# Hans-Dieter Wesa (1943–1962)

> Hans-Dieter Wesa, a 19-year-old East German transport police officer, was shot dead by a fellow guard on 23 August 1962 after climbing the border fence at Bornholmer Strasse S-Bahn station into West Berlin.

- Born: 10 January 1943
- Died: 23 August 1962
- Age at death: 19
- Cause of death: Shot
- Circumstances: Died trying to escape
- Place and circumstances as recorded: At the Bornholmer Strasse S-Bahn station; At the sector border between Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg and Berlin-Wedding
- Map position (exact): 52.55477, 13.39785
- Area: inner-city border between East and West Berlin
- Web page: https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wesa-hans-dieter/

## Story

Hans-Dieter Wesa was born on 10 January 1943 in Schlewen, in the rural district of Gostingen, the youngest of four children. His parents came from Galicia; his father, a carpenter, had had his own workshop in his home town, in what is now Ukraine; under Nazi resettlement policy the family had been given a farm in the Warthegau. With his father a prisoner of war, his mother fled west with the children in 1945, and the family was assigned to Trebitz, near Wettin. His father returned in 1949 and the family stayed. Devout Protestants, his parents kept their distance from the regime, and they willingly let their eldest son go when he left for West Germany in 1954 and built a new life in Baden-Württemberg.

According to his brother, after school he completed a railway apprenticeship in Halle, and in September 1960 he signed up for five years with the transport police to advance his career. In April 1962 his unit was moved from Leipzig to Berlin to guard the border stations and railway facilities. His brother recalled that he could not refuse the transfer and personally rejected the idea of having to shoot at people; he believed this conflict may have been what led Dieter to desert. He left no explanation and gave no hint of his plans when he visited his parents a few days beforehand. His superiors regarded him as an exemplary officer.

On 23 August 1962 he was posted with another young officer he knew from Leipzig at the Bornholmer Strasse S-Bahn station, a "ghost station" beneath the Böse Bridge where trains no longer stopped. According to the other officer's later account, Hans-Dieter remarked, as if joking, that his sister in West Germany would be surprised to see him turn up. After dark he disappeared, on the pretext that he had to switch on the lights on the other platform.

His fellow guard found that he had climbed the border fence and was already on West Berlin territory. When Hans-Dieter Wesa ignored his order to come back, the guard opened fire regardless. By the guard's own account, he fired a burst of about six shots, Wesa fell and lay still, and he then fired a second burst. West Berlin police and forensic examinations found that a shot in the thigh had brought him down before the guard came up to the fence from the other side and killed him with shots from very close range. He probably died immediately. The case was reopened after East Germany collapsed, and the former guard was charged with manslaughter in June 1994, but he took his own life in September 1994 before trial, without ever explaining why he had fired.

Coming only days after the death of Peter Fechter, the shooting caused deep revulsion in West Berlin. According to the press, Mayor Willy Brandt and Senator Klaus Schütz went to the place where he died that same evening. An official memorial service was held in Berlin on 25 August 1962, attended by many West Berlin police officers who wished to honour their East German colleague. His brother in Eybach, Baden-Württemberg, arranged for his body to be brought there for burial, and the deputy commander of the West Berlin uniformed police spoke at the funeral.

## Sources

1. Christine Brecht, “Hans-Dieter Wesa”, 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/180503/wesa-hans-dieter
2. German version of the same biography. Accessed 23 September 2026. https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/todesopfer/171427/wesa-hans-dieter
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: “Hans-Dieter Wesa”, Victims of the Berlin Wall, Berlin Experiences. https://victimsofthewall.com/victims/wesa-hans-dieter/