Victims of the Wall

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Henri Weise

1954–1977

Henri Weise, a 22-year-old trained toolmaker from Ranis in Thuringia whose applications to leave East Germany were refused, probably drowned in May 1977 trying to cross the Spree; his body was found at the Marschall Bridge water barrier in July.

Henri Weise was born on 13 July 1954 in Pössneck, the eldest of three sons, and grew up in Ranis, Thuringia; his parents worked as a driver and a sales clerk. In a curriculum vitae written for an application, he emphasised that at the secondary school in Ranis he had been trusted as brigade leader and deputy group chairman and had been in charge of sports and cultural activities. He trained as a toolmaker at the Carl Zeiss company in Jena, finishing in February 1974. His parents had divorced the year before, and his father had moved to East Berlin; Henri stayed with his mother in Ranis, working as a window and building cleaner, a rock driller and a heating technician. His mother later described him as a loner.

In May 1976 he applied for the first time to emigrate to West Germany. That August he was arrested near the Elbe at Wittenberge on suspicion of trying to cross the border. From prison he demanded to be released from East German citizenship and asked the West German Permanent Mission for asylum. He denied any plan to flee and was released on 19 October 1976, but his application was refused, and a second request was finally rejected in November 1976.

He kept looking for a way out. An attempt to obtain a Polish passport led to his being reported to the police on "suspicion of planning an illegal border crossing", though no arrest warrant followed. He complained to the authorities that he was no longer allowed to work as a heating technician and now had to work as a labourer, protested that this breached the UN human rights charter and the East German constitution, and he threatened to take his case to the West German press. From January 1977 at the latest the Stasi kept him under intensified surveillance. In March 1977 he was told his application had been rejected for good.

On 17 May 1977 he visited his father in East Berlin. After a few hours he left, saying he would be back in half an hour. Where he went is not known. He probably tried to get across the Spree to West Berlin and died in the attempt.

On 27 July 1977 border soldiers at the Marschall Bridge water barrier in Berlin-Mitte found a body caught in it. It had probably been in the water for about two months. The pathologist could not determine a cause of death but found no signs of violence. He was identified from an old jaw injury and dental records. His mother, who had been questioned by police in early June, learned of his death through the death certificate; she was not allowed to see his body.

Henri Weise was cremated in East Berlin on 1 September 1977, and his urn was buried in Ranis. An investigation in the early 1990s could not establish a conclusive cause of death or exactly what had happened, and the proceedings were discontinued on 27 September 1995.

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

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. Lydia Dollmann, “Henri Weise”, 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

Cite this page

“Henri Weise”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/weise-henri/

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.