Hans-Joachim Wolf shot in the Britzer Zweigkanal
Seventeen-year-old apprentice Hans-Joachim Wolf jumped into the ice-cold Britzer Zweigkanal; guards fired 61 shots without warning and ignored his calls to stop.
Hans-Joachim Wolf, born on 8 August 1947, lived with his parents in Friedrichshain and had begun an apprenticeship at the Köpenick cable works. According to his mother he had been denied the apprenticeship he wanted because he was not active in the state youth organisations. His sister had fled to West Berlin in 1961. A first attempt by train in December 1963 had ended at Friedrichstraße station.
On 25 November 1964 he skipped vocational school and took a room at the Hotel Adlon near the Brandenburg Gate, carrying a rope, apparently planning to lower himself over the border. The next day he abandoned that plan and left his bag in a locker at Alexanderplatz.
That evening he crossed the 'Silberlinde' allotments from Baumschulenstraße, climbed the 2.5-metre barbed-wire fence on the southern bank of the Britzer Zweigkanal east of the Heidekampgraben and, at 6.30 p.m., in darkness and four degrees of air temperature, jumped into the canal.
Guards nearby opened fire without warning. He called out for them to stop shooting, but they ignored him. Of 61 shots, one struck him fatally in the chest. The West Berlin police closed the nearby Sonnenallee crossing for half an hour because of the heavy fire.
His parents were told he had drowned; his father found blood on the watch returned to them. In 1996 one former guard received a suspended sentence for manslaughter.
Sources
Whose account is this? Drawn from a press report and historical research.
Press
- Dokumentation: Sie starben an der Berliner MauerDer Tagesspiegel
Historians and memorials
- Wolf, Hans-JoachimChronik der Mauer
Facts checked against the sources: September 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “Hans-Joachim Wolf shot in the Britzer Zweigkanal”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/hans-joachim-wolf-britzer-zweigkanal-1964/ (accessed [date]).
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