11 June 1962 · Swimming · Glienicker Brücke and Klein Glienicke
Erna Kelm – swimming belt under her clothes
On Whit Monday 1962 an angler found the body of 53-year-old Erna Kelm from Sacrow in the Havel; she wore a swimming belt under her clothes and had apparently tried to swim to West Berlin.
In the early hours of 11 June 1962 an angler on the West Berlin bank of the Havel saw a woman's body in the water south of Nikolskoe, where the border ran down the middle of the river between Zehlendorf and Sacrow. Police brought her ashore by boat.
An East German identity card hidden in her stocking showed that she was 53-year-old Erna Kelm from Sacrow, born in 1908 in Frankfurt an der Oder. She carried further documents in a plastic bag on her body and wore a swimming belt under her clothes. The West Berlin investigators concluded that she had tried to swim to West Berlin; the post-mortem found that she had drowned.
Erna Kelm, most recently the head of a home, had lived in the West before: in 1947 she went to Lübeck without permission and worked as a nurse, and from 1948 she worked in a refugee children's home in West Berlin. In 1953 she returned to Potsdam, by her own account because she missed her children.
At the request of relatives in Potsdam her body was transferred there. When the West Berlin file was reopened some 30 years later, the original finding was confirmed.
Sources
Whose account is this? Drawn from Western official records, a press report and historical research.
Western official records
- Erna Kelm: Meldung der West-Berliner PolizeiChronik der Mauer (document: Polizeihistorische Sammlung des Polizeipräsidenten in Berlin)
- Erna Kelm: Schlussvermerk der West-Berliner PolizeiChronik der Mauer (document: Polizeihistorische Sammlung des Polizeipräsidenten in Berlin)
Press
- Dokumentation: Sie starben an der Berliner MauerDer Tagesspiegel
Historians and memorials
- Kelm, ErnaChronik der Mauer
- Bericht der West-Berliner Schutzpolizei über die Lage an der Sektor- und Zonengrenze sowie auf S- und Reichsbahngelände für den Monat Juni 1962 [Auszug]Chronik der Mauer (document: Polizeihistorische Sammlung des Polizeipräsidenten in Berlin)
Facts checked against the sources: October 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “Erna Kelm – swimming belt under her clothes”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/erna-kelm-havel-1962/ (accessed [date]).
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