Victims of the Wall

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Walter Hayn

1939–1964

Walter Hayn, a 25-year-old transport and construction worker originally from Breslau, was shot dead by border guards on 27 February 1964 on Kiefholzstrasse in Treptow as he tried to escape to West Berlin.

Two tall glass panels with printed text and small portrait photographs in steel frames beside a pavement, with a wreath and fir branches on the ground
Memorial panels for Heinz Jercha, Walter Hayn, Erich Kühn, Gerald Thiem, René Gross and Manfred Mäder on Kiefholzstraße 79 in Berlin-Plänterwald, photographed in 2011 Photo: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Walter Hayn was born in Breslau on 31 January 1939. Expelled from Silesia as the Second World War ended, the family made a new home in Ebersbach, near Dresden. His father had been missing since the war, and his mother brought up four children alone in hard conditions. The eldest brother left for West Germany in 1950. Walter, the second youngest, left school after eight years and completed agricultural training, then worked for a time in construction.

In 1958 he joined the East German police, less from conviction than in hope of better prospects, and according to his brother served on the sector border in Berlin. He was discharged from the police in June 1961 and worked in transport and construction. He married and lived in Lichtenberg with his wife and their son until their divorce in September 1963. Why he decided to escape a few months later is not known; his brother believed he wanted a better life. The Stasi found no motive: he worked regularly, paid child support, and his neighbours thought him friendly and polite.

Along Kiefholzstrasse in Treptow, garden plots lay on both sides of the border: the "Sorgenfrei" settlement in the East and the "Neuköllnische Wiesen" colony in the West. On the evening of 27 February 1964 Walter Hayn had a few drinks in a bar in the "Sorgenfrei" settlement to steady his nerves. He had his papers with him, among them his identity card and divorce documents, as well as the address of his brother in West Germany. He climbed the inner fence and made for the three rows of fencing in front of the West Berlin gardens. At 10.20 p.m. two patrolling guards saw him and fired when he did not stop; a third guard fired from a watchtower. Seventeen shots were fired. Two struck him just in front of the fence, and one of them killed him. He was 25 years old.

Allotment gardeners on the West Berlin side heard the shots and the guards' shouts but could not see through a hedge, and for years it was not known whether the fugitive had been hit. The East German authorities kept the truth even from his family, telling them that he had drowned at the border, and warned them that spreading rumours could lead to prosecution. Neither his mother nor his brother believed the story. His brother went to East Berlin to investigate himself; it was a state prosecutor's remark, that everyone must surely know the fate of anyone who tries to flee across the border, that convinced him Walter had been shot.

The three guards were commended at the time. After his brother filed a criminal complaint in 1991, they were indicted in 1995 for joint manslaughter. All three said they had fired into the air. The court found that at least two had been determined to stop him by any means and had accepted his death; these two received prison terms of one year and nine months and of one year and six months respectively, both suspended on probation. The third was acquitted. Walter Hayn's brother, who followed the trial closely, considered the light sentences unfair.

Also died on the sector border between Berlin-Neukölln and Berlin-Treptow

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, “Walter Hayn”, 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 panels for Heinz Jercha, Walter Hayn, Erich Kühn, Gerald Thiem, René Gross and Manfred Mäder on Kiefholzstraße 79 in Berlin-Plänterwald, photographed in 2011. OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Cite this page

“Walter Hayn”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hayn-walter/

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.