# Adolf Philipp (1943–1964)

> Adolf Philipp, a 20-year-old radio and television technician from Bavaria living in West Berlin, was shot dead by a border guard on the night of 4–5 May 1964 after entering the East German border strip between Spandau and Falkenhagen carrying a gas pistol.

- Born: 17 August 1943
- Died: 5 May 1964
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the outer ring between Berlin-Spandau and Falkenhagen (Nauen district)
- Map position (area): 52.57962, 13.13179
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/philipp-adolf/

## Story

Adolf Philipp was born on 17 August 1943 in Ziemetshausen near Augsburg, the eldest of four children and the only son. His father ran a small radio shop and his mother worked at a nearby press plant. His youngest sister remembered him as a thoughtful, idealistic young man, liked by everyone for his friendliness and helpfulness, who grew up happy and sheltered in modest circumstances. He was a hard-working pupil with a particular interest in maths and technology, and after secondary school he trained as a radio and television technician, passing his exam with very good marks.

In the summer of 1963 he arranged a job in West Berlin through the employment office, mainly because as a West Berliner he could not be called up for military service. From August 1963 he worked in Schöneberg and lived in a furnished room on the Kurfürstendamm. His letters home were full of the city: films, theatre, the radio exhibition, the six-day cycle race and a Chubby Checker concert at the Sportpalast. Of the Brandenburg Gate at night he wrote that it looked magnificent, but that the Wall and the barbed wire were disturbing.

Increasingly the Wall occupied his thoughts. He cycled along the border, studied the border grounds and sometimes stepped into the no-man's-land in front of the barriers. His sister recalled that he told relatives, neighbours and friends in Ziemetshausen about conditions at the Wall and about divided families he knew of; in a letter he called the situation on Bernauer Strasse dreadful. He had little sympathy for West Berliners who had resigned themselves to the division. After his death colleagues said he had sought contact with people who organised escapes. He is also said to have taken part in the protest rallies against the moving of the Wall, held over several days at the Peter Fechter memorial cross in April 1964, and notes in his flat showed he was planning something, though not what.

What happened on the night of 4 to 5 May 1964 is known only from border troop and Stasi reports. Two soldiers of the border regiment that guarded the border between Nauen district and Spandau found footprints in the border strip during a night patrol and, assuming they had been left by people escaping, ran to a ground bunker to report them. There, according to these reports, they came upon Adolf Philipp, who threatened them with a pistol. A sergeant opened fire at once from close range, hitting him several times; he presumably died immediately. The Stasi found that his weapon was only a gas pistol that could not fire live rounds.

East Germany announced on 5 May that he had been shot while attacking a guard near Staaken, and his body was handed over to the West the next day, but the East German authorities created confusion about where it had happened. In 1991 prosecutors reopened the case. Both former guards admitted that the sergeant had fired the fatal shots, but his claim that he had felt threatened and acted in self-defence was confirmed by the other guard and could not be disproved, so no charges were brought and the investigation was discontinued.

He was buried in Ziemetshausen on 11 May 1964, amid great public sympathy. His Berlin landlady wrote that he was exactly the way her late husband would have wanted his son, who had died in the war, to be. In August 1964 the Spandau district office dedicated a wooden cross at the spot where he had left his bicycle that night. His sister said the family found his death unfathomable, but not meaningless.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Adolf Philipp”, 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/180519/philipp-adolf
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171399/philipp-adolf
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: “Adolf Philipp”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/philipp-adolf/