Where the sources disagree

1961 11 people, 36 disagreements

Ida Siekmann 1902–1961

Where she died
The research project's biography and a New York Times report of 24 August 1961 say she died on the way to hospital. A West German government report published in 1962 says she was killed immediately. This profile follows the biography.
Time of the jump
The East Berlin police daily report gives the time of the jump as about 6.50 a.m.; a West German government report of 1962 gives about 6.40 a.m. The profile cites the East Berlin report.
What was thrown down before the jump
The research project's biography says she threw bedding and other belongings out of her window first. A New York Times report of 24 August 1961 mentions belongings and her papers. The East Berlin police report speaks of luggage and a parcel thrown 'from a flat in the same building'.
Günter Litfin 1937–1961

How far he had swum when he was hit, and where
The research project's biography says the western bank was almost within reach when a bullet hit him in the back of the head. A West German government report of 1962 says he had passed the middle of the basin; a 2007 report puts him about 20 metres from the far bank of a canal about 40 metres wide; a 2017 newspaper report says he was halfway across and was killed by a shot to the nape of the neck.
Time of the escape attempt
The research project's biography says shortly after 4 p.m. The transport police report, as quoted in a 2001 newspaper, gives about 4.10 p.m.; the East Berlin Volkspolizei report of the next day about 4.15 p.m.; the West Berlin police telex 4.20 p.m.; later press reports 4.15 p.m.
What he did in West Berlin on 12 August 1961
According to the research project's biography, which draws on his brother's account, he spent 12 August 1961 with his mother and brother visiting relatives in West Berlin. A 2011 newspaper series says he was renovating the flat he was about to move into and went back east after midnight.
His last moments in the water
The profile does not describe his last moments. A 2001 newspaper feature says that, wounded, he gave up and raised his hands before the fatal shot, and his brother, quoted in 2007, said he had raised his hands to surrender; a Washington Post report of 1962 says the guards fired until his hands flew up and he sank. The research project's biography and the police reports mention neither.
Whether he was registered in West Berlin
The research project and the Berlin Wall Foundation say he took a flat in Charlottenburg but did not register it with the police, so that he could keep visiting his family. A 2007 Spiegel Online report says he had long been officially registered in Charlottenburg while still commuting to the East.
How long his brother was questioned
The research project says his brother was questioned for a night after his arrest on 25 August. In his own later accounts the brother says he was questioned until about midnight.
The fatal wound
The research project and the Berlin Wall Foundation say a bullet hit him in the back of the head. A Stasi report of 31 August 1961, citing the post-mortem examination, records an entry wound in the nape of the neck and an exit wound at the chin, and says he drowned; a 2007 report quotes the forensic diagnosis as a shot through the neck and the floor of the mouth, combined with drowning; a 2017 newspaper report speaks of an aimed shot to the nape of the neck.
Who fired, and how many shots
The East Berlin police report of the next day describes a single transport policeman who fired two warning shots, three shots of barrage fire and then two aimed shots, one of which killed him; a Stasi report of 31 August 1961 likewise speaks of one transport policeman, who fired barrage fire and then an aimed submachine-gun burst. The West Berlin police reported several submachine-gun bursts by transport police and Volkspolizei. In 1997 two men who had fired were convicted of jointly committed manslaughter.
The 1997 sentences
According to the research project, which cites the judgment, the two men received one year and one year and six months, both suspended. A 2001 newspaper report and his brother's own article of 2011 give eighteen months, suspended, for the man who fired; a 2009 newspaper feature gives sixteen months, suspended. The Berlin Wall Foundation's memorial page says both received a low sentence with a probation period of one year.
Roland Hoff 1934–1961

How he reached the canal bank
According to a Potsdam People's Police report cited by the research project, he must have mingled with the forty workers clearing the bank and so reached the water. A Stasi report on the shooting says the work party of about 40 was about 300 metres from the place of the attempt and that the guards spotted him shortly before he reached the canal, though it also says that shots were fired from close to the work party.
What the detained worker shouted
The research project, drawing on the 1993 statement of an eyewitness, says the worker who protested called the guards concentration-camp guards and murderers. A Stasi report on the shooting records his remark as "Germans are shooting at Germans here" and says that he was questioned and released at about 5 p.m. Both agree that he was held only briefly.
Sequence of the shots
The research project says four border policemen kept firing at him until he was fatally hit in the head and sank. A Stasi report on the shooting records a warning shot, then several aimed submachine-gun shots and one carbine shot, after which he went under at once. A 2011 Potsdam newspaper report says the first shot hit him in the back of the head when he was almost in the middle of the canal, and that he went under after further shots.
Rudolf Urban 1914–1961

Date of death
The research project's biography and the Berlin Senate's 2006 overall concept for remembering the Wall give 17 September 1961 as the date of his death; a West German government report published in 1962 gives 15 September 1961. This profile follows the biography.
How he fell and what injury he suffered
According to the research project's biography, which draws on his widow's account, he and his wife both slipped down the rope and he crushed his heel bone. A West German government report of 1962 says the rope, a clothes-line, broke and that he suffered a complicated leg fracture and other injuries.
Who escaped with him
The research project's biography describes only Rudolf Urban and his wife climbing down the rope. A West German government report of 1962 says two married couples tried to escape from the first-floor flat that day.
Olga Segler 1881–1961

Time of the jump
The profile says only that she jumped in the evening. A West German government report of 1962 gives 9.05 p.m., and the West Berlin police incident report also puts it at about 9 p.m.; the report of the East Berlin Bereitschaftspolizei (alert police) gives about 9.30 p.m.
Number of people who escaped into Wedding by jumping or by rope
The research project says more than 150 people escaped into Wedding in this way in the first three months. The Wedding police report of 14 November 1961, in the excerpt consulted, lists 73 escapes by rope and 71 by jumping, 144 in all; the full report may include other methods. The profile follows the research project.
Bernd Lünser 1939–1961

Whether he was hit by a shot
The memorial inventory of the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship states that he was discovered by two policemen and wounded by a shot before he fell from the roof. The West Berlin police report of 5 October 1961, Der Spiegel in 1961 and 1997, and the research project's biography all say that he jumped from the roof; none of them says that he was hit.
Udo Düllick 1936–1961

One fugitive or two
West Berlin police reports of 1961, which drew on eyewitness accounts, and a West German government report of 1962 describe two fugitives, one of them shot in mid-river. According to the research project, which cites a decision of the Berlin public prosecutor's office of 4 October 1994, the East German records show that he was alone.
Date of death
He went into the water shortly before midnight on 5 October 1961 and was recovered about an hour later. The research project gives 5 October as the date of death; his gravestone gives 6 October 1961, and a 2014 newspaper report says he drowned in the night to 6 October.
Police boats
The research project's biography says one water police boat pursued him; a West Berlin police report of 1961 speaks of two Volkspolizei boats that came up and fired on the swimmers.
The 2,500 mourners and the memorial stone
The research project's biography puts the gathering of 2,500 people at the memorial service on the Gröbenufer on 7 October 1961 and dates the memorial stone to Totensonntag, a few weeks later. The memorial database of the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship says 2,500 West Berliners came to his funeral, which was broadcast live on the radio, and that the stone stood from 14 November 1961.
Werner Probst 1936–1961

When he was spotted
The short summary at the head of the research project's biography says he was spotted at about 10.20 p.m.; the biography itself says about 10.30 p.m. Two reports written the next day, one by the East Berlin Bereitschaftspolizei and one by the West Berlin police, both give about 10.35 p.m., the first for his attempt to swim across and the second for the flares and shots fired from the Schilling Bridge. The profile follows the biography.
Lothar Lehmann 1942–1961

Date and place of birth
According to the research project, official records give his date of birth as 28 or 29 January 1942 and disagree on whether he was born in East Prussia or in Falkensee. A West German government report of 1962 gives his year of birth as 1941.
Cause of death
The autopsy, as cited by the research project and confirmed by investigations in the 1990s, found that he drowned after cold shock and circulatory collapse. A West German government report of 1962, based on the account of a refugee, said he had been shot.
What his family was told
According to his mother's statement in 1992, border police told the parents the same evening that their son had drowned while trying to desert. A West German government report of 1962, based on a refugee's account, says his unit told his mother he had lost his life in an accident while in the army.
Dieter Wohlfahrt 1941–1961

Who fired first, and whether the helpers were armed
The GDR border police and Stasi reports state that a pistol shot was fired first from the western side and that a pistol and ammunition were found by the body. His friends assured the West Berlin investigators that none of them was armed, and the investigators dismissed the GDR account as propaganda. According to the research project, falsification of the GDR reports is likely but cannot be proven.
How long he lay in the wire, and how he died
The research project says he lay in the wire for more than an hour without showing any sign of life; a 1962 newspaper report cited in a 2005 study says 90 minutes and that he bled to death; the students' open letter of December 1961 speaks of two hours. The GDR border police recorded a shot through the heart, and a Stasi report says he was recovered at about 7.30 p.m.
What the mother called out at the fence
According to his fellow helper, the mother came towards them calling anxiously for her daughter. The GDR border police report says she called out a password agreed with the officers who had set up the ambush.
Ingo Krüger 1940–1961

Date of death
East Berlin border police reports say he was already dead when he was pulled from the water near the Marschall Bridge, which would put his death on 10 December 1961, as does the White Crosses memorial. The forensic institute recorded the time of death as 0.10 a.m. on 11 December 1961, the date used by the research project.
Cause of death
The autopsy register records probable drowning. Stasi investigations are said to have blamed a failure of his breathing apparatus, while investigations in the 1990s concluded that he died of cold shock. Suspicions of a violent death could not be confirmed.
How he was taken from the water, and what his family was told
According to the research project, which draws on his fiancée's account, customs officers searched the river with hooks and spotlights and finally pulled out a body. A West German government report of 1962 says the crew of a customs boat discovered him and tried to haul him aboard with grappling hooks, returning about two hours later with a lifeless body, and that his relatives were told he had been cremated. The research project records a burial at the Baumschulenweg cemetery on 23 December 1961.
Where he went into the water
According to the research project, a friend advised him to go into the river below Friedrichstrasse station, out of sight of the customs boats. A West German government report of 1962 says he tried to swim from the Marschall Bridge. Both agree that he was recovered near the Marschall Bridge.

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1962 18 people, 39 disagreements

Heinz Jercha 1934–1962

Where the bullet struck him
His Chronik der Mauer biography, which cites the West Berlin post-mortem report, says a ricochet hit him in the chest. The memorial plaque unveiled in 2012 and a vorwärts report of the same year say it hit him in the back. The 1962 West Berlin police report records only a shot through the lung.
When the tunnel opened and how many people escaped through it
His Chronik der Mauer biography says the tunnel was in use from 21 March 1962 and brought 'dozens' to the West. The 2012 memorial plaque gives about 50 people between 22 and 27 March; a 2012 vorwärts report says the tunnel was finished on 22 March and about 55 people had escaped by 24 March. On 27 March 1962 the helpers told the West Berlin police they had brought about 30 people through over the previous two weeks.
Philipp Held 1942–1962

Date of death
The research project gives no exact date of death: he disappeared on 8 April 1962, and when his body was recovered on 22 April it had been in the water for about ten days. A West German government report of 1962 says he died between 8 and 11 April 1962. His cross in the White Crosses memorial near the Reichstag gives 11 April 1962; a list of the crosses that stood on Paul-Löbe-Strasse before 1990 records April 1962.
Klaus Brueske 1938–1962

Year of the verdict against the border guard
His Chronik der Mauer biography dates the conviction of the border guard to April 1994 in its text, but the footnote for that sentence cites a Berlin Regional Court judgment of 24 April 1998. The judgment itself has not been seen.
The shots fired at the truck
GDR records cited by the research project give two aimed bursts, 14 rounds in all, from one guard; West Berlin police observers reported two submachine-gun bursts and several single shots.
Peter Böhme 1942–1962

Date of the desertion
The research project's biography has the two cadets taking the pistols on the night of 16 to 17 April 1962 and spending one day in hiding in Potsdam before going to the border. Two East German reports written in April 1962 put the desertion earlier, on 16 April: the Defence Ministry's final report says they left the barracks with the weapons at about 7.30 a.m. that day and stayed in the Potsdam area until 18 April, and a report of the Readiness Police unit guarding that stretch of border says the search order reached it at 3.20 p.m. on 16 April. All the sources agree that the exchange of fire took place in the early hours of 18 April.
Horst Frank 1942–1962

How the guards came to fire
The East German border police report of 30 April 1962 says he was challenged after climbing the second fence, kept going and was then fired on with seven aimed shots. His Chronik der Mauer biography, drawing on the 1994 indictment, says two guards opened fire from 20 metres while he lay on the ground and a third fired when he was already caught in the barbed wire; it notes that the GDR report barely hints at what really happened.
Peter Göring 1940–1962

Place of the state funeral
His Chronik der Mauer biography places the state funeral in Luchau in Saxony, where East German records give his last address. A 2001 report in the taz, written at the cemetery, places his grave in the Protestant cemetery of Glashütte, where the 1962 gravestone still stood. This profile follows the taz.
Number of shots fired at the fugitive
East German investigators in 1962 counted 121 rounds fired at the swimming boy. Reports on the 2002 trial give 141 shots, or 'more than 100' with eight hits. The profile gives no figure.
Lutz Haberlandt 1938–1962

Whether he died before or after he was taken away
The research project says he was probably already dead when he was finally taken away. According to the Stasi's report of the next day, he was taken to the People's Police Hospital at about 5.15 p.m. and died there of his wound; a West German news agency report of 28 May 1962 also said that he had died in hospital.
Axel Hannemann 1945–1962

How far he was from the West Berlin bank when he was hit
His Chronik der Mauer biography says he was fatally hit a few metres from his goal. The court that tried one of the guards found that he still had 120 to 130 metres to swim before reaching the border, and the East German border police report of the same day puts him about ten metres off the eastern landing stage. This profile follows the court.
How many bullets hit him
According to his Chronik der Mauer biography, the post-mortem report could not establish how many bullets hit him. The court that tried one of the guards found that only one shot hit him: the guard leader's third aimed shot, which struck his head and killed him.
What happened on the barge
His Chronik der Mauer biography describes a scuffle with the skipper before he jumped into the river. The East German border police report of the same day says he first tried to persuade the skipper to carry on, jumped into the water, was pulled out by the skipper and then broke loose and jumped in again.
Wolfgang Glöde 1949–1962

How his parents learned of the shooting
The research project's biography says his parents were startled by the shot and hurried to the scene. The border police battalion's report of 11 June 1962 says that one of the boys who had been with him told the parents, who lived 50 metres away, shortly afterwards.
How soon he died
The research project's biography says he died shortly after being hit. The border police report of 11 June 1962 says the duty doctor found that death had in all probability occurred immediately. A West Berlin headline of 16 June 1962, written when the West still believed he had been shot while fleeing, said he struggled with death for an hour.
The boys who were with him
The research project's biography says he spent the day with two neighbours' children of his own age. The border police report of 11 June 1962 lists two boys as witnesses, aged 13 and 11, and gives one of them a different first name.
Reinhold Huhn 1942–1962

Who fired the fatal shot (1962 versions)
In 1962 the escape helper told the West Berlin police that he had only struck the guard and that the fatal shot came from the other guard; the West Berlin police report of that evening said a border policeman had probably been hit by his own side's fire. At his trial, which ended in April 1999, he admitted firing the fatal shot, and the courts found that he had.
Whether the guard threatened to shoot
The Berlin Regional Court found in 1999 that Reinhold Huhn held his submachine gun across his chest without aiming it or threatening to fire, a finding the higher courts upheld. A 2018 newspaper account based on the escape helper's recollections says the guard called out that he would shoot and raised his gun.
Place of residence
The research project's biography says his family settled in Adorf in the Vogtland, where he was also buried; the GDR border police report of 18 June 1962 gives his place of residence as Niederdorf in the Stollberg district.
The family members brought out
The research project's biography and the West Berlin police report say the man came back with two women and two children; the GDR border police report says two women and one child.
Date of the Federal Court of Justice judgment
The research project's biography and the Federal Constitutional Court date the Federal Court of Justice judgment (5 StR 629/99) to 5 July 2000; the published text on HRRS gives 6 July 2000.
Siegfried Noffke 1939–1962

Where Siegfried Noffke was when the shooting began
The research project's biography and the Stasi's final report say the two tunnel builders had entered the cellar when the shooting began. The survivor, Dieter Hötger, said in 2008 and 2022 that Siegfried Noffke was still half inside the tunnel exit.
When Siegfried Noffke died
Stasi records say Siegfried Noffke was questioned after being shot and died on the way to the prison hospital; the research project's biography reports this with 'is said to'. The survivor, who was himself badly wounded, told a newspaper in 2022 that his friend died instantly.
Length of the tunnel
Stasi files give the finished tunnel as 32 metres long; the Berliner Unterwelten plaque says about 30 metres and a 2022 newspaper report 35 metres.
What became of his body
The research project's 2017 findings say that what became of Siegfried Noffke's body could not be established. The Berliner Unterwelten association's renewed board (2022) states, without citing a source, that the Stasi had his body cremated and that he was not given a grave. The 2009 version of the plaque did not say this.
Whether the cellar door was opened before the shooting
The Stasi's own report of 28 June 1962 and the surviving tunnel builder both describe the cellar door being opened before the shooting, as does the narrative text of the Berliner Unterwelten association's board. A caption on the same board reads a Stasi crime-scene photograph as showing that shots were fired from outside through the cellar door before it had been opened.
Peter Fechter 1944–1962

Where and how he was hit
Accounts differ on how he was hit. The GDR border brigade's report of the same day says he was hit as he jumped at the Wall, slid back and stood behind a buttress before further bursts brought him down; the West Berlin police log says he was hit while climbing over. His companion said he never climbed. The Berlin court in 1997, using the autopsy report, found he was most probably hit by a single bullet while taking cover by the Wall.
His wounds
Press reports in 1962 said he had been hit twice in the lungs and once in the abdomen. The autopsy report that came to light before the 1997 trial, as presented in court, showed a single bullet through the pelvis that tore the main vein and artery.
Whether a warning was given
The research project, citing border troop files, and his companion say the two were fired on without warning. The border brigade's report of 17 August 1962 claims that one post leader called on them to stop and fired a warning burst, while also saying the other post opened fire immediately.
Hans-Dieter Wesa 1943–1962

Where he was when he was discovered
A Stasi report of 24 August 1962 shows that he was already on West Berlin territory when the guard discovered him, and the West Berlin police investigation found that he was shot there. Other GDR military and Stasi reports claimed he was only about to climb the fence; the research project regards this as a concealment of the facts.
Number of shots fired
By the guard's own account in his handwritten report of 23 August 1962, he fired two bursts of about six shots each; the Stasi's information for Erich Honecker of the next day also describes two bursts. The West Berlin police, whose border post heard the shooting, recorded three bursts, about 30 shots in all, both in their radio message of 23 August 1962 and in their monthly report for August 1962. The profile gives the guard's figure and attributes it to him.
Whether he died at once
The research project's biography says he was probably killed on the spot. According to the West Berlin police radio message of 23 August 1962 and the police's monthly report for August 1962, he was still alive when officers reached him, and a doctor at the Jewish Hospital, where the fire brigade took him, found that he had already died. This profile follows the police records.
Ernst Mundt 1921–1962

Where he died
The research project says he was killed instantly. The Stasi's report for Erich Honecker of the next day says the aimed shot to the head seriously wounded him and that he died of the wound in the People's Police Hospital, to which he was taken after being removed from the cemetery by about 2.35 p.m. The panel that stood at the site after the Wall came down said that help from West Berlin could not reach him and that he bled to death; the stele that replaced it says only that he was fatally hit in the head and fell from the wall.
Günter Seling 1940–1962

Whether the shots were fired deliberately
Two surviving GDR reports differ. The 2nd Border Brigade's report to Erich Honecker of 1 October 1962 says a burst of four shots went off as the soldier loaded his weapon. The Berlin city command's report of the previous day says he fired four rounds of continuous fire at a noise, without a challenge or warning shot; in the research project's reading, this suggests that he fired deliberately.
Day of the shooting
The GDR reports date the shooting to about 5 a.m. on 29 September 1962. Der Tagesspiegel of 11 October 1962, relying on the Informationsbüro West, wrote that he was shot in the early hours of Tuesday of the previous week, which would be 2 October.
Horst Plischke 1939–1962

Place of birth
The German biography gives his place of birth as Braunau; the English version of the same biography gives Bernau, apparently a translation error. This profile follows the German original. Which Braunau is meant is not stated.
Otfried Reck 1944–1962

Date of birth
The research project's biography is inconsistent: its header gives 14 December 1944 as his date of birth, while its text says he was born in November 1944. The English version repeats both. The East Berlin People's Police record written on the day of the shooting gives 14 December 1944.
Where the shots struck
The research project's biography says a bullet hit him in the back as he ran away. The East Berlin People's Police record written on the evening of the shooting says he was taken to the People's Police Hospital with two shots in the chest. The post-mortem findings have not been seen.
Günter Wiedenhöft 1942–1962

Date and time of death
He went onto the ice around midnight, so the day of his death cannot be fixed with certainty; the research project says the sources contradict each other on the time. According to a report on the recovery of his body, his wristwatch had stopped at 00:14, which points to 6 December 1962.

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1963 7 people, 18 disagreements

Hans Räwel 1941–1963

Date of the indictment
The research project's biography says in its text that the three former border soldiers were charged in April 1994, but the indictment it cites in its footnote is dated 13 April 1995.
Where he spent New Year's Eve
According to his companion's statement to the police in 1993, as given in the research project's biography, they spent the night at the 'Plänterwald', an entertainment venue in Treptow. His mother's notes, quoted in the same biography, say he was celebrating 'bei Zenner', near the Oberbaum Bridge. The profile follows the companion's statement and also cites his mother's notes.
Where he was spotted
The research project's biography says the boat crew spotted him almost as soon as he entered the water; the Stasi's report of the same day says he was first seen swimming about 50 metres from the East Berlin bank.
Cause of death
The research project's biography says he was fatally hit and sank. The GDR record of the external examination after his body was recovered found a gunshot wound to the neck that 'probably' caused his death. A dpa report on the 1996 verdict says he was hit in the neck and drowned.
Horst Kutscher 1931–1963

What happened when the shots were fired
The Chronik der Mauer, following his companion's statement to the East Berlin People's Police on 15 January 1963, says two shots were suddenly fired while the two men were crawling towards the border and that both threw themselves to the ground. The border-troop and Stasi reports of the same day say the guard leader first fired a warning shot, that the two men then jumped up and ran for the border, and that he then fired an aimed shot. The two reports also differ on whether the men were called on to stop before the warning shot.
Peter Kreitlow 1943–1963

Why the soldiers opened fire
The research project's biography says it remains unclear when the Soviet soldiers spotted the group and why they opened fire about 2,000 metres from the border installations. A Stasi report of 25 January 1963, which also went to Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker, states that the patrol used its weapons because the young people tried to evade arrest. The biography notes that, instead of any inquiry into the soldiers' conduct, the border troop leadership and the Stasi left no doubt in their reports that the shots had been justified.
Who fired and how often he was hit
The research project's biography, citing the Oranienburg People's Police report on the scene, says that the two Soviet soldiers opened fire and that he was hit several times, including in the head. The border troops' report of 24 January 1963 and the Stasi report of the following day both say that one of the soldiers fired two shots; according to the Stasi report, one killed him with a shot to the head and the other slightly wounded one of his companions.
Klaus Schröter 1940–1963

Date of the escape attempt
The research project's biography says he set off before sunrise on the morning of 3 November 1963, although its header and the border regiment's report it cites give 4 November. West Berlin police radio messages and two East German reports, by the city commandant and by the Stasi, all date the shots to about 4 a.m. on 4 November; according to the Stasi report, the death certificate gives 4.30 a.m. on 4 November as the time of death. A 2001 booklet by Saxony-Anhalt's Stasi records commissioner, drawing on the 1994 judgment, has him spend the evening of 3 November with a friend and cut the fence on the morning of 4 November. The profile gives only the date of death.
Whether the guards called on him and fired a warning shot first
The research project, citing the border regiment's report, says the guard in the watchtower and two others opened fire as soon as they saw him dive. The East Berlin city commandant's report to Erich Honecker and a Stasi report both say that he ignored calls to come back or to swim ashore and that the guards opened fire after a warning shot; the commandant's report speaks of aimed shots.
Whether anyone knew of his plans
The research project says no one was let into the details of his preparations. According to the minister who conducted his funeral, as recorded in a 2001 booklet by Saxony-Anhalt's Stasi records commissioner, his mother told him before the funeral that she had known of the preparations, including the diving suit, and that her son had telephoned her on 3 November to hint that he was about to carry out his plan.
Dietmar Schulz 1939–1963

How he came onto the tracks and how he died
An East Berlin army report of 26 November 1963 says that at 9.20 p.m. a man jumped from an S-Bahn train south of Maximilianstrasse while it was moving. The transport police concluded that he had walked from his flat to the embankment and been run over in unexplained circumstances, and recorded a personal accident. His fiancée was convinced he had been shot, and a memorial cross put up by the Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie at the corner of Bernauer Strasse and Gartenstrasse states that he was fired on by border soldiers during an escape attempt in the so-called Nasses Dreieck and died of his injuries; the Berlin prosecutors' review in 1991-92 did not confirm that border soldiers had used violence against him.
Dieter Berger 1939–1963

Who fired
Workers at the West Berlin Eternit plant across the canal saw him shot down by the two guards, according to the West Berlin police record summarised in the research project's biography. In 1995 the Berlin Regional Court did not find it proven that the guard leader had fired or ordered the shooting, and acquitted him.
What happened after he raised his hands
According to a note of the West Berlin police drawing on the reports of Eternit workers, he was led away with his arms raised and shot from behind after about 20 metres. The East Berlin city commandant reported to Erich Honecker that, encouraged by the West Berlin workers shouting across the canal, he lowered his hands, put them in his pockets, stood behind a concrete post and tried to flee into the hinterland. A West Berlin newspaper wrote the next day that the guards shot a fugitive whom they had been driving in front of them with his hands raised.
Time of the incident
The East Berlin city commandant's report gives about 3.10 p.m. for his arrest after a shot was fired. The West Berlin police note gives about 3.35 p.m. for the moment the guards stopped him at the fence, before he was led away and shot. The Telegraf put the shooting shortly after 3.30 p.m. The research project says the guards first saw him at around 3 p.m.
Paul Schultz 1945–1963

Date of birth
The research project's biography and the West Berlin police report of 26 December 1963 give his date of birth as 2 October 1945; a Stasi report of 28 December 1963 gives 22 October 1945. The profile follows the biography.
Warning shot and number of shots
According to his companion, the guards shouted 'Halt' and opened live fire at once. The Stasi's report says a warning shot was fired first, followed by seven pistol shots and five single shots from a submachine gun, from about 40 metres. The West Berlin police reported about eight to ten shots from a submachine gun.
Whether the guards had seen them beforehand
The research project's biography, summarising the GDR files, says a patrol happened to be nearby just as the two entered the border strip. The Stasi's first report says the officer leading the patrol had already seen them watching the border installations and walked on because of passers-by; according to the published edition, this paragraph is struck out in red in the file copy.
Which radio station the family heard
The research project's biography says his mother and brothers heard of his death on RIAS; a Stasi report of 28 December 1963 says a brother told the police he had heard it at 8 p.m. on Sender Freies Berlin.

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1964 5 people, 9 disagreements

Adolf Philipp 1943–1964

Street of the memorial cross
Two parts of the research project's biography disagree: the caption of a 1966 police photo places the memorial cross at Finkenkruger Weg, while the text says the cross was put up where he left his bicycle, and another caption gives that place as the Oberjägerweg in the Spandauer Forst. The two may describe the same spot near a junction; this needs a field check.
Where he was shot
The research project places the shooting between Spandau and Falkenhagen in Nauen district. The Stasi's internal report of 5 May 1964 to the GDR leadership names the Neustaaken section of Nauen district, as the public East German statements did; in May 1964 the West Berlin Senate pointed out that his bicycle had been found about six kilometres from Neu-Staaken. Whether the section name in the internal report refers to the exact spot is not clear.
Norbert Wolscht 1943–1964

Who recovered his body
The Chronik der Mauer says members of Border Regiment 48 pulled his body from the river on the morning of 28 July 1964. The East Berlin city command's daily report for that day, one of the records the Chronik cites, states instead that an angler found the body in the Havel at 11.20 a.m. and that Soviet soldiers who were nearby brought it ashore and handed it over to the Potsdam People's Police.
Hildegard Trabant 1927–1964

Where the bullet struck
The research project's biography says she was shot in the back as she ran away; the border regiment's report written the same evening records the injury as a shot in the abdomen. The two need not be incompatible (a shot entering the back can wound the abdomen); the post-mortem has not been seen.
Occupation
The research project's biography, drawing on Stasi reports, says she held a managerial post in the municipal housing administration in Friedrichshain; the border regiment's report written on the evening of her death gives her occupation as secretary and her workplace as unknown. The profile follows the research project.
Egon Schultz 1943–1964

Number of bullets that hit him
The research project's biography, citing the 1964 autopsy, and Der Spiegel (2017) say ten bullets struck him: one from the escape helper's pistol and nine others, mostly from a Kalashnikov. A 2014 forensic reconstruction reported by Die Welt describes a burst of three and then a burst of five Kalashnikov hits after the pistol shot.
Where the escape helper's bullet struck
The research project's biography and Der Spiegel (2017), both citing the autopsy, say the escape helper's bullet lodged in his lung; Die Welt (2014) says it wounded him in the left shoulder. All agree it was not the fatal wound.
Time and sequence of the shooting
Accounts of the night differ in detail. The research project's biography places the return of the Stasi men with the soldiers at about 0.30 and, following the 1990s investigation, says an escape helper fired first. An announcement by the East German Ministry of National Defence, distributed with an ADN photo, gave the time as about 0.15. The helpers' own open letter of December 1964 speaks of a warning shot followed at once by fire from the uniformed man; a 2014 reconstruction reported by Die Welt has the helper's shot and the order to fire coincide.
Joachim Mehr 1945–1964

Whether the two were still trying to get through the fence when the last shots were fired
The 1994 judgment of the Potsdam Regional Court, as summarised by the research project, found that the two wounded men had agreed to give up and lay caught in the wire when the NCO fired at Joachim Mehr because he moved; the research project also writes that one of the two was signalling to the customs officers that they were wounded and had to abandon the escape when shots were fired again. The two reports dated 3 December 1964 describe the last shots differently: according to the East German border troops, one of the men was trying to crawl on towards the barrier; according to the West Berlin police, relying on what customs officers saw from the western side, a renewed attempt by the two, whom the report took for soldiers in uniform, to crawl under the fence was stopped by a third burst of fire.

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1965 8 people, 26 disagreements

Christian Buttkus 1944–1965

Date the rest of his fiancée's sentence was suspended
The research project's biography dates the suspension of the rest of his fiancée's sentence to 11 November 1965, but its own footnote cites a court decision of 29 November 1967. The 1965 date fits a sentence of one year and eight months begun in March 1965; the footnote date may be a misprint.
Whether the two sentries fired warning shots
The research project's biography, drawing on the 1994 judgment of the Potsdam Regional Court, says the two sentries fired warning shots while the soldiers of the patrol aimed at the couple. The Stasi's final report, written on the day, says that both sentries opened fire on the couple at once and counts their rounds among the 199 fired by all four soldiers. The Stasi's report to Erich Honecker of 8 March 1965 calls the sentries' first bursts of submachine-gun fire warning shots, but then says that they fired at the couple from 80 to 100 metres while the patrol gave chase.
When the couple decided to escape
The research project's biography, drawing on a later Stasi report and on his fiancée's handwritten statement in her court file, says the couple had planned their escape together since their engagement in April 1964 and had built diving equipment for a crossing of the Teltow Canal. According to the Stasi's report to Erich Honecker of 8 March 1965, his fiancée stated that he decided to leave only after his army medical examination on 24 February 1965, that they had agreed nothing about a joint escape, and that he proposed the crossing on the evening of 3 March.
Ulrich Krzemien 1940–1965

Date of death
The death certificate given to his mother dates his death to 25 March 1965, the night the swimmer went under; the autopsy report dates it to 31 March 1965, apparently on information from the Stasi. This profile follows 25 March.
Where and how he died, as told to his sister
According to the East German records, which Berlin investigators accepted in the 1990s, the swimmer drowned in the Spree near the Osthafen and a body carrying his identity card was found between the Brommy and Schilling bridges on 13 April 1965; following the 1965 post-mortem, the investigators found no sign of violence. His sister said in 1990 that a man presenting himself as a GDR prosecutor had told her in 1965 that he was shot near the Massante Bridge and recovered from the Teltow Canal on 15 April.
Peter Hauptmann 1939–1965

Entry wounds
A Stasi report citing medical information says he was hit by six shots, the fatal one in the back, and his widow said doctors confirmed a back wound to her. A report by an army hospital doctor, requested by the Stasi after the widow's complaint, put the entry wounds, in its author's estimation, on the front, but stated that it was not a forensic opinion; the research project regards it as possibly influenced.
First name
The German biography and the headings of both versions call him Peter Hauptmann; the English photo captions call him Hans-Peter Hauptmann. No document in the files consulted confirms the full name.
Which guard fired, and in what situation
The research project, following the border troops' reports and the report of the guard who fired, describes Peter Hauptmann seizing the barrel of the submachine gun of the guard who had ordered him to stop, and that guard firing after a struggle from a few paces away; the investigation discontinued in 1996 accepted that the guard acted in self-defence. One of the two seamen, questioned by the People's Police on the day of the shooting, gave a different account. Asked which guard he thought had fired, he said it was not the guard who had checked their papers and then gone over to Peter Hauptmann, but the second guard, who had been covering the check and was, by his estimate, about six metres from Peter Hauptmann. He said he could not tell what Peter Hauptmann and the guard beside him were doing, and that in his view Peter Hauptmann meant to walk towards the guard rather than get away; by his own account he had been drinking.
Hermann Döbler 1922–1965

Warning shots
The research project writes that the guard opened fire at once. The West Berlin police report of the same day records three warning shots, the Stasi report a warning burst behind the stern, and the findings of the 1993 trial, as quoted by the Federal Court of Justice, a short warning burst behind the stern before the aimed fire.
Where he died
The research project, citing a letter of 2016, says he died in the boat. The West Berlin police report of the same day says he died after admission to the Wannsee hospital, and a 2006 newspaper list gives about 2.45 p.m. there. The editors of the Stasi document edition say he died on the way to hospital, and the findings of the 1993 trial, as quoted by the Federal Court of Justice, say he died before he was admitted.
Offence of conviction
The research project says the guard was convicted of murder in conjunction with attempted murder. A news-agency report of the verdict in November 1993 and the Federal Court of Justice's appeal judgment of 1995 both give manslaughter and attempted manslaughter; the Federal Court of Justice adds that this, not murder, was correct. The conflict is resolved in favour of manslaughter.
Distance of the border line from the barrier
The research project, following Elke Märtens' statement, places the border line 100 metres before the water barrier. A Stasi report on a US patrol boat that crossed at the same spot five days later puts the barrier about 50 metres behind the actual border line and says the line on the water was not marked, apart from a sign on the West Berlin bank.
Age of Elke Märtens
The research project gives his companion's age as 21; a 2006 newspaper list gives 22.
Birthplace spelling
The research project and the West Berlin police report of 1965 give his birthplace as Roderbeck in Pomerania; a 2006 newspaper list spells it Rohrbeck.
Position of the watchtower
The research project places the watchtower on the southern bank of the Teltow Canal. The findings of the 1993 trial, as quoted by the Federal Court of Justice, say the southern half of the canal belonged to West Berlin and the tower stood north of the canal.
How far the boat had crossed the line
The sources differ on how far the boat had gone into East German water. The findings of the 1993 trial, as quoted by the Federal Court of Justice, say about 10 metres when the warning burst was fired and about 5 metres more during the turn; the West Berlin police report says about 30 metres while turning; the Stasi report says about 60 metres.
Elke Märtens' head wound
The research project describes Elke Märtens' wound as a graze to the head. The findings of the 1993 trial, as quoted by the Federal Court of Justice, say destroyed brain tissue had to be removed and that she lost her sense of smell.
Walter Kittel 1942–1965

Date of birth
The research project's header and the memorial stele give his date of birth as 21 November 1942; the text of the same biography and a 2006 newspaper list give 21 May 1942. The Stasi report published in the document edition has the day and month blacked out. The research project calls him 22 at his death, which fits the November date; a 1992 news agency report on the trial calls him 23, which would fit May.
Number of shots and distance
The research project says the commander fired 30 shots at him from about 15 metres. The prosecution's charge, as reported on the first day of the trial in November 1992, also spoke of 30 shots. The findings of the trial court, as set out by the Federal Court of Justice in 1993, are at least three bursts, at least 15 shots, from no more than 20 to 25 metres. A Stasi report of 1965 says that during the whole incident the commander fired about 42 rounds, the lance corporal leading the post 25 and the other soldier three.
Previous conviction
The research project, citing the judgment of the Nauen district court of May 1964, says he was given nine months, suspended, for criminal intoxication combined with slander against the state; the Stasi's report of October 1965 says he had received two years, suspended, for an attempted border breach after 1961.
How the two came to be in the trench
According to the research project, the two had surrendered and come to the patrol path when, after an argument, a guard fired three aimed shots towards their feet, and they then sheltered in the anti-vehicle trench from the guards' continuing fire. The findings set out in the Federal Court of Justice judgment of 1993 say that they gave up after barrage fire, went back into the trench on the order of the post leader, and that the two guards then fired several bursts into the trench 'as a warning', seriously wounding Walter Kittel's companion.
Heinz Cyrus 1936–1965

Whether he jumped or fell
Reports by the border troops and the Stasi dated 10 November 1965 say he jumped, or threw himself, from the fourth-floor hallway window into the courtyard. The Chronik der Mauer says he clung to the gutter and fell, and the memorial stele at Gartenstrasse 85 says he apparently meant to let himself down and lost his hold. The profile therefore leaves open whether he jumped or fell.
Erich Kühn 1903–1965

How the shots were fired
The border troops' report of 26 November 1965 states that he did not stop when challenged or after a warning shot, and that he was trying to escape arrest by fleeing back through the 'Eintracht' allotments when the guard, on his leader's order, fired aimed bursts, six rounds in all. The Chronik der Mauer, citing press reports and the 1995 judgment of the Berlin Regional Court, says the guards could not tell in the dark whether an escapee was there, and that after the platoon leader had ordered them by telephone to act, the guard fired blindly into the bushes. The memorial panel on Kiefholzstrasse also speaks of an attempt to evade arrest.
Heinz Schöneberger 1938–1965

Where he died
The research project says only that he reached West Berlin territory and died soon afterwards from loss of blood. The West Berlin police report of the same night says he died after being admitted to the Am Urban hospital in Kreuzberg; the Stasi's report, citing Western news, says he died on the way to hospital.
How the escape was discovered
According to the research project, the brothers were told to get out, a soldier found Monika P. in the back seat, and Heinz Schöneberger jumped back behind the wheel. The Stasi's first report says he had been told to drive to the bay for an intensive check while his brother stood behind the car, and turned towards the border instead. Western witnesses, as recorded by the West Berlin police, saw the car pull suddenly out of the queue and a man thrown from it.
Return to East Germany in 1961
The research project says he left the transit motorway on 17 October 1961 to fetch his wife from Karl-Marx-Stadt and was arrested before they could prepare an escape. The Stasi's report of December 1965 says he left the GDR illegally in July 1961 and moved back to the GDR eight weeks later.

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1966 9 people, 17 disagreements

Dieter Brandes 1946–1966

Who fired, and from where
According to the research project, which follows a Stasi report, an NCO who was checking on the guards posted there opened fire after a call to halt and a warning shot. According to the West Berlin police report of 10 June 1965, a resident who had watched from his balcony said that evening that, after a challenge and a flare, soldiers on the nearby observation tower, about 100 metres from the fugitive, fired three to five single shots. The report adds that a couple on another balcony confirmed his statements, but does not record what they saw themselves. The man who fired was never identified.
Willi Block 1934–1966

His 1963 sentence
The research project and the Stasi's report of 8 February 1966 say he was sentenced in April 1963 to five years for espionage; a West German telex of 11 February 1966 says three years' penal servitude, imposed, it says, for a border breach.
Why he went back in 1962, and where he was held
The research project says he went back a month after his first escape to fetch his wife and spent six weeks in a re-training and labour camp. A West German telex of February 1966, drawing on a GDR judgment of 1962, says he went back at his father's request and was held for five weeks in the reception home at Blankenfelde.
Distance of the fatal shots
The research project says the regiment commander fired from 15 metres; the Federal Court of Justice's summary of the trial findings gives 15 to 20 metres; the Stasi's report of the next day gives about 30 to 35 metres and says both the commander and the chief of staff fired aimed shots.
Jörg Hartmann 1955–1966

Where Jörg died
The Chronik der Mauer says Jörg died at the scene. The East Berlin city commandant's report written the same night says both boys were taken wounded to the People's Police hospital and that one of them died of his injuries. The memorial database of the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship, in its entry on the memorial on Kiefholzstrasse, says Jörg died of his injuries in hospital. According to the Berliner Zeitung's report on the 1997 trial, the judges could no longer establish exactly what had happened, as reports had been embellished and detailed records were missing.
Number of shots fired
The Chronik der Mauer gives 40 shots fired by the guard later convicted; the Berliner Zeitung's 1997 trial report gives 42; West Berlin customs officers counted about 25 to 30 shots from two watchtowers on the night.
What the family was told
The Chronik der Mauer says the East Berlin public prosecutor's office told Jörg's grandmother he had drowned. According to his teacher, quoted in 1997, she was also told the body had been cremated because of the risk of epidemic; Focus (2001) says the People's Police informed the parents.
Lothar Schleusener 1953–1966

Whether Lothar was fit to be questioned in hospital
The East Berlin city commandant's report of 14 March 1966 says one of the two boys died and the other was fit to be questioned in hospital. The Chronik der Mauer records that Lothar, the boy allegedly fit to be questioned, also died that same night. The memorial database of the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship, in its entry on the memorial on Kiefholzstrasse, says instead that Lothar died at once and that Jörg died of his injuries in hospital.
Number of shots fired
The Chronik der Mauer, drawing on the guard's 1996 statement, gives 40 shots; the Berliner Zeitung's 1997 trial report gives 42; West Berlin customs officers counted about 25 to 30 shots from two watchtowers.
Willi Marzahn 1944–1966

Shot by the guards or suicide
The pathologists first named a long-range Kalashnikov shot as the cause of death; after a second examination requested by the Stasi they assumed a point-blank shot from the Makarov pistol found beside him. Because the scene was not properly examined, the Chronik der Mauer leaves open whether he was shot or took his own life.
Eberhard Schulz 1946–1966

How the fatal shots were fired
According to his fellow escapee, a guard fired from the hip without a challenge or warning shot. The border-troop and Stasi reports of 1966 claim he reached into his jacket pocket and tried to run; the Stasi report of 30 March 1966 adds that the guard leader had first fired a warning shot and then a warning burst, and opened aimed fire when Eberhard Schulz lowered his hands. The Chronik der Mauer considers the guards' version hardly plausible; after 1990 the prosecutors could not resolve the contradiction.
Michael Kollender 1945–1966

Number of shots fired
A Stasi report of 27 April 1966 gives 109 shots, and so does the Chronik der Mauer, which cites the 1995 trial judgment for the figure; the Federal Court of Justice's judgment of 1996 gives 90.
Wounds
The Chronik der Mauer, drawing on his brother's 1979 statement, says he was shot twice through the head and that his mother spoke of more than 40 bullet wounds. A Stasi report of 1966 speaks of a head wound and a calf wound; the Federal Court of Justice describes one fatal shot through the head and two hits to the right leg.
Heinz Schmidt 1919–1966

Shots before he reached the east bank
The research project, drawing on the final report of the West Berlin police and the Berliner Morgenpost, says the guards opened fire after a warning shot and that he swam to the east bank under fire. The West Berlin police's monthly report for August 1966 mentions only several warning shots before he took cover there, and aimed fire when he tried to swim back. The East German city commandant reported to Erich Honecker that he ignored an order to swim to the bank and used a bridge pier to deceive the guards, after which fire was opened.
Karl-Heinz Kube 1949–1966

His condition when the guards recovered him
The border brigade's report of 17 December 1966 says he was found lifeless. His companion, in a handwritten account written in Stasi custody, described him as unconscious and bleeding heavily, carried by two guards and thrown down from a wall.
Aimed fire or warning shots
The border brigade's 1966 report records a burst fired towards the two young men and a renewed burst under which one collapsed. In 1993 the Potsdam court accepted the former guards' claim that they had fired only warning shots.
Where the two set off from
The Chronik der Mauer says the two rode from Ruhlsdorf; according to the border brigade's report of 17 December 1966, based on questioning his companion, they met at the HO restaurant 'Stahnsdorfer Hof' and set off from there.

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1967 2 people, 7 disagreements

Max Sahmland 1929–1967

Whether his mother wanted his body brought to East Berlin
His mother's letters to her sister suggest she was never told that his body could be brought to East Berlin. A note in the East German prosecutor's file, by contrast, gives the impression that she did not want it transferred.
Franciszek Piesik 1942–1967

Year of birth
The Chronik der Mauer and Magdalena Dźwigał's archival study give 23 November 1942; the Chronik notes that some Polish documents of 1967 give 23 November 1943.
What he told his family on leaving Bromberg
According to his relatives, as given by the Chronik der Mauer, he told his wife he was going to visit his sick mother; a note written in December 1967 by an investigating officer of the Polish border troops speaks of a sick father instead.
The bar break-in conviction
The records used by Magdalena Dźwigał and the Chronik der Mauer say he was convicted of breaking into a bar; according to his youngest sister, the family and acquaintances testified at the time that he had not been there and that burglars had used his identity card.
How he left the stolen boat
A Polish border officer, relaying information from an East German colleague, wrote that he jumped from the boat into the water when ordered to stop and left his clothes behind; an East German army report says he reached the marshy headland and left his belongings there.
Whether shots were fired
East German border officials at first told the Polish border troops that shots had been fired, then called this a mistake; an NVA report criticised the guards for not shooting; West Berlin police knew of no firing, and the autopsy found no sign of external force.
Why his body was not taken to Poland
A 2014 newspaper article by the Chronik authors says the Polish authorities refused to bring his body home; Magdalena Dźwigał's archival study says the foreign ministry reported in May 1968 that it could be brought to Poland but his parents, according to his siblings, were never told; a West Berlin police note records that the Polish Military Mission agreed to a welfare burial in West Berlin.

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1968 4 people, 10 disagreements

Herbert Mende 1939–1968

Number of shots
According to the research project's biography, which cites a 1996 decision of the Neuruppin public prosecutor's office, one of the border guards fired two shots at him from 30 metres after a warning shot. The investigation report of the 2nd Border Brigade of the East German Bereitschaftspolizei, dated 9 July 1962, records two warning shots, one from the guard's sub-machine gun and one from a People's Police officer's pistol, followed by one aimed shot by the guard from about 30 metres.
Siegfried Krug 1939–1968

Warning shots before the two other guards arrived
The Stasi report dated the day of the shooting does not mention a warning burst before the two other guards arrived: it says they came running because the incident was watched from the command post, and that warning shots were fired later, by the first guard and the post commander almost simultaneously. For its account the Chronik cites the 1993 judgment. The profile follows the Chronik. According to the MfS report, the guard who fired the fatal burst was the post commander, an NCO, and he fired from about 2 to 3 metres.
Distance at which the guard fired
The research project's biography, based on the 1993 judgment, says the guard fired when he was a few metres away. According to a newspaper report of the trial, the prosecution put the distance at only three metres, while a passer-by quoted in the same newspaper report estimated about ten metres; the Stasi report of 6 July 1968 gives two to three metres.
Horst Körner 1947–1968

Party membership
The Chronik der Mauer and a Stasi report of November 1968 describe him as a member of the SED; the NVA city commandant's report to Erich Honecker of 16 November 1968 lists him as a candidate member.
To whom the farewell note was addressed
The Chronik der Mauer speaks of farewell words to his parents, found in a uniform pocket; the Stasi's report of November 1968 speaks of a text addressed to his mother, found among his papers.
The patrol vehicle's manoeuvre
The Stasi report and the Chronik der Mauer say the patrol vehicle stopped and reversed before he opened fire; the NVA city commandant's report says the driver was ordered to turn, and that the man opened fire once the vehicle's headlights were pointing at the tree.
Place of death in the header
The English Chronik header gives the place as “in the Babelsberg Palace Park, on the outer ring between Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin-Zehlendorf”. The German Chronik refers to the Babelsberg Palace Park and to the outer ring between Klein Glienicke (Potsdam city district) and Berlin-Zehlendorf, as it also does for Rolf Henniger, who died in the same incident.
Rolf Henniger 1941–1968

Date given in the GDR news agency caption
The Chronik der Mauer and the GDR's internal reports date the shooting to the evening of 15 November 1968; a caption issued by the GDR news agency ADN on 21 November 1968 gives 16 November.
The patrol vehicle's manoeuvre
The Chronik der Mauer and the Stasi report say Henniger was ordered to reverse; the NVA city commandant's report says he was ordered to turn, and that the man opened fire once the headlights were pointing at the tree.
Spelling of his surname
The Chronik der Mauer and the GDR's internal reports spell his name Henniger; the 1968 ADN photo caption and Bundesarchiv/Commons file titles spell it Henninger.

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1969 3 people, 5 disagreements

Johannes Lange 1940–1969

How many bullets struck him, and where
The research project's biography, drawing on the 1998 judgment, says five bullets struck him from behind in the head, throat, neck and thigh. The Stasi's final report of May 1969 counts four hits, in the thigh, chest, neck and head.
Who tried to give first aid
The research project's biography calls the man who offered first aid a paramedic from the Mitte hospital; the Stasi's final report describes him as the driver of a Berlin rescue service ambulance who was at the hospital at the time.
Which hospital's nurses' room was hit
The research project's biography places the bullet that fell on a nurses' room table in the East Berlin Mitte hospital. The Stasi report puts that bullet in the hospital's discharge room, and attributes a hit on a nurses' room in West Berlin's Bethanien hospital to West Berlin press reports.
Klaus-Jürgen Kluge 1948–1969

Time of the shooting
The research project's biography, citing a Stasi report of 14 September 1969, says he entered the border area at about 8.40 p.m. A Stasi report of 23 September 1969 gives 8 p.m. as the time he was fatally wounded. The profile follows the biography.
Leo Lis 1924–1969

Why he tried to escape
The research project says his motives are unknown, and the Stasi report dated the day of his death gives the cause of the attempt as unknown. In its introduction to a document from his file, the Stasi Records Archive's online media library (Stasi-Mediathek) states that part of his family already lived in West Germany, that he did not get permission to leave East Germany with his wife and children, and that he therefore decided to try alone first. It does not say which document or account this rests on, and the same introduction gives his age as 43 rather than 45. His motive therefore remains unconfirmed.

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1970 8 people, 14 disagreements

Christel Wehage 1946–1970

Christel Wehage's profession
The research project's biography (Chronik der Mauer), citing a Stasi information of 10 March 1970, calls Christel Wehage a psychotherapist at the district hospital in Wolmirstedt. The Federal Archives' Stasi Records Archive calls her a physiotherapist, and a Stasi informer's report of April 1970 says she had worked in the hospital's massage department.
Christel Wehage's date of birth
The research project's biography gives Christel Wehage's date of birth as 15 December 1946. The Stasi's report to the party leadership written on the day of her death gives 15 June 1946. The profile follows the research project.
Eckhard Wehage 1948–1970

When he signed on as a professional soldier
The research project's biography says Eckhard Wehage was in the navy from 1967 and had signed on for ten years as a professional soldier. A Stasi informer on his boat reported on 10 March 1970 that he had signed on as a professional soldier the previous year. The sources do not explain the difference.
Who offered the landing at Tempelhof
The research project, the Federal Archives and Die Welt (2020) say the stewardess persuaded the couple to accept a landing at Tempelhof; a 1995 Focus report attributes the offer to the captain.
Date of the 1963 juvenile court judgment
The main text of the research project's biography says the youth chamber of the Halberstadt district court sentenced Eckhard Wehage on 18 October 1963, but its footnote cites the judgment as dated 21 October 1963. The profile follows the main text.
Heinz Müller 1943–1970

The shots from the watchtower
According to the research project's biography, which draws on the 1992 judgment of the Berlin Regional Court, a guard in the watchtower at the Schilling Bridge fired two bursts in his direction from about 200 metres. A Stasi report written within hours of the shooting puts the tower about 150 metres from the spot and describes the first burst of three rounds as warning shots, followed by an aimed burst of three rounds.
How he got over the Wall
The research project's biography leaves open whether he climbed or fell over the Wall or was pushed over it by others. A Stasi report written the same morning states that he climbed over the Wall at Köpenicker Strasse at 1:52 a.m., using the platform that stood directly against it.
Willi Born 1950–1970

Date of birth
The sources disagree on his date of birth. The final report of the commander of GDR Border Regiment 36, written on the day of his death, the official 2017 list of the 140 victims and the header of the English biography give 19 July 1950; the header of the German biography gives 29 July 1950. Both biographies say he died on 7 July 1970, three weeks before his 20th birthday, which fits 29 July.
Friedhelm Ehrlich 1950–1970

Whether he was trying to escape
The GDR treated his death as a foiled desertion. His parents and a comrade told police in 1992 that nothing pointed to an escape plan and suspected he had wanted to provoke the guards or had lost his way; the research project of Hans-Hermann Hertle and Maria Nooke counts him among those shot without any intention to escape.
Gerald Thiem 1928–1970

Number of shots fired
An MfS report on the incident of 7 August 1970 states that the guards fired a total of 180 shots. The research project gives the number as 177.
Helmut Kliem 1939–1970

Place name
The header of the English biography gives the place as “Falkenhöhe”; the German original names it Falkenhöh, a locality of Falkensee, which is the form used in this profile.
How the shooting came about
The research project's biography, which for the course of events refers to the findings of the Potsdam Regional Court of 1997, says that the guard at the gate aimed at the motorcycle's tyres and that it is uncertain whether the brothers heard his calls, or a warning shot, over the noise of the engine. The border troops' report written on the day of the shooting, which called the guards' conduct exemplary and proposed a medal for the one who fired, states that the brothers ignored two calls to stop and that, after a warning burst into the air, the guard opened aimed fire on the rider.
When he received medical help
According to his half-brother's statement to the police in 1993, cited in the research project's biography, the two were not treated until an hour after the shooting, once an ambulance had brought them to Staaken Hospital. The border troops' report of 13 November 1970, which times the motorcycle's approach at 3.25 p.m., says the guards gave first aid on the spot, that the regiment's ambulance arrived straight afterwards, and that the hospital was told at 3.47 p.m. to prepare an operation.
Christian Peter Friese 1948–1970

Number of shots fired
An MfS report written on 25 December 1970 lists 80 shots from the alarm group, 16 from the post at Köllnische Heide and 2 from the post pair at Dammweg, 98 in all, the figure the research project's biography gives. The Stasi's later information report no. 1375/70 gives a total of 102 shots, without a breakdown. The profile follows the biography.

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1971 4 people, 10 disagreements

Rolf-Dieter Kabelitz 1951–1971

Which way he was moving when he was shot
According to a Stasi report of 8 January 1971, when he was challenged he tried to push on towards the border and, after a warning burst, went on trying to evade arrest, so a guard was ordered to fire. Questioned by a judge in hospital, he said he had been trying to get out of the border area and was already standing still when the shots were fired. The Chronik der Mauer says he was surrounded over a wide area and was moving away from the border.
Who fired the aimed burst
The Stasi report of 8 January 1971 says the group commander fired a warning burst, after which a guard was ordered to open fire and an aimed burst brought him down. According to the Chronik der Mauer, which draws on the Berlin prosecutors' decision of 1994, the burst at him was fired by a first lieutenant; the other man who fired said he had fired into the air.
Wolfgang Hoffmann 1942–1971

Accident or deliberate leap
The East Berlin police ruled out suicide and recorded a fatal accident, reasoning that he had not realised he was on the second floor and that the tree outside the window had probably seemed to offer a hold. His brother objected that Wolfgang had walked past the building on his way to school for years and may well have known where he was. The Stasi later told his mother an invented story of suicide brought on by gambling debts and drink. The sources do not settle what he intended.
Werner Kühl 1949–1971

When the plan to cross was made
The research project's biography says in its main text that Werner Kühl revealed the plan only at the canal on 24 July, perhaps on the spur of the moment, but its introduction says he proposed crossing the Wall on 19 July. Stasi records of his friend's statements date the proposal to cross near a bridge on the canal to 21 July.
Sequence of the shooting
According to the research project's biography, which draws partly on his friend's account in Die Welt (1 September 1971), his friend was wounded first, and Werner Kühl reached a gate on the East Berlin side unhurt, could not open it, turned back and was hit. A Stasi report to the GDR leadership says Kühl collapsed after the first burst of fire and his friend was hit when he tried to get back to West Berlin; the border troops' report of 25 July 1971 likewise says that one of the two collapsed first and the other then tried again to get across.
How he met his friend
The research project's biography says the two met in a youth welfare hostel in 1968/69; according to the Stasi's record of his friend's statement, they met by chance in a street in Neukölln.
Dieter Beilig 1941–1971

How he came into Stasi hands in 1964
How Dieter Beilig came into Stasi custody in April 1964 is unexplained. At the time it was suspected in West Berlin that he had been abducted; Stasi files claim he went drunk to the Friedrichstrasse crossing on the evening of 29 April 1964 and asked to speak to the Stasi.
His protests in 1962
West Berlin police records cited by the research project show that he was briefly detained in July 1962 for throwing smoke canisters over the Wall. Stasi documents accuse him of seven attacks with home-made explosives in 1962, and a 2003 newspaper report, drawing on Stasi protocols, says a West Berlin juvenile court reportedly sentenced him to three weeks' youth detention. The research project considers that the Stasi files greatly exaggerate his activities.
Where he died
The research project's biography says he probably died on the spot; a man called as a medic testified in 1978 that there was no sign of life when help arrived. A Stasi report says he was taken to the People's Police hospital, where his death was recorded, and the Berliner Zeitung (2003) says he died on the way there.
Whether he was warned before the shot
The research project's biography says he was shot from close range without any warning. The Stasi's report on his arrest and shooting claims that, after he had been caught again on the way to the command post, he was warned that the guards would fire if he tried to escape again. According to the biography, the Stasi afterwards also faked evidence to make the shooting look like self-defence.

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1972 3 people, 4 disagreements

Horst Kullack 1948–1972

Date of the shooting on the memorial cross
The memorial cross on the West Berlin side dates the shooting to 1 January 1972. The border troops' report written the next day and the research project's biography give about 10.30 p.m. on 31 December 1971, and the research project's English caption to its photograph of the inscription gives the correct date as 31 December 1971.
Manfred Weylandt 1942–1972

What his widow was told
According to the research project, which worked from the Stasi's reports, his widow was told on 14 March 1972 only that his body had been recovered from the Spree near the Museum Island and already cremated; the cause of death was not mentioned, and the urn was buried on 21 March. According to the findings of the Berlin Regional Court as restated by the Federal Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights, she was told that he had taken his own life; the European court adds that she was told the urn had already been buried.
When he entered the river
The research project's biography says he was last seen in a Friedrichshain pub at about 10.30 p.m. and was spotted in the river at about 11.30 p.m. The court's findings, as restated by the Federal Constitutional Court, have him entering the Spree unseen at about 10.30 p.m.
Klaus Schulze 1953–1972

How the guards noticed them
The Chronik der Mauer says the two young men set off an alarm, without realising it, when they crossed the signal fence. A Stasi report written two days after the shooting states that the fuses of the signal fence and of the signalling devices there were not in working order, and that the guard pair on the watchtower made out the two as shadows as they approached the fence.

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1973 3 people, 4 disagreements

Volker Frommann 1944–1973

Date of birth
The sources disagree on his date of birth. The official 2017 list of the 140 victims, the headers of both the English and the German biography and the East Berlin People's Police report of 1 March 1973 give 23 April 1944; the text of the German biography gives 24 April 1944.
Horst Einsiedel 1940–1973

His last employer
The research project names his last employer as the state-owned Rationalisierungswerk in Heinersdorf; the Stasi's report of 15 March 1973 gives the VEB Rationalisierungswerk Berlin with an address on Buchholzer Straße in Niederschönhausen. Both may describe the same firm.
Manfred Gertzki 1942–1973

Cause of death: gunshot wounds or drowning
No post-mortem was carried out in 1973. The Berlin Regional Court found in 1997 that it could not be established whether he died of his gunshot wounds or drowned after being pushed into the Spree; the research project describes him as shot and drowned.
How he came to be in the Spree
The Stasi information sent to Erich Honecker three days after the shooting says that a motor boat could not moor because of the strong current, so that the attempts to recover him at first failed, and that the dead man fell into the Spree. According to the research project's biography, a Stasi report written on the day itself records that an officer pushed him into the river to stop him being recovered from the West Berlin side; according to West Berlin eyewitnesses cited there, the boat crew had called out to the officer to throw him into the water. The profile follows the report of 27 April.

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1974 2 people, 5 disagreements

Czesław Jan Kukuczka 1935–1974

Time of the shooting
The Stasi's report says he was put out of action at 3 p.m.; the schoolgirls who saw the shooting, as quoted by Bild on 2 April 1974, put it between 3.10 and 3.20 p.m.
Date of birth
The research project gives 23 July 1935, from his own CV; it notes that some documents, among them a copy of his school certificate, give 25 July 1935.
When the former officer was charged
Hubertus Knabe, reporting from the trial, says the Berlin prosecutors brought the charge in November 2023. Contemporary reports point to October: dpa reported on 12 October 2023 that the prosecutors had announced the charge that Thursday, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance reported it on 13 October 2023 and Rzeczpospolita on 16 October 2023, and PAP later dated it to October.
Johannes Sprenger 1905–1974

His wounds
The research project says he was hit in the head and neck, the two wounds visible on the photographs of the body. The border troops' daily report of 10 May 1974 speaks of shots to the head and chest, and according to the research project the Stasi records and the 2000 judgment of the Berlin Regional Court also mention a chest wound, which the photographs do not show.
Why he was not operated on
According to one Stasi report the doctors in Berlin-Buch decided against surgery because of his age; another Stasi report, based on a conversation with his wife, says he refused an operation himself.

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1975 4 people, 9 disagreements

Herbert Halli 1953–1975

Date of death (falsified record)
He was shot and died on the evening of 3 April 1975. At the Stasi's instigation the death certificate gave 4 April 1975 and an accident as the cause; the false date was later carved on his headstone in Brandenburg-Plaue.
Çetin Mert 1970–1975

How he fell into the water
The research project's biography, drawing on a 2000 newspaper account, says he fell in while trying to fish his ball out of the water with a stick. The Stasi report of 12 May 1975 records the two hidden border-troop observers as saying that one of two children slipped while trying to throw a stick into the water.
Whether he could have been saved
A Stasi report of 12 May 1975 states flatly that the two observing border soldiers had no means of rescuing the child; the Chronik biography quotes this line and notes that they had no means of communication and so reported only much later. The Berlin commissioner for coming to terms with the SED dictatorship writes, citing the Stasi files, that he could probably have been saved: the observers reported only much later and took photographs instead of fetching help.
How the body was returned to the family
The research project's biography says only that the body was handed over to the parents days later. According to his younger brother, interviewed in 2000 and quoted by the taz in 2024, the family had to pay the GDR 10,000 marks to get the body back; none of the other sources consulted mentions a payment.
Number of people at the Turkish community's protest
The research project's biography, citing a Stasi report on the situation at the border on 19 and 20 May 1975, puts the protest by members of West Berlin's Turkish community at about 2,000 people. According to a West Berlin police report of 20 May 1975 cited by Jeffrey Jurgens in the journal TRANSIT, about 700 demonstrators gathered at Hermannplatz on 19 May, and by the time the march reached the Gröbenufer it had grown to about 1,200 people, some 300 of them children.
Herbert Kiebler 1952–1975

Distance from which he was shot
The research project's biography says the two guards opened fire from 100 metres. A border soldier's letter intercepted by the Stasi in July 1975, quoted in the same biography, speaks of 80 metres.
His wounds
The research project's biography says one bullet struck him in the chest and upper arm. The border troops' report of the same night records shots to the head and heart, and a border soldier who saw the body wrote of three shots in the head and two in the upper body.
How the guards drove out
The biography says two guards searched for him in a Trabant jeep; the border troops' report of that night says the deputy platoon leader went out on a motorcycle.
Lothar Hennig 1954–1975

Which bullet hit him
A GDR border troops report of 5 November 1975 states that the guard fired a warning shot followed by an aimed shot. The guard who fired said he had aimed a warning shot at the ground behind Lothar Hennig, and the second guard saw the bullet strike sparks on the pavement. According to the research project's biography, which draws on the 1996 judgment, it could not be established whether the deflected bullet or a second shot hit him; neither the weapon nor the scene was ever forensically examined.

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1977 1 person, 1 disagreement

Dietmar Schwietzer 1958–1977

Where he left his motorcycle
According to the research project's biography, he rode about 100 kilometres to Hennigsdorf, left his motorcycle there and went on by bus. A Stasi report of 16 February 1977 says his motorcycle, jacket, helmet and binocular case were found that evening by a forester's lodge in Schönwalde. The profile follows the biography.

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1979 1 person, 2 disagreements

Vladimir Ivanovich Odintsov 1960–1979

Which way he was running when he was shot
According to the two policemen, he was running towards the F2 road and the border when he was shot. The People's Police crime-scene sketch, as reported in the research project's biography, shows him running back the way he had come.
Distance of the fatal shot
The policeman who fired said he fired the aimed burst from about 15 metres; the People's Police forensic team recorded a distance of 18 metres.

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1980 2 people, 6 disagreements

Ulrich Steinhauer 1956–1980

The junior guard's account of the shooting
Shortly after the shooting, according to a Die Zeit report of November 1980, the junior guard said that his guard leader had not reacted and apparently thought it was a joke, that after two warning shots the fatal shots must have gone off, and that in his panic he had believed he was acting in self-defence. In his later account, summarised by the research project's biography from the 1981 judgment, his guard leader turned round, took his own gun from his shoulder and supposedly aimed at him. The autopsy recorded a graze to the upper abdomen and a fatal shot in the back.
Why the court dropped the murder charge
According to the research project's biography, the youth chamber found it not proven that the fatal shot in the back had been fired first. Der Spiegel (1991) reported the court's reason as doubt over whether the junior guard had fired first at all.
When his last letter arrived
The research project's biography says his last letter reached the family on 7 November, three days after his death; a 2009 rbb television report says it arrived two days after his death.
Marienetta Jirkowsky 1962–1980

Date of the burial
The research project dates the burial of her urn in Spreenhagen to 14 December 1980; the historian Stefan Appelius, in an article quoting a Stasi informant's report on the burial, gives 12 December 1980 at about 1.30 p.m.
Who put up the cross in the West
According to the research project, her two companions put up a cross opposite the crossing point in early February 1981, and an informant removed it. Stefan Appelius writes that the Berliner Bürgerverein put up the memorial cross at the escape site shortly after her death. Both agree that a Stasi informant took the cross to East Berlin.
Where the shots came from
The research project, following the 1995 judgment, describes fire first from a watchtower 160 metres away and then from two soldiers who ran up from a tower 230 metres away. The Stasi's reports of 22 November and 4 December 1980 say the post leader, posted with his partner at the foot of a watchtower, fired on the move from about 70 to 100 metres, joined by the crew of an observation tower about 200 metres away.

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1981 2 people, 3 disagreements

Dr. Johannes Muschol 1949–1981

Distance from the watchtower
The research project's biography, based on the 1996 judgment, says the post leader fired from twelve metres. On the day after the shooting the West Berlin B.Z. reported aimed shots from 15 metres.
Whether he could have been arrested
Internal Stasi reports of 18 March 1981 describe the shooting differently from the court. One, which according to the editors of the Stasi records edition was apparently discarded without being sent, claims the guards were 120 to 150 metres away and could not reach him, and that he died after being carried into the watchtower; another says the shots brought him down from the top of the inner wall. In 1996 the Berlin Regional Court found that he was only a few metres from the man who fired and could easily have been arrested. The profile follows the court.
Hans-Jürgen Starrost 1955–1981

How the shot was fired
Only the accounts of those involved survive. The policeman who fired said the man lunged at him and the shot went off in the scuffle, while admitting he no longer had any reason to use his weapon. The border soldier holding him said the man stopped as soon as he was seized. The Stasi's first report, written on the day of the shooting, says that border soldiers cut off his escape, that he then ran back towards the policeman, who tried to hold him, and that a shot went off from the policeman's pistol in the struggle. The Stasi's own examination found that the pistol could not fire unintentionally if handled correctly; in 1995 the prosecutors nonetheless accepted that the shot was not intended to kill.

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1982 1 person, 1 disagreement

Lothar Fritz Freie 1955–1982

Guard leader's sentence
The research project's German biography says the guard leader was sentenced in 1995 to 'one year and 18 months' on probation, which looks like a typing error; the English version says a year and eight months. The 1995 judgment itself has not been consulted, so this profile gives no figure.

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1983 1 person, 2 disagreements

Silvio Proksch 1962–1983

Time and place of death
The research project's biography says he bled to death in the death strip and could only be pronounced dead when he was brought into the People's Police Hospital at about 9.15 p.m. The border troops' daily report of 27 December 1983 says he died in that hospital at about 8.46 p.m. The Berlin Regional Court in 1994 put the time of death at about 8.45 p.m., shortly after he was taken away, which was about an hour after the shot. Press reports of the 1992 trial say he died during the transport to hospital, one of them citing the prosecutor.
Whether his brother also meant to flee
The research project's biography and the Berlin Regional Court's findings of 1994 say that his brother went with him and tried to talk him out of escaping. An account by one of his sisters, published in 1991 and based on what the brother told the family that night, says the two brothers left home together meaning to flee and that Silvio was the first to climb the wall. The profile follows the court and the research project.

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1984 1 person, 3 disagreements

Michael Schmidt 1964–1984

Distance from the watchtower
The research project gives the distance to the watchtower as about 100 metres, the East German border troops' daily report as 200 metres. The Berlin court found that he climbed the inner wall about 130 metres north of the tower and that the guards fired from about 150 and 110 metres.
How he was moved after being shot
Former East Berlin residents told the police in 1991 that he was dragged by the legs to the patrol path and loaded onto a military vehicle. The Berlin court in 1992 found that he was dragged by the hands to a watchtower under construction and given no help. The border troops' report of 3 December 1984 claimed that first aid had been given.
Arrival at hospital
The times differ between the records. The East German border troops' report puts his removal at 4.11 a.m.; the research project says an ambulance took him to hospital at about 4.25; the Berlin court and the Federal Court of Justice in 1992 found he was admitted shortly before 5.30 and died at 6.20 after an emergency operation had been prepared; the later rulings on the National Defence Council give about 5.15 and say he had already bled to death.

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1986 3 people, 8 disagreements

Manfred Mäder 1948–1986

The escape truck
The research project's biography describes the stolen W 50 truck as having a lifting platform; the Berlin court's 2004 judgment, which the biography cites, describes a closed box body over three metres high, from whose roof Manfred Mäder reached the top of the Wall. This profile follows the judgment.
Where René Gross was when he was hit
According to the research project's biography, which cites a Stasi report of November 1986, René Gross had given up and taken cover under the truck when he was shot in the head. The Berlin court that tried one of the guards in 2004 could not establish where he was when he was hit.
René Gross 1964–1986

Where he was when he was hit
According to the research project's biography, which cites a Stasi report of November 1986, René Gross had given up his escape and taken cover under the truck when he was shot in the head. The Berlin court that tried one of the guards in 2004 could not establish where he was when he was hit.
The escape truck
The research project's biography describes the stolen W 50 truck as having a lifting platform; the Berlin court's 2004 judgment, which the biography cites, describes a closed box body over three metres high. This profile follows the judgment.
Michael Bittner 1961–1986

Type of sentence for the two guards
The research project's biography speaks of youth sentences; the judgment of the Berlin Regional Court of 27 November 1997, though given by its youth chamber, imposed prison sentences of one year and three months on each guard, suspended on probation. One of the two was born in 1956.
Number of hits
The research project's biography says he was hit by two bullets in the back. The 1997 judgment found at least two hits in the right side of his trunk, and records that the regimental doctor counted two or three entry wounds in the back.
Time of death
The 1997 judgment and the research project's biography say the regimental doctor established his death at 1.50 a.m.; the Stasi's report of the same day gives about 1.30 a.m.
What happened to his body
The 1997 judgment found that his body was probably cremated at the Baumschulenweg crematorium but could not establish this with certainty; the research project's biography says his trail is lost after a Stasi vehicle collected the body on 28 November 1986. A privately erected plaque in Mitte says his body was dismembered and burned; no court finding supports this.

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1989 2 people, 10 disagreements

Chris Gueffroy 1968–1989

When and where he died
The Federal Court of Justice found that he died within minutes at the fence, shortly before midnight on 5 February 1989, and that a doctor pronounced him dead at 12.15 a.m.; the Stasi minister told Honecker he died on the way to hospital, and the European Court of Human Rights says he died instantly. The family's death notice and a memorial cross put up in 1989 give 6 February.
The garden colony and the wait
The research project names the garden colony 'Harmonie' and says the two waited over an hour in a tool shed; Roman Grafe's documentation of the trials names it 'Gemütlichkeit III' and speaks of two and a half hours; the Stasi's report of 6 February 1989 names 'Holunderbusch'.
The state visit
The research project says the two friends were mistaken in counting on the Swedish prime minister's visit, because he had already left East Berlin; the Federal Court of Justice, summarising the trial court's findings, records that a foreign state visit had taken place on 5 February 1989.
Mourners at the funeral
The research project speaks of well over a hundred mourners; the West German correspondent Karl-Heinz Baum, who attended, counted 120; the Stasi minister reported about 80 to 100.
How they crossed the inner wall
According to the research project the two crossed the inner wall unseen by giving each other a leg-up; the Stasi's report and, as reported, Christian G.'s testimony speak of a grappling hook; a border troops' report quoted by Der Spiegel says they crossed it without any aids.
Winfried Freudenberg 1956–1989

How high the balloon rose
The research project concludes from the change of wind direction that he rose well above 2,000 metres; Der Tagesspiegel (2014), citing meteorologists, gives over 3,000 metres, and stern (2019) about 5,000 metres.
Why he fell
How he came to fall has never been established. According to the research project, the West Berlin police believed he managed to release gas, the balloon dropped fast and a gust then braked it and threw him from his seat; Der Tagesspiegel (2014) reports investigators' belief that he climbed up to slit the envelope and slipped from the makeshift seat.
The parting at take-off
The research project says the couple, fearing the balloon could not yet carry two, decided he should go alone. The Stasi's report to Honecker says only he was to go and that his wife, afraid, hid and left. Der Spiegel (2001) quotes her later account to a Berlin newspaper: she called to him to go up because the gas was not enough for both of them, he called back that she should come, and she replied that they should both stay.
When the filling began
The research project says he began filling the balloon at around midnight; SPIEGEL Geschichte (2019) says from about 11 p.m., and Der Tagesspiegel (2014) that they had been filling it for almost three hours when the police arrived at about 2 a.m.
Type of balloon
The header of the English version of the research project's biography says he died in a hot-air balloon crash. The German original says only that he crashed in a balloon, and its text makes clear that it was a gas balloon, which he filled with natural gas at a gas control station.

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Why the sources disagree

How the profiles deal with it

The disagreements, person by person

1961 11 people, 36 disagreements

Ida Siekmann 1902–1961

Günter Litfin 1937–1961

Roland Hoff 1934–1961

Rudolf Urban 1914–1961

Olga Segler 1881–1961

Bernd Lünser 1939–1961

Udo Düllick 1936–1961

Werner Probst 1936–1961

Lothar Lehmann 1942–1961

Dieter Wohlfahrt 1941–1961

Ingo Krüger 1940–1961

1962 18 people, 39 disagreements

Heinz Jercha 1934–1962

Philipp Held 1942–1962

Klaus Brueske 1938–1962

Peter Böhme 1942–1962

Horst Frank 1942–1962

Peter Göring 1940–1962

Lutz Haberlandt 1938–1962

Axel Hannemann 1945–1962

Wolfgang Glöde 1949–1962

Reinhold Huhn 1942–1962

Siegfried Noffke 1939–1962

Peter Fechter 1944–1962

Hans-Dieter Wesa 1943–1962

Ernst Mundt 1921–1962

Günter Seling 1940–1962

Horst Plischke 1939–1962

Otfried Reck 1944–1962

Günter Wiedenhöft 1942–1962

1963 7 people, 18 disagreements

Hans Räwel 1941–1963

Horst Kutscher 1931–1963

Peter Kreitlow 1943–1963

Klaus Schröter 1940–1963

Dietmar Schulz 1939–1963

Dieter Berger 1939–1963

Paul Schultz 1945–1963

1964 5 people, 9 disagreements

Adolf Philipp 1943–1964

Norbert Wolscht 1943–1964

Hildegard Trabant 1927–1964

Egon Schultz 1943–1964

Joachim Mehr 1945–1964

1965 8 people, 26 disagreements

Christian Buttkus 1944–1965

Ulrich Krzemien 1940–1965

Peter Hauptmann 1939–1965

Hermann Döbler 1922–1965

Walter Kittel 1942–1965

Heinz Cyrus 1936–1965

Erich Kühn 1903–1965

Heinz Schöneberger 1938–1965

1966 9 people, 17 disagreements

Dieter Brandes 1946–1966

Willi Block 1934–1966

Jörg Hartmann 1955–1966

Lothar Schleusener 1953–1966

Willi Marzahn 1944–1966

Eberhard Schulz 1946–1966

Michael Kollender 1945–1966

Heinz Schmidt 1919–1966

Karl-Heinz Kube 1949–1966

1967 2 people, 7 disagreements

Max Sahmland 1929–1967

Franciszek Piesik 1942–1967

1968 4 people, 10 disagreements

Herbert Mende 1939–1968

Siegfried Krug 1939–1968

Horst Körner 1947–1968

Rolf Henniger 1941–1968

1969 3 people, 5 disagreements

Johannes Lange 1940–1969

Klaus-Jürgen Kluge 1948–1969

Leo Lis 1924–1969