# Lothar Schleusener (1953–1966)

> Lothar Schleusener, a 13-year-old boy from Friedrichshain, was shot by border guards on 14 March 1966 at the border on Kiefholzstrasse together with a younger boy, and died the same night; his mother was given a falsified death certificate.

- Born: 14 January 1953
- Died: 14 March 1966
- Age at death: 13
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On Kiefholzstrasse near the "Sorgenfrei" garden settlement; On the sector border between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln
- Map position (approximate): 52.47816, 13.46896
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schleusener-lothar/

## Story

Lothar Schleusener was born in East Berlin on 14 January 1953 and grew up in Friedrichshain with his older sister. His father was an electrician and his mother a seamstress at the state-owned company "Fortschritt" in Lichtenberg. According to his sister, the family lived in a poor neighbourhood that everyone then called the "Hinterland". With both parents at work, the two children were often left to themselves, and they loved spending time at the family's allotment garden, where they kept animals and where they sometimes stayed overnight in summer. The parents divorced in 1965 but were still sharing the flat in March 1966.

His sister remembered him as a friendly, caring boy who was especially fond of animals and longed to be big and strong; he liked to picture himself one day driving his grandmother around in a car. The family had relatives in the West who had sent parcels at Christmas in the first years after the border was closed. According to her, not long before he went missing Lothar confided to her that he and a friend meant to visit relatives in West Berlin, and promised to bring her back something nice. She did not take him seriously at the time; only after the Wall fell did she understand that he had meant it.

On 14 March 1966 Lothar and Jörg Hartmann were in the border area at a place known as "Grenzknick". One of the guards later confessed that he and a fellow guard had shot at the children. By his account, from the observation tower he had seen a human shadow and thought someone was trying to climb out of the anti-vehicle trench; he sent the other guard down from the tower and opened fire, shooting forty rounds in all. When he came down from the tower after the firing stopped and saw that they were children, he was, as he later said, completely devastated.

The only official record of what happened speaks of two injured "Grenzverletzer" (border violators) taken to the People's Police Hospital, one of whom died. It does not say they were children or give their names, nor that Lothar, the older boy and the one allegedly fit to be questioned in hospital, also died that same night. The Stasi kept watch on the guards stationed there; one informer reported that the incident had become known in his platoon before the guards involved were sworn to silence, and that with attentive observation the crossing could have been prevented without the use of firearms.

Lothar had been missing for days before his mother was officially told that he had died of an electric shock in an accident in Espenhain near Leipzig; a death certificate issued by the registry office in Leipzig was meant to confirm this. His parents doubted this in private but, fearing trouble, did not dare say so openly. His sister believes their mother knew she was being lied to, since she knew of western radio reports that two children had been shot at the Wall on the day he vanished. His sister says that, out of grief and fear, their mother never wanted to talk about his death and told her to say nothing and ask no questions. He was buried at the cemetery on Friedensstrasse in Friedrichshain, with only his parents, grandparents and sister present.

In November 1997 the Berlin Regional Court convicted a former border guard of manslaughter for the deaths of both boys and gave him a 20-month suspended sentence; the second guard had died by then. Proceedings over the false death certificate were discontinued without result in August 1997 because no documents could be found that would prove the case against the suspected culprits. A memorial to the two boys was put up on Kiefholzstrasse in November 1999.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Lothar Schleusener”, 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/180542/schleusener-lothar
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171380/schleusener-lothar
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: “Lothar Schleusener”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schleusener-lothar/