Victims of the Wall

All 140 people

Peter Kreitlow

1943–1963

Peter Kreitlow, a 20-year-old from East Berlin, was shot by two Soviet soldiers in woods between Nieder Neuendorf and Berlin-Spandau on the night of 23 to 24 January 1963 while trying to reach West Berlin with four other young people.

Black-and-white portrait photograph of a young man with dark hair, above the printed caption with his name and dates
Peter Kreitlow; photograph on a 'Chronik der Mauer' information stele on the Berlin–Brandenburg border (photographed in 2013) Photo: Assenmacher, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Peter Kreitlow was born in Berlin on 15 January 1943, during the Second World War. It is thought that his mother died while the war was still going on. After the war his father worked for the state-owned company Bergmann-Borsig and married again, and Peter did not get on with his stepmother. There were quarrels at home, and as soon as Peter turned 18 his father threw him out. That same year the Wall was built, putting an end to the visits to West Berlin that had been a welcome break from everyday life.

After the Wall went up, his life was marked by trouble with his parents and clashes with his superiors at work. He trained as a baker but afterwards got by as a casual and unskilled labourer in various factories. His last job was on an industrial building site in Schwedt, while still living as a subtenant in East Berlin. Nothing seemed to hold him in East Germany. Probably he and his friends imagined a better life in the West without yet having any concrete plans to leave.

On 23 January 1963 he and three friends travelled to Hennigsdorf for a dance, and at a youth club there they met Bernd K., whom Peter knew from earlier visits. Bernd K. said he meant to flee and invited them to come. According to one of them, questioned by the Stasi, they let themselves be persuaded after some initial hesitation; another told his interrogators that he himself had had no reason and did not think the others had one either. At about 11 p.m. the five set off, crossing the frozen Havel Canal between Hennigsdorf and Nieder Neuendorf and then moving through snowy woods, keeping off roads and paths.

Long before they reached the border, two soldiers from a Soviet unit stationed in Nieder Neuendorf stopped them. When the soldiers noticed the group, and why they opened fire in woodland about 2,000 metres from the border installations, was never established. Peter Kreitlow was hit several times, including in the head, and died shortly after midnight, aged twenty. Of all the East German fugitives who died at the Berlin Wall between 1961 and 1989, he is the only one known to have been shot by soldiers of the Soviet occupying forces.

No autopsy was carried out, a departure from normal practice that suggests how sensitive the case was. East German reports declared the shooting justified, and an investigation of the soldiers' conduct was out of the question. His friends were tried behind closed doors by the East Berlin City Court on 20 May 1963 for attempting to leave the country illegally and for incitement to do so, and sentenced to prison terms of between ten and 18 months. The Stasi arranged his funeral discreetly, but word of how he died still spread. A memorial service was held on 5 March 1963, and at his father's request his urn was buried in his mother's grave. Even after the end of East Germany, Berlin prosecutors found they had no legal means to obtain the soldiers' names from the Russian authorities.

Tall orange column and two grey posts with portrait panels on a grassy riverbank, a motor boat passing on the river behind
Memorial steles for Peter Kreitlow and Franciszek Piesik on the Havel in Hennigsdorf, photographed in 2013 Photo: Christian Gering, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Information panel with an aerial photograph showing fields, a river and marked points labelled 'Peter Kreitlow' and 'Franciszek Piesik'
Map panel of the Kreitlow–Piesik memorial in Hennigsdorf, marking Peter Kreitlow's escape route and place of death Photo: Christian Gering, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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, “Peter Kreitlow”, 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

  • Peter Kreitlow; photograph on a 'Chronik der Mauer' information stele on the Berlin–Brandenburg border (photographed in 2013). Assenmacher, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
  • Memorial steles for Peter Kreitlow and Franciszek Piesik on the Havel in Hennigsdorf, photographed in 2013. Christian Gering, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
  • Map panel of the Kreitlow–Piesik memorial in Hennigsdorf, marking Peter Kreitlow's escape route and place of death. Christian Gering, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Cite this page

“Peter Kreitlow”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/kreitlow-peter/

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.