Günter Wiedenhöft – through the ice of the Griebnitzsee

Günter Wiedenhöft, born in Berlin in 1942, grew up in a children's home and later with his mother and sister in Treptow, and worked as an electrician. On 11 October 1962 he was arrested in Treptow while scouting the border to Kreuzberg and admitted that he wanted to flee. On 27 November a Treptow court sentenced him to eight months in prison, but he was not taken into custody immediately.

Before he had to begin his sentence, he tried again. On 5 December 1962 he travelled to Potsdam and after dark approached the Griebnitzsee, a lake shared between the Potsdam district and West Berlin's Zehlendorf. Near the banks it was already frozen, though the border troops kept a channel open. He cut through the triple barbed-wire fence at several points and, around midnight, went out onto the ice.

Two guards heard coughing and then the loud cracking of ice. They could not see anyone in the dark, called out, fired a warning shot and, once reinforcements arrived, laid down barrage fire parallel to the bank. The search found only his pliers, coat and scarf on the shore. West Berlin police on the opposite bank also searched without result.

Border soldiers found his body in the Havel at the Babelsberger Enge on 25 March 1963. It had no gunshot wounds; he had broken through the ice and drowned. His mother recognised the coat and scarf left on the bank. His wristwatch had stopped at 0.14, which suggests he died on 6 December 1962.