# Hildegard Trabant (1927–1964)

> Hildegard Trabant, a 37-year-old housing administrator from East Berlin, was shot in the back by a border guard on 18 August 1964 on the closed S-Bahn tracks between Schönhauser Allee and Gesundbrunnen, and died an hour later.

- Born: 12 June 1927
- Died: 18 August 1964
- Age at death: 37
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: On the closed-off S-Bahn tracks between Schönhauser Allee and Gesundbrunnen; At the sector border between Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (approximate): 52.54944, 13.39919
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/trabant-hildegard/

## Story

Hildegard Trabant was born Hildegard Pohl in Berlin on 12 June 1927. In 1949, when the GDR came into being, she joined the SED, the ruling party, where, as far as her career is documented, she was valued as an active member. In 1954 she married, and she and her husband lived in Friedrichshain in East Berlin. She held a managerial post in a municipal housing administration; her husband worked for the East German police in the passport and registration division.

What led her to attempt an escape in August 1964 is not known for certain, but the reasons probably lay in her family life. The Stasi learned from her husband's People's Police file that in February 1964 he had been taken to task by his superiors after beating her during a quarrel; one cause of their arguments was that he would not accept her coming home late three times a week because of her voluntary public work.

After the Wall was built, the S-Bahn tracks between Schönhauser Allee and Gesundbrunnen were closed, and the track grounds in Prenzlauer Berg became part of the restricted border area. At around 6:50 p.m. on 18 August 1964, border soldiers noticed a woman hiding behind an elder bush there. When ordered to come out, she ran, but away from the border, not towards it. A guard fired a warning shot and then shot her in the back. She was taken to the People's Police Hospital, where she died an hour later. The guard was promoted and decorated.

The next day a Stasi officer told her husband that she had been shot during an attempted border breach. He had to sign an undertaking to tell no one except his superiors the real cause of death and to speak to others only of a fatal accident. The Stasi kept the circle of those informed small, concealed the place and time, and itself arranged her cremation and urn burial on 23 September at the Frieden-Himmelfahrt Cemetery in Berlin-Niederschönhausen.

Even so, word spread. News of the details of her death set off a discussion at a party members' meeting at the Friedrichshain municipal housing administration, called by the SED district leadership, and her husband later told the state prosecutor that her workplace had been informed and that rumours had spread, even in their neighbourhood. In West Berlin, however, nobody learned of it at the time.

A legal investigation began only in October 1990, when the East Berlin files were handed to the federal judiciary. The former guard, who had been 20 at the time, long denied being the one who fired; in 1997 he was charged before the youth chamber of the Berlin Regional Court, and he confessed during the main hearing. On 10 June 1998 he was convicted of manslaughter and given a suspended prison sentence of a year and nine months. The court found that when she was shot, Hildegard Trabant had no longer been trying to cross the border and had run into the hinterland only to avoid arrest.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Hildegard Trabant”, 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/180523/trabant-hildegard
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171401/trabant-hildegard
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: “Hildegard Trabant”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/trabant-hildegard/