Günter Litfin – shot swimming the Humboldthafen

Günter Litfin was born in Berlin-Weißensee on 19 January 1937. A tailor, he had worked at a bespoke tailoring studio in West Berlin and hoped to become a theatre costume designer; the closure of the sector border on 13 August 1961 cut him off from his job.

Shortly after 4 p.m. on 24 August 1961 he reached the bank of the Humboldthafen from the Charité grounds, in the area between Friedrichstraße and Lehrter stations. East Berlin transport police spotted him, shouted warnings and fired warning shots. Litfin jumped into the harbour basin and began to swim towards the West Berlin shore.

Police on the railway bridge opened fire. When he had almost reached the western bank he was hit in the back of the head and sank. East Berlin firefighters recovered his body about three hours later.

His younger brother Jürgen was arrested the following day and interrogated for one night, and later worked to preserve Günter's memory. On his initiative a former border command post on the Spandau Ship Canal became a memorial site, which has belonged to the Berlin Wall Foundation since 2017. A street in Weißensee was named after Günter Litfin in 2000, and a memorial stone on the Kapelle-Ufer, near where he tried to escape, recalls him.

After reunification two of the men who fired were convicted of manslaughter in 1997 and received suspended sentences.