Victims of the Wall

All 140 people

Hans Räwel

1941–1963

Hans Räwel, a 21-year-old baker from East Berlin, was shot by a border boat crew on New Year's morning 1963 while swimming across the ice-cold Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge towards the West Berlin bank.

Row of white metal crosses set in dark perforated panels along a riverside railing, in front of a large modern glass building
White crosses for victims of the Berlin Wall on the bank of the Spree, with the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus behind; one cross bears the name Hans Räwel. Photographed in 2009 Photo: Beek100, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hans Räwel was born in Stralsund on 11 December 1941, during the war, and grew up with three older siblings on the Baltic island of Rügen. The children lent a hand in their parents' own bakery while still young, and after the family's move to East Berlin in 1957 the parents took on another bakery, in Rahnsdorf, Köpenick. Known in the family as Hänschen, he trained as a baker at his father's wish. His sister recalled his love of music: in the bakery he would often pick up the harmonica or the accordion.

One by one the family went west: his eldest brother in 1954, then his other siblings and his father, with his sister Renate the last to leave in December 1960. She knew that Hans too was firmly determined to leave once he had finished his pastry chef training, but the sealing of the border on 13 August 1961 ended that plan. Escaping now would have meant leaving his mother alone for an unknown time, and he hesitated. He let weeks and months pass and gave the impression of having come to terms with the situation.

He spent New Year's Eve 1962 with a friend at the 'Plänterwald' dance café in Treptow, and when they parted at around 4 a.m. nothing suggested what he was about to do. On that exceptionally cold morning, with temperatures more than ten degrees below zero, he went into the Spree near the Oberbaum Bridge to swim to the western bank. Almost as soon as he was in the water, at around 6:15 a.m., the crew of a border troops boat spotted him. As they gave chase, he dived between the rows of wooden posts in the river, forcing the boat to go round them. Eventually they caught up with him and fired at close range until he sank. According to the statement of one of the men who fired, he was then about 35 metres from the western bank.

Two West Berlin police officers on the bank heard the shots and, saying they felt threatened, fired back, slightly wounding the boat's coxswain. East Germany called the escape a prepared provocation, while the American city commandant, Polk, condemned the shooting of a defenceless fugitive. His mother wrote in her notes that he had gone out celebrating near the Oberbaum Bridge and never came back. She was told he had drowned at the border; she was not told that he had been shot.

In April 1994 three former border soldiers who had been on the boat were charged with joint manslaughter. His mother and sister attended the trial, hoping at last to learn what had happened, and to their regret found the two men who had fired detached and showing no sign of remorse. The court could not establish with certainty which of the men had fired the fatal shot, but in March 1996 found both men who had fired guilty as charged, holding that killing a defenceless person swimming in icy water was a clear violation of basic humanity.

Glass memorial panel with a column of names, dates and small portrait photographs, standing on a riverside promenade with the river and buildings behind it
Memorial panel for the victims of the Berlin Wall on the May-Ayim-Ufer in Berlin-Kreuzberg, listing Hans Räwel among others, photographed in 2012 Photo: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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

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. Christine Brecht, “Hans Räwel”, 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

  • White crosses for victims of the Berlin Wall on the bank of the Spree, with the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus behind; one cross bears the name Hans Räwel. Photographed in 2009. Beek100, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
  • Memorial panel for the victims of the Berlin Wall on the May-Ayim-Ufer in Berlin-Kreuzberg, listing Hans Räwel among others, photographed in 2012. OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Cite this page

“Hans Räwel”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/raewel-hans/

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.