Victims of the Wall

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Bernd Lehmann

1949–1968

Bernd Lehmann, an 18-year-old lathe operator from East Berlin who hoped to become a sports teacher, drowned on 28 May 1968 after becoming caught in underwater barbed wire in the Osthafen harbour while swimming towards West Berlin.

Tall glass panel in a steel frame with text and a column of small portrait photographs with names and dates, in front of the river Spree
Memorial panel on the May-Ayim-Ufer in Berlin-Kreuzberg with the names, dates and photographs of victims of the Berlin Wall, including Bernd Lehmann, photographed in 2012 Photo: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bernd Lehmann was a Berliner. He came into conflict with the law as a young boy; a police report listed correctional measures going as far as placement in residential care, and he later served several prison sentences for theft, fraud and forgery. At fifteen he made his first escape plan, to drive a stolen car to the inner-German border and force his way across with a weapon, but according to a police report he was called to account for it before he could try.

In the youth cell of the prison where he was held that year, inmates talked of daring ways to escape, and he began to plan to steal a plane from the airfield of the "Society for Sports and Technology" near Falkenrehde. He asked a fellow prisoner to get him a weapon. When the two met again in February 1968, this supposed friend was working as a Stasi informant and passed on everything Bernd told him.

After his release from his last prison term, for burglary, in December 1967, the 18-year-old worked as a lathe operator at an electrical appliance plant in Treptow; he took no pleasure in the work and was not allowed to change jobs. Much of his small wage went on compensation payments. He dreamed of becoming a sports teacher and planned to gain his tenth-grade qualification at an adult education centre. His model was his mother, who worked as a swimming teacher in East Berlin. He does not seem to have believed he could achieve this in East Germany. In May 1968 the informant reported that he now saw the plane only as a last resort and thought the border to West Berlin too heavily guarded; he believed the inner-German border offered better chances.

His final attempt was perhaps a sudden decision. The evening before, he quarrelled with his family; he told his mother he had been missing work and meant to become a waiter, and she, fearing new trouble, threatened to report him. Late that night he left, went into the Spree and swam from the direction of Treptow Park towards Osthafen, probably hoping to cross near the Flutgraben. He did not know that barbed wire had been laid underwater. He became entangled about 20 metres from the channel and drowned. His death is recorded as 28 May 1968.

Early in the evening of 28 May 1968 his clothes, with his identity card in the side pocket of his jacket, were found in bushes near the Soviet memorial in Treptow. Five days later a border soldier found his body, dressed only in swimming trunks and a green turtleneck sweater.

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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. Lydia Dollmann, “Bernd Lehmann”, 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 panel on the May-Ayim-Ufer in Berlin-Kreuzberg with the names, dates and photographs of victims of the Berlin Wall, including Bernd Lehmann, photographed in 2012. OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Cite this page

“Bernd Lehmann”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/lehmann-bernd/

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.