Victims of the Wall

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Manfred Mäder

1948–1986

Manfred Mäder, a 38-year-old professional driver from Prenzlau, was shot on 21 November 1986 near Karpfenteichstrasse after he and René Gross drove a stolen truck to the Wall; he fell back on the eastern side and bled to death.

Two tall glass panels in metal frames with text and small portraits, and a wreath with a black ribbon at their foot
Memorial on Kiefholzstraße in Berlin-Plänterwald for Heinz Jercha, Walter Hayn, Erich Kühn, Gerald Thiem, René Gross and Manfred Mäder Photo: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Manfred Mäder was born in Prenzlau on 23 August 1948 and worked as a professional driver. At the end of the 1970s he tried without success to reach the West by way of Czechoslovakia. For this he received a prison term of four and a half years, which he served at Bautzen II.

After his release he had hardly any job prospects. His wife, who married him in 1985, later said he had to do the lowliest yard work that nobody else could be found for, and he had to report to the police every week. He moved in with her and her young daughter, in a flat right next to the Wall in Treptow. In the following year the family applied to leave East Germany. Such applicants often waited in complete uncertainty, rarely knowing whether permission would be granted until a final decision had been made, and Manfred Mäder could not bear being left at the mercy of the authorities. When he met René Gross, who had also applied to leave, the two soon agreed to escape to West Berlin ahead of their families. They may have been encouraged by acquaintances who had managed to get away.

On the evening of 20 November 1986 he told his wife that the escape would happen that night; she could not change his mind, and they said goodbye. During the night the two men stole a W 50 truck with a lifting platform almost as high as the Wall. At about 5 a.m. they drove fast towards the border between Treptow and Neukölln, broke through a gate in the inner wall and the signal fence, and stopped alongside the concrete wall facing West Berlin. Guards in two watchtowers and others who came running kept up continuous fire until both men lay dead or badly wounded. Manfred Mäder, who had jumped from the truck onto the top of the Wall, was hit in the left thigh, fell back on the eastern side and bled to death. René Gross, who had given up his escape and taken cover under the truck, was killed by a shot to the head.

Residents of Neukölln were woken by noises like explosions and by submachine-gun fire, but West Berlin police and customs could not see what had happened. Because of the strong western presence on the far side, the Stasi and the border troops decided, for what they called political-operational reasons, not to examine the scene, and removed all traces; the Stasi blocked a public telephone in the regiment, and the soldiers involved had to swear secrecy in writing and had their post checked. The soldiers involved were relieved of duty, given a bronze medal of merit the same day and invited to a banquet. A military prosecutor's investigation was closed two months later, attributing the deaths to the men's own actions.

When western radio reported a failed escape that morning, his wife knew at once that it could only be her husband and his companion. That evening the Stasi took her for questioning to police headquarters in Berlin-Mitte, where she learned he had been shot. She had to sign an undertaking to keep silent and to invite only close family to the funeral, and she was kept under surveillance. He was buried in his parents' grave. She was put off for many months before being allowed to leave East Germany in December 1987.

Almost 18 years later the Berlin Regional Court gave the guard who shot Manfred Mäder a suspended ten-month prison sentence for manslaughter in a less serious case; who shot René Gross could not be established. In 2011 a plaque remembering both men and others who died on the border between Treptow and Neukölln was put up on Kiefholzstrasse, and another plaque for Manfred Mäder was unveiled in Prenzlau.

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

Cite this page

“Manfred Mäder”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/maeder-manfred/

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.