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In 28 years, the
Wall claimed at least 239 victims, shot by guards, drowned in the waters
of the Spree or one of the lakes, or killed jumping out of their
houses.
An estimated
10,000 tried to escape to the West. About 5,000 made it. East German
border guards had 'shoot-to-kill' orders to stop defections to West. The
written order, dated October 1, 1973, issued to Stasi secret service
agents, states: “Don’t hesitate to use your weapon even when border
breaches happen with women and children, which traitors have often
exploited in the past.”
A partial list of those who died
trying to escape to West Berlin
- Rudolf Urban, age 47 August 19,1961
Injured after jumping out of a window in the Bernauer Strasse, later died
- Ida Siekmann, age 58 August 22, 1961
Leaped from fourth-floor apartment
- Günter Litfin, age 24 August 22, 1961
Shot swimming across Humbodt Harbor
- Unknown Male August 29,1961 Shot
swimming across Teltow Canal
- Axel Brückner, age 25 September 3, 1961
Shot
- Olga Segler, age 80 September 25, 1961
Died from injuries suffered after jumping to a rescue net from a
third-floor apartment
- Bernd Lünser, age 22 October 4, 1961
Shot while trying to escape on a clothesline strung across the wall.
Jumped from the building at Bernauer
Strasse and was killed.
- Unknown Male October 4, 1961 Beaten to
death on roof, presumed to be accomplice of Bernd Lünser
- Udo Düllick, age 24 October 5,1961
Drowned after being shot while swimming across Spree River
- Unknown Male October 5, 1961 Shot trying
to swim across Spree River
- Unknown Male October 13, 1961 Shot
escaping on a freight train
- Werner Probst, age 25 October 14, 1961
Shot swimming across Spree River
- Unknown Male October 18, 1961 Shot
escaping on a freight train
- Unknown Male October 27, 1961 Shot while
crossing barbed wire
- Unknown Male October 31, 1961 Shot
- Unknown Male November 17, 1961 Drowned
in Spree River
- Lothar Lehmann, age 20 November 17, 1961
Drowned in Havel River
- Dieter Wohlfahrt, age unknown December
6, 1961 Shot
- Ingo Krüger, age 21 December 10, 1961
Drowned in Spree River
- Dorit Schmiel, age 20 February 19, 1962
Shot
- Heinze Jercha, age 27 March 27,1962 Shot
while trying to help others escape by tunnel
- Philipp Held, age 20 April 11, 1962
Drowned in Spree River
- Klaus Brüske, age 23 April 18, 1962
Shot trying to escape in a truck
- Peter Böhme, age 19 April 18, 1962
Shot
- Horst Frank, age 20 April 29, 1962
Shot
- Lutz Hablerland, age 24 May 27, 1962
Shot
- Axel Hannemann, age 17 June 5, 1962 Shot
while trying to swim across Spree River
- Erna Kelm, age 54 June 11, 1962
Drowned in Havel River
- Unknown Male June 22, 1962 Shot
- Siegfried Noffke, age 22 June 28, 1962
Shot in attempt to rescue his family by tunnel
- Unknown Male July 29, 1962 Shot
- Peter Fechter, age 18 August 17, 1962
Shot. Left to bleed to death by East German border guards
- Hans-Dieter Wesa, age 19 August 23, 1962
Shot
- Ernst Mundt, age 41 September 4, 1962
Shot while climbing over the wall
- Unknown Male October 8, 1962 Shot trying
to cross Spree River
- Ottfried Reck, age 18 Late November,
1962 Shot
- Unknown Male Late November, 1962
Shot
- Two Unknown Males December 6, 1962 Shot
and drowned after falling through the ice on Griebnitz Lake
- Hans Raewal, age 21 January 1, 1963 Shot
and drowned swimming across Spree River
- Horst Kutscher, age 32 January 15, 1963
Shot
- Peter Kreitloff, age 20 January 23, 1963
Shot
- Unknown Male January, 1963 Shot by
Soviet Military patrol
-
Wolf-Olaf Muszynski, age 16 April 1, 1963 Found dead in Spree
River
- Unknown Male April 16, 1963 Drowned
trying to cross the Teltow Canal
- Unknown Person April 16, 1963 Drowned in
Spree River
- Unknown Male April 26, 1963 Shot trying
to cross Teltow Canal
- Klaus Schroeter, age 23 November 4, 1963
Shot swimming across Spree River
- Dietmar Schutz, age 24 November 26, 1963
Shot
- Dieter Berger, age 24 December 13, 1963
Shot
- Paul Schultz, age 18 December 25, 1963
Shot
- Adolf Philipp, age 20 May 5, 1964 Shot
- Unknown Male June 22, 1964 Shot
- Hans-Joachim Wolf, age 17 November 26,
1964 Shot swimming across Britzer Zweig Canal
- Unknown Male January 19, 1965 Drowned in
Spree River
-
Christian Buttkus, age 21 March 4, 1965 Shot
- Hermann Döbler, age 42 June 15, 1965
Shot crossing Teltow Canal
- Heinz Sokolowski, age 47 November 25,
1965 Shot
- Heinz Schöneberger, age 27 December 26,
1965 Shot when group attempt to escape by car failed. Three companions
were arrested. Schöneberger was shot as he ran towards West Berlin.
He made it but later died of his wounds
- Willi Block, age 32 February 7, 1966
Shot
- Unknown Male March 19, 1966 Shot
- Michael Kollender, age 21 April 25, 1966
Shot swimming Teltow Canal
- Paul Stretz, age 31 April 29, 1966 Shot
- Heinz Schmidt, age 46 April 29, 1966
Shot
-
Max Willi Sahmland, age 37 January 27, 1967 Shot swimming Teltow
Canal
- Unknown Person November 16, 1968 Killed
in shoot-out while trying to escape
- Werner Kuehl, age 22 July 24, 1971 Shot
- Horst Kullack, age 23 January 1, 1972
Shot
- Klaus Schulze, age 19 March 7, 1972 Shot
- Peter Kreitloff, age 20 January 23, 1973
Shot
-
Manfred Gertzki, age 30 April 27, 1973 Shot
- Burkhard Niehring, age 23 January 5,
1974 A border guard, Niehring was shot when he took another soldier
hostage and tried to escape at Checkpoint Charlie
- Marietta Jirkowski, age 18 November 22,
1980 Shot
- Lothar Freie, age unknown June 4, 1982
Shot
- Unknown Male December 1, 1984 Shot
- Name Withheld November 21, 1986 Shot or
killed in truck attempting to crash through border
- Unknown Male November 24, 1986 Shot
- Lutz Schmidt, age 28 February 12, 1987
Shot
-
Name Withheld August 11, 1987 Shot (Death occurred in 1984 but was not
made public for several years.)
- Chris
Gueffroy, age 20 February 5, 1989
Shot
- Winfried Freundenberg, age
32 March 3, 1989 Died in crash landing of homemade gas balloon
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