# Ida Siekmann (1902–1961)

> Ida Siekmann, a 58-year-old woman living alone at Bernauer Strasse 48, jumped from her third-floor window towards the West Berlin pavement on 22 August 1961, nine days after the border was sealed, and died of her injuries on the way to hospital.

- Born: 23 August 1902
- Died: 22 August 1961
- Age at death: 58
- Cause of death: Fatal fall or accident
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: After jumping out of her apartment window at Bernauer Strasse 48; At the sector border between Berlin-Mitte and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (exact): 52.54019, 13.40359
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/siekmann-ida/

## Story

Ida Siekmann was born on 23 August 1902 in Gorken, a small village then in the West Prussian district of Marienwerder and today part of Poland. It is not known when she moved to Berlin. By 1961 she was living alone at Bernauer Strasse 48. Her building stood in Mitte, in East Berlin, but the street and the pavement outside her front door belonged to Wedding, in West Berlin, so she regularly crossed the border to enter her building. She probably also visited her sister regularly, who lived a few streets away in the West.

When the sector border was sealed on 13 August 1961, she was cut off overnight from family and friends in the West, and because she lived on the border itself, the new controls affected her even more directly. From 18 August the front doors onto the western pavement were nailed shut or bricked up, new entrances were made through the back courtyards, and militia and police checked everyone in the corridors and stairwells. Frightened, many residents jumped from their windows or climbed down ropes, while West Berlin firemen tried to catch them in rescue nets.

On 21 August Ida Siekmann watched the door of her building being barricaded. Early the next morning she threw her bedding and some belongings out of her third-floor window, and then jumped after them, perhaps afraid of being discovered, before the West Berlin fire brigade could arrive with a rescue net. She hit the pavement and was badly hurt. She died while being taken to the Lazarus Hospital close by, a day short of her 59th birthday. In East Berlin a daily police report meticulously recorded the circumstances, giving the time as about ten to seven in the morning and noting that the pool of blood had been covered with sand.

Her death caused widespread indignation in West Berlin, and newspapers held the East German leadership responsible. Newspaper articles also noted widespread frustration at the restrained response of the western Allies and the federal government; Chancellor Konrad Adenauer arrived in West Berlin only on the day she died.

An official funeral was held on 29 August at the Municipal Cemetery on Seestrasse in Wedding, attended by many West Berliners; her coffin was decorated with red roses and white carnations. Afterwards the federal minister for all-German affairs and the mayor of Wedding laid a wreath outside Bernauer Strasse 48 inscribed "Dem Opfer der Unfreiheit" ("to the victim of unfreedom"), and in September the Wedding district office put up a memorial of three wooden logs wrapped in barbed wire where she died. Memorial services were held there for decades, and visitors including Robert Kennedy and Konrad Adenauer laid wreaths and stood in silence.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Ida Siekmann”, 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/180479/siekmann-ida
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171438/siekmann-ida
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: “Ida Siekmann”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/siekmann-ida/