Victims of the Wall

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Egon Schultz

1943–1964

Egon Schultz, a 21-year-old teacher from Rostock serving as a non-commissioned officer in the border troops, was shot on 5 October 1964 in the courtyard of Strelitzer Strasse 55 during the "Tunnel 57" escape and died on the way to hospital; the fatal shots came from a fellow soldier's rifle, a fact East Germany concealed.

Black-and-white portrait of a young man in a peaked uniform cap and uniform jacket, looking to the side
Egon Schultz in uniform; portrait photograph from the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-C1005-0010-001 / Unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons

Egon Schultz was born on 4 January 1943 in Pomerania. At the age of seven he came from Poland to East Germany with his parents and his elder brother, settling first in Gross Stove near Rostock and in 1957 in Rostock itself. His father was a driver and his mother a waitress, and as the younger son he was meant to go on to study. At the Borwin School he discovered a wish to teach; he enjoyed working with children and, as a member of the FDJ, looked after younger pupils as a pioneer group leader.

In July 1960 he gained admission to train as an elementary school teacher in Putbus on Rügen, then did a practical year at a school in Rostock-Dierkow; at the weekly study meetings he became friends with a colleague, Michael Baade. On 1 September 1963 he took on a first-grade class, but soon afterwards he was called up, signed on for three years and joined the border troops on 2 November. In letters to his friend he wrote of exhausting duty, of hoping to meet a girl despite his uniform, and, soon after arriving, that he felt he was gradually becoming stupid there. He also corresponded with his former pupils, and in August 1964 became a candidate member of the SED, East Germany's ruling party.

Over many months, West Berlin students had dug a 145-metre tunnel from a disused bakery on Bernauer Strasse to an outhouse in the courtyard of Strelitzer Strasse 55; it became known as "Tunnel 57" after the number of people who escaped through it. The Stasi had learned of the operation from informants. On the night of 4 October 1964, Egon Schultz, by then a non-commissioned officer, was on reserve at the command post on Arkonaplatz when a Stasi officer asked for border troops to arrest suspicious people at Strelitzer Strasse 55. He and his comrades were not told the real purpose.

At about half past midnight, in the dark, the Stasi men returned with the soldiers. An escape helper fired the first shot to avoid arrest, and further shots rang out in the darkness; the helpers escaped through the tunnel to the West. Egon Schultz fell in the courtyard, struck by ten bullets, and died on the way to the People's Police Hospital. Investigations in the 1990s established that the escape helper's bullet had lodged in his lung but was not fatal: the fatal shots came from the Kalashnikov of a border soldier who, on a Stasi officer's instruction, had fired into the dark courtyard and hit him unintentionally. He died of internal bleeding.

East Germany's own investigations, conducted by the city command and the Stasi, had reached the same conclusion, but their results were kept strictly secret, and the Stasi had the autopsy files removed from the Charité. Instead, his death was presented as murder by West Berlin agents and made into a political campaign. Tens of thousands of workers were ordered to line the streets as his coffin was taken to Rostock, where he was buried in the New Cemetery. His school was named after him, as were more than a hundred other institutions, and in 1966 Strelitzer Strasse was renamed Egon-Schultz-Strasse.

In a case opened in 1992, it was accepted that the soldier who fired the fatal shots had acted in self-defence and under orders, and the proceedings against him were discontinued. In May 1994 a private criminal complaint accused one of the escape helpers of his murder; his mother joined it, and a further complaint followed. The proceedings, later extended to other escape helpers on suspicion of aiding and abetting murder, were discontinued in the summer of 1999. How he died still divides opinion, but he was without doubt a victim of the Wall. A new plaque at Strelitzer Strasse 55, put up at the initiative of some of the escape helpers and a friend, honours him as such.

Bronze plaque on a wall with raised text about the escape tunnel and the death of border soldier Egon Schultz
Memorial plaque for Egon Schultz at Strelitzer Straße 55 in Berlin-Mitte, where Tunnel 57 ended, photographed in 2010 Photo: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Pink granite headstone inscribed 'Unteroffizier Egon Schultz' with dates, flowers planted in front, among conifers
The grave of Egon Schultz at the Neuer Friedhof in Rostock, photographed in 2018 Photo: Brewer Bob, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Also died on the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Wedding

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. Maria Nooke, “Egon Schultz”, 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

  • Egon Schultz in uniform; portrait photograph from the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv). Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-C1005-0010-001 / Unknown, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, Wikimedia Commons.
  • Memorial plaque for Egon Schultz at Strelitzer Straße 55 in Berlin-Mitte, where Tunnel 57 ended, photographed in 2010. OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
  • The grave of Egon Schultz at the Neuer Friedhof in Rostock, photographed in 2018. Brewer Bob, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Cite this page

“Egon Schultz”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/schultz-egon/

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.