-grade teacher, Ursula Mörs, remembered him as a quiet, shy boy, small and slight, with blond hair and pale blue eyes. School was hard for him, and he was very pleased whenever he was praised. He had never met his father, who lived in West Berlin.

On 14 March 1966 Jörg left home to buy fresh bread rolls and did not come back. That day he was with Lothar Schleusener, 13, whom he had known since they were small, when both families lived in the same neighbourhood. His classmates later told his teacher that Jörg had said he wanted to go to his father in West Berlin.

After dark the two boys reached the border area in Treptow unnoticed. According to the report that the East Berlin city commandant made to Erich Honecker, at about 7.15 p.m. border soldiers near the "Sorgenfrei" garden colony saw two figures who had passed the inner barrier. When they did not respond to a warning shot, the report said, fire was opened. Jörg, aged ten, died at once. Lothar was taken to the People's Police Hospital in Mitte and died of his injuries that same evening. Thirty years later one of the guards who fired said he had seen a shadow from his watchtower and had opened fire because he believed it was his duty.

East Germany's political and military leaders were unwilling to acknowledge that border guards had fired on children, and the truth was covered up. His grandmother reported him missing that evening but was told nothing. Two weeks later the East Berlin public prosecutor's office informed her that he had drowned and been recovered from a lake in Köpenick. The family did not believe it; an aunt told relatives in Australia that the police had summoned his grandmother and mother and threatened them, telling them to say nothing. Jörg had been cremated and buried anonymously at the Baumschulenweg Cemetery before his family had been informed of his death. His grandmother later had the urn reburied in a grave with a headstone.

The shots had been heard in Neukölln, and in March 1966 radio and newspapers in the West reported that children had been fired on; through channels that remain unknown, even Jörg's name reached the West. His teacher, who heard the report on RIAS radio, began asking questions until the school director told her to stop; she escaped to the West that same year. In the 1990s investigators were able to establish what had happened, and in November 1997 the Berlin Regional Court convicted a former border guard of manslaughter for the deaths of both boys and gave him a twenty-month suspended sentence; he had admitted firing on the two children together with another guard who had since died. A memorial to Jörg Hartmann and Lothar Schleusener, for which Ursula Mörs had campaigned, was dedicated on Kiefholzstrasse in 1999.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Jörg Hartmann”, 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/180541/hartmann-joerg
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171379/hartmann-joerg
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: “Jörg Hartmann”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hartmann-joerg/