# Lothar Hennig (1954–1975)

> Lothar Hennig, a 21-year-old from Sacrow near Potsdam who had no intention of fleeing, was shot in the back by a border guard on Weinmeisterweg on 4 November 1975 as he ran home from the bus, and died early the next morning.

- Born: 30 June 1954
- Died: 5 November 1975
- Age at death: 21
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Weinmeisterweg in Sacrow (Potsdam county district)
- Map position (approximate): 52.42984, 13.09952
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hennig-lothar/

## Story

Lothar Hennig was born in Potsdam on 30 June 1954 and grew up in Sacrow, a village exclave near Potsdam that lay so close to the border that all of it was border territory. Entry required a special pass, there was a very strong military presence, and the single access road was barred and guarded. Lothar knew the rules well, and a few ways around them. His siblings remembered him as a fun-loving, rather crazy character who often surprised people with unusual ideas and pranks. He loved music, knew the Western scene well and ran discos where he played Western hits while persuading the cultural authorities that he kept to the prescribed quota of East German music.

He was not happy in his apprenticeship at the state-owned VEB Geräte- und Reglerwerk Teltow, where the work was unhealthy, and in May 1975 he moved to PGH Auto Service in Potsdam. He had many friends and was on good terms with his neighbours and even with the border guards, which made him of interest to the Stasi. Why he agreed in April 1975 to become an unofficial informer, supposedly out of conviction, can no longer be established. His handling officer credited him with reliability, but his reports were judged operationally worthless, and he was apparently not prepared to betray people unconditionally: once, after a summer party, he met a soaking-wet man asking the way to West Berlin, did not report him and let him go, for which his Stasi handler severely reprimanded him.

On 4 November 1975 he came back from Potsdam, where he had met his Stasi handler and then gone to a bar. His cousin, the bus driver, told him there was an escape alarm in Sacrow and warned him to be careful; the village was swarming with extra guards. As the only passenger, he was let off at the corner of Weinmeisterweg, and, as he always did, he ran the 400 metres to his parents' house. It was late, foggy and dimly lit. A guard on special duty found this suspicious, although Lothar was running away from the border, not towards it, and called on him to stop, or so he later said. The guard fired what he claimed was a warning shot into the ground; either that bullet, deflected, or a second one struck Lothar in the back. The weapon and scene were never forensically examined, and although the two guards gave first aid, it was almost an hour before a doctor arrived.

He was taken to the Drewitz Army Hospital and declared dead at about 1.30 a.m. According to the autopsy report later written at the army hospital in Bad Saarow, he had died of internal bleeding from a ruptured lung. At midday the Stasi told his mother he had died, and a state attorney then told the family, falsely, that he had died in an accident of his own making. By then word of the shooting had already spread through Sacrow, and the family openly voiced their incomprehension and surprised the officials with how much they knew. He was buried on 14 November 1975 in Potsdam-Babelsberg. His mother's appeal to the East German defence minister brought no answers (he referred her to the military judicial authorities), and the death certificate hid the true cause. Although the killing was a crime even under East German law, the military prosecutor opened no investigation, and soon afterwards the family sought to leave Sacrow.

According to the Stasi's reports on the mood in the village, the previously friendly relations between residents and the border troops broke off abruptly. Even among the guards and NCOs, for all their approval of the shooting, the Stasi noted a certain reserve; one staff sergeant was recorded as saying it was a rotten business that they had shot an innocent man. On 26 June 1996 the Potsdam Regional Court convicted the guard who fired of bodily injury resulting in death and gave him a suspended youth sentence of one year and two months. The court accepted that he had not meant to kill, and took into account in mitigation that he regretted the act and had apologised to the family, which, Lothar's sisters recalled, he did only when the judge asked him to. Lothar Hennig had never intended to flee.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron/Maria Nooke, “Lothar Hennig”, 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/180587/hennig-lothar
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171333/hennig-lothar
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: “Lothar Hennig”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/hennig-lothar/