# Heinz Schmidt (1919–1966)

> Heinz Schmidt, a 46-year-old West Berliner in poor mental health, was shot by East German border guards on 29 August 1966 while swimming, heavily intoxicated, in the Spandauer Schiffahrts Canal at the Nordhafen harbour.

- Born: 26 October 1919
- Died: 29 August 1966
- Age at death: 46
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Killed with no intention to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: In the Spandauer Schiffahrts Canal; On the sector border between Berlin-Tiergarten and Berlin-Mitte
- Map position (approximate): 52.53563, 13.36585
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidt-heinz/

## Story

Heinz Schmidt was born in Berlin on 26 October 1919. He married in 1949, and until 1962 he lived with his wife and their three children in Wedding, in West Berlin. In later years his mental health declined; he became an alcoholic and was out of work. Minor offences such as drunkenness, theft and embezzlement led to fines and spells in prison, and in 1962 the local court in Wedding classified him as mentally infirm, and a lawyer was appointed as his legal guardian.

In September 1965 he had already clashed with East German border guards when he shouted insults at them while crossing at the Oberbaum Bridge. After some years apart from his family, he was divorced in April 1966; from the middle of July he was living in a Wedding homeless shelter. On 29 August 1966 the social welfare office turned down his request for money, and his father, whom he met around midday, could not help him either.

Soon afterwards the 46-year-old appeared, heavily drunk, on the southern bank of the Nordhafen harbour in Tiergarten. He undressed down to his underwear and went into the water. Two fishermen warned him that these were border waters, since the canal here belonged wholly to East Berlin, but he swam on. They alerted the West Berlin police, and British military police also arrived. When East German guards fired a warning shot, West Berlin officers shouted across not to shoot, that he had jumped in from their side and was drunk. The guards opened fire all the same.

Under fire, he reached the east bank and sheltered behind a projecting wall of an old loading ramp. After a short rest he went back into the water and tried to swim underwater to the western side, surfacing several times for air while guards fired at him from a bunker in the Invaliden Cemetery and from the roof of a former ice factory. Hit by five bullets, he still reached the west bank. Firemen pulled him out at around 1.45 p.m. and took him to the Rudolf Virchow Hospital, where he was found to be dead; a bullet had shattered his cervical spine. He was buried on 8 September 1966 in the St. Pauli Cemetery in Wedding.

Crowds on both banks of the canal watched. In the East, a brewery worker was arrested for insulting the soldiers; from the West, people shouted across the canal that the guards were murderers. Stray bullets struck a harbour warehouse, the balcony window of a flat 1.5 kilometres away and a passing family's car. The three Allied city commanders condemned the shooting, while the East German party newspaper "Neues Deutschland" spoke of a new provocation. A criminal complaint was filed against the West Berlin police officers at the scene for failing to help a person in danger by not giving him covering fire, but Heinrich Albertz, mayor and senator for the interior, defended them, saying the bullets had struck about 150 metres from the patrol car and the officers could not have noticed them.

In 1991 investigators opened proceedings against the East German guards suspected of firing at him. The border troop files did not show clearly who had fired, and in the 1990s none of the former soldiers could or would remember. The soldier who had been awarded the "Medal for Exemplary Service at the Border" refused to testify about his use of his weapon and said he did not know why he had received the medal. With no one who could be proven to have fired at Heinz Schmidt, the public prosecutor's office discontinued the investigation on 25 July 1997.

## Sources

1. Martin Ahrends/Udo Baron, “Heinz Schmidt”, 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/180548/schmidt-heinz
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171372/schmidt-heinz
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: “Heinz Schmidt”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidt-heinz/