# Jörgen Schmidtchen (1941–1962)

> Jörgen Schmidtchen, a 20-year-old border policeman from Leipzig, was shot dead on 18 April 1962 by a fleeing cadet at the Gleisdreieck post near Griebnitzsee, the first border policeman killed on duty at the West Berlin border after the Wall was built.

- Born: 28 June 1941
- Died: 18 April 1962
- Age at death: 20
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: East German border soldier killed on duty
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At Gleisdreieck Griebnitzsee; On the outer ring between Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin-Zehlendorf
- Map position (approximate): 52.39615, 13.1357
- Area: outer ring between West Berlin and the GDR
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidtchen-joergen/

## Story

Jörgen Schmidtchen was born on 28 June 1941. According to official East German accounts, he was born and raised in Leipzig and trained as a galvanizer after leaving school; he then worked as a skilled labourer at the state-owned industrial plant in Ludwigsfelde, where he was recognised as a young activist. At 19 he joined the German Border Police and was posted to the "Grenzbereitschaft Blankenfelde", a unit stationed in the south of Berlin that guarded the border between West Berlin and the district of Potsdam.

On the night leading into 18 April 1962, by now promoted to lance corporal, he was on guard with another soldier at a post called "Gleisdreieck" in Potsdam-Babelsberg, on disused S-Bahn land next to the West Berlin housing settlement of Kohlhasenbrück. Their shift began at one o'clock in the morning. They had been told that a search was under way in and around Potsdam for two armed members of the National People's Army who had disappeared from an officers' school.

At around 2:30 a.m. the two guards heard a noise, apparently without linking it to the warning, and left the old railway gatehouse to look. They met two men in uniform. According to the statement his fellow guard later gave, Jörgen Schmidtchen, the guard leader, believed them to be a patrol, walked up to them unsuspectingly and spoke to them, and then shots were suddenly fired. They came, as was later established, from the weapon of a 19-year-old cadet who was trying to flee to West Berlin with a comrade. Jörgen Schmidtchen fell and presumably died at once. His fellow guard returned fire; in the exchange the cadet was also fatally wounded, while his comrade reached West Berlin unhurt.

Internally, the commander of the 2nd Border Brigade concluded that he had acted imprudently in approaching the men unguarded despite the warnings he had received. Nothing of this was said publicly. The day after his death he was promoted to the NCO rank of Unteroffizier, and his parents received a one-off payment of 500 marks. He was buried with full military honours at the Leipzig-Schönefeld Cemetery.

East Germany's official account claimed he had been murdered by agents while trying to prevent an armed border breach, and he was held up as a martyr. Streets and schools were named after him, among them the 33rd Polytechnic secondary school in Potsdam, and a memorial room and commemorative grove kept his name before later generations of border soldiers. Behind this use of his death for propaganda, the young man himself largely disappeared from view.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Jörgen Schmidtchen”, 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/180605/schmidtchen-joergen
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171423/schmidtchen-joergen
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: “Jörgen Schmidtchen”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schmidtchen-joergen/