Victims of the Wall

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Siegfried Noffke

1939–1962

Siegfried Noffke, a 22-year-old West Berlin driver and young father, was fatally shot in a Stasi ambush on 28 June 1962 as he broke through an escape tunnel into the basement of Heinrich-Heine-Strasse 49, hoping to bring his wife and son to the West.

Black-and-white photograph of a young man in a suit and tie behind glass in a rusted steel niche, his name engraved below
Portrait of Siegfried Noffke in the Window of Remembrance, Bernauer Strasse Photo: Brewer Bob, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Siegfried Noffke was born in Berlin on 9 December 1939 and grew up in the Soviet sector. A bricklayer by training, he fled west during the 1950s, settled in Kreuzberg and earned his living as a driver. In May 1961, after the birth of their son, he married Hannelore, who lived in Prenzlauer Berg in the East. The young couple had apparently assumed that after the wedding she and the baby would be allowed to move to the western part of the city, but the East Berlin authorities refused an exit permit, and when the border was sealed the family was suddenly divided.

For almost a year the couple, like many others, could only meet secretly near the border and exchange a few words across the barrier. At one of these meetings he met another West Berliner in the same situation, who invited him to join a tunnel project to bring their wives across. The digging, which he now carried out together with Dieter Hötger and Dieter G., was already well under way; it started from a basement on Sebastianstrasse in Kreuzberg towards a house at Heinrich-Heine-Strasse 48/49. It was a private undertaking by men trying to reunite their families.

The plan had been betrayed by 4 June 1962, even before he joined it, and only by chance. A woman planning to escape through the tunnel had told her brother, not knowing he was a Stasi informer, and he reported it at once. The Stasi set up an operation code-named 'Maulwürfe' (moles) to arrest everyone when the tunnel was complete, and the informer joined the group posing as a would-be refugee. He was there at midday on 28 June 1962 when the tunnel was opened, and helped the three tunnel builders break through into the basement, where Stasi officers were waiting.

Surviving tunnel builders said that the shooting began as soon as Siegfried Noffke and Dieter Hötger entered the basement; Dieter Hötger later recalled that he had climbed out first and that his friend was still pulling himself out of the tunnel exit when the cellar door was flung open. The tunnel builders were unarmed; Stasi files record that one agent lost his nerve and started shooting despite the plan to arrest them. One Stasi account of the shooting claimed that the men had resisted arrest and that a tunnel builder who fled back through the tunnel had fired a pistol; an internal Stasi report written the same day records that no weapons were found on the men arrested. Siegfried Noffke was fatally wounded and Dieter Hötger badly injured; the informer and a Stasi officer were also wounded. Though critically hurt, Siegfried Noffke was questioned on the spot, in order, as Stasi reports put it, to extract a "confession"; the Stasi's own record of the questioning notes that he said he had not been carrying a weapon. He is said to have died a little later; a Stasi report records that he died on the way to the prison hospital.

His wife was arrested with the other East Berliners who had planned to escape, and in November 1962 the Berlin-Mitte city court sentenced them to between one and two years in prison for attempting to leave the GDR illegally; Dieter Hötger was sentenced in October 1962 to nine years' penal servitude. According to the Berliner Unterwelten association, their son was among the would-be escapees caught by the Stasi, one of four "arrested children". He was raised by his grandmother and was six years old before he saw his mother again. He later said that prison left her a broken woman; she became seriously ill and was placed in a nursing home in her early 40s.

About two weeks after his death, unknown mourners laid a wreath in Kreuzberg, not far from the Heinrich-Heine-Strasse crossing, its ribbon saying farewell from his friends to a victim of the Wall. After the collapse of East Germany the presumed gunmen and the former informer remained silent about what had happened, and criminal investigations opened in the 1990s on the basis of Stasi files were discontinued for lack of evidence, without charges being brought. According to the research project's 2017 findings, his body disappeared without trace, and because those involved, the Stasi officers responsible and the officials who had cooperated with them, kept silent after 1990, what became of it could not be established. In 2009 the association Berliner Unterwelten put up a memorial plaque on Sebastianstrasse, opposite no. 82; it was renewed on 28 June 2022, sixty years to the day after his death.

Large blue information board with text and black-and-white photographs
Information board "Der verratene Fluchttunnel in der Sebastianstraße – 28. Juni 1962", Sebastianstrasse 82, Berlin-Kreuzberg Photo: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Also died on the sector border between Berlin-Kreuzberg and Berlin-Mitte

Sources

This profile is a summary written for this site from the biography in source 1, which also gives the full account with archival references. Facts taken from other sources are listed below with what they support.

  1. Christine Brecht, “Siegfried Noffke”, biography in Chronik der Mauer, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Deutschlandradio. Accessed 23 September 2026. Read online. The biography from which this profile was written, and the source of 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, “Die Todesopfer an der Berliner Mauer 1961–1989. Bilanz eines Forschungsprojekts”, Centre for Contemporary History Potsdam and Berlin Wall Foundation, August 2017. Accessed 27 September 2026. PDF. Source for: that his body disappeared without trace and why its fate could not be established.
  4. Berliner Unterwelten e.V., “Der verratene Fluchttunnel in der Sebastianstraße 28. Juni 1962”, texts of the memorial plaque (2009), in the memorial plaque database of the Mitte district office, Berlin.de. Accessed 3 October 2026. PDF. Source for: the survivor's recollection of the shooting, the date of the betrayal, and the two Stasi accounts of whether the men were armed.
  5. Final report of the Stasi (MfS) on operation “Maulwürfe”, 28 June 1962 (BStU, MfS, HA I Nr. 6086), excerpt in Chronik der Mauer. Accessed 3 October 2026. Read online. Source for: that the plan was known to the Stasi by 4 June 1962, and that he died on the way to the prison hospital.
  6. Stasi (MfS) record of the questioning of the dying Siegfried Noffke, 28 June 1962 (BStU, MfS, AOP 9745/65), transcript in Chronik der Mauer. Accessed 3 October 2026. Read online. Source for: that he said he had not been carrying a weapon.
  7. Maxi Beigang, “Aus Liebe grub er einen Tunnel am Moritzplatz – dann schoss die Stasi auf ihn”, Berliner Zeitung, 28 June 2022. Accessed 3 October 2026. Read online. Source for: the survivor's account that his friend was half out of the tunnel exit, and the plaque opposite Sebastianstrasse 82.
  8. Berliner Unterwelten e.V., information and memorial board “Der verratene Fluchttunnel in der Sebastianstraße 28. Juni 1962”, renewed version of 28 June 2022. Accessed 3 October 2026. PDF. Source for: that the plaque was renewed on 28 June 2022, and that his son was among the four "arrested children".
  9. AFP, 'Tragic Berlin Wall tunnel heroes honoured', The Local, 12 Aug 2009 (the survivor's criticism that no charges were brought) Read online. Source for: the criminal proceedings after the death.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.

Corrections

This profile was corrected on 28 September and 3 October 2026. Each round of corrections is described in the corrections log:

Further reading

Image credits

  • Portrait of Siegfried Noffke in the Window of Remembrance, Bernauer Strasse. Brewer Bob, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.
  • Information board "Der verratene Fluchttunnel in der Sebastianstraße – 28. Juni 1962", Sebastianstrasse 82, Berlin-Kreuzberg. OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Cite this page

“Siegfried Noffke”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/noffke-siegfried/

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.