Victims of the Wall

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Thomas Taubmann

1955–1981

Thomas Taubmann, a 26-year-old fitter from Weissensee, died on 12 December 1981 after jumping from a freight train beneath the Böse Bridge at Bornholmer Strasse while trying to escape; the Stasi presented his death as an accident.

Colour photograph of a single railway track curving between a grassy strip and a long white concrete wall towards a steel arch bridge; apartment buildings stand behind the wall on the right.
The railway line beside the Berlin Wall, with the Böse Bridge and Bornholmer Straße station, photographed on 8 June 1988. Thomas Taubmann jumped from a freight train beneath the Böse Bridge on 12 December 1981. Photo: Roehrensee, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Thomas Taubmann was born in Berlin on 22 July 1955. An only child, he was raised in the East Berlin district of Weissensee. His mother was originally from West Berlin, and the family stayed in contact with its many relatives in the West after the Wall divided them. His parents kept their distance from the regime. He was a good swimmer and for a time attended a sports school, until the pressure became too great.

After tenth grade he trained as a machine fitter and then specialised in crane repairs. His employer, valuing his technical ability, sent him in 1977 to an engineering school in Lichtenberg. He was already married, and in 1976 he and his wife had a son. In 1979, however, the marriage broke down and ended in divorce, and he left his studies shortly before finishing his degree. He worked as a waiter and later as an emergency fitter, moved back for a time to his parents' house, and developed a drinking problem he could not overcome.

In the autumn of 1981 he had no money with him while shopping and was caught trying to leave a supermarket with goods he had not paid for. His parents offered to cover the damage, but this was refused, supposedly for educational reasons, and he was due in court in Weissensee on 14 December 1981, where his mother served as a lay assessor. His father thought he probably found this humiliating, above all for his mother's sake. Whether after long reflection or on impulse, he decided to flee. His attempt came during the days when the West German Chancellor and Erich Honecker were meeting near the Werbellinsee.

On the evening of Saturday 12 December 1981, having drunk too much in trying to give himself courage, he climbed unseen onto a freight train that had briefly stopped at Berlin-Pankow station. He jumped down beneath the Böse Bridge, at the Bornholmer Strasse crossing. What followed can only be presumed: the Wall there was almost five metres high, and he probably struck it. The Stasi concluded from the evidence that he then fell under the train and was run over. The driver of an oncoming train later reported a dark object on the tracks, and the transport police recovered his body.

That night investigators found a farewell letter to his parents, dated 11 December, saying he intended to escape via Czechoslovakia into Austria. He may have changed his plans, or he may have laid a false trail to shield his parents. The Stasi decided that the case should be presented as a fatal accident, and the parents were not to be told of the letter. In a lengthy interrogation three days after his death, his father learned that a letter existed but was not allowed to see it; from a few sentences read out to him, all he learned was that the "accident" had happened in the border area near Bornholmer Strasse.

Thomas Taubmann was buried in late January 1982 at the municipal cemetery in Weissensee, with relatives from the West present and the Stasi watching. Because the family had no proof of an escape attempt, they did not make the case public in the West, and his attempt to flee only came to light after 1990. His mother, who died in 1999, never recovered from the loss. Twenty-seven years after his death, his father learned the full circumstances from Stasi files and at last held a copy of the letter, which ended with his promise to be in touch with them by Monday at the latest.

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. Hans-Hermann Hertle, “Thomas Taubmann”, 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

  • The railway line beside the Berlin Wall, with the Böse Bridge and Bornholmer Straße station, photographed on 8 June 1988. Thomas Taubmann jumped from a freight train beneath the Böse Bridge on 12 December 1981.. Roehrensee, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons.

Cite this page

“Thomas Taubmann”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/taubmann-thomas/

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.