# Herbert Mende (1939–1968)

> Herbert Mende, a 23-year-old floor layer and bricklayer from Potsdam, was shot near the Glienicke Bridge on 8 July 1962 while running for a bus away from the border; he died of his injuries on 10 March 1968.

- Born: 9 February 1939
- Died: 10 March 1968
- Age at death: 29
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Glienicke Bridge; On the outer ring in Potsdam
- Map position (approximate): 52.41346, 13.08896
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mende-herbert/

## Story

Herbert Mende was born on 9 February 1939 to Anastasia and Franz Mende, and grew up with two older sisters in Steinaugrund in Silesia, today Ligota Tulowicka in Poland. In 1945 his mother escaped with the children to Zieran in the Altmark; his father, once freed from British captivity, followed them there. In 1957 the family, who had also taken in a foster child, moved to Potsdam. After an apprenticeship with the state firm 'Ausbau Potsdam', Herbert worked in the city as a floor layer and bricklayer.

On the first Saturday of July 1962 he went dancing at the 'John Schehr' youth club on the eastern edge of Potsdam, not far from the heavily guarded Glienicke Bridge. Just after midnight he left to catch the last bus home. According to a customs officer at the barrier, the young man, who had been drinking, asked him with some irony where the bus to Potsdam left from, and after getting directions walked towards the stop, away from the border.

A police patrol then stopped him to check his papers. He had left his ID at home and could only show his military service registration card, so the officers took him to a guardhouse at the bridge barrier to wait to be collected, which amounted to a preliminary arrest, though he apparently did not realise it. When his bus arrived and turned round, he asked whether they still needed him; receiving no reply, he ran for it. He later told his father that a policeman came out and shouted to two nearby border guards to shoot. After a warning shot, one guard fired twice from 30 metres. From his hospital bed he later wrote that he had seen the bus ahead of him, heard shots and collapsed.

He was taken to the district hospital in Potsdam, where a senior doctor's firm objection kept him from being moved to the army hospital in Drewitz. The wounds to his pelvis and abdomen left him an invalid, in severe pain for months. An internal Interior Ministry report criticised the tactically unsound conduct and poor coordination of the units involved and concluded that firing had not been necessary, and his father was allowed to see the files. But the military prosecutor denied that the marksman was at fault, opened no investigation and would not name him. The family fought for years over his accident insurance until a settlement in June 1966.

After two continuous years in hospital he was sent home in the summer of 1964 in need of constant care, and his mother gave up work to care for him. After long suffering, Herbert Mende died on 10 March 1968 at St. Josef's Hospital in Potsdam, a month after his 29th birthday.

After 1990 his father Franz Mende had an investigation opened against the man who shot his son. The guard can hardly have taken Herbert for an escapee, the biography notes, since he was moving towards Potsdam, not West Berlin. The case was discontinued in autumn 1996, reopened after the father's complaint, and closed again in February 1997 after the gunman said he had only meant to frighten him. Franz Mende objected again, pointing out that there had been no escape attempt that could have justified any use of firearms, but the Brandenburg attorney general declined to press charges, finding a conviction unlikely.

## Sources

1. Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Herbert Mende”, 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/180554/mende-herbert
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171367/mende-herbert
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: “Herbert Mende”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/mende-herbert/