4 November 1963 · Swimming · Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag
Klaus Schröter – homemade diving suit at the Reichstag
Engineer Klaus Schröter sold his television to buy breathing gear, sewed himself a weighted diving suit and tried to cross the Spree underwater near the Reichstag; guards shot him and he drowned.
Klaus Schröter was born on 21 February 1940 in Friedersdorf near Bitterfeld. He had studied electrical engineering, worked at VEB Starkstromanlagenbau in Berlin-Mitte and taught at an adult-education centre in Pankow.
He planned to cross underwater. To pay for the equipment he sold his television set, and he sewed himself a diving suit weighted with lead, with breathing apparatus and compressed-air bottles.
Before sunrise on 4 November 1963 he cycled to the Marschallbrücke, near the sector border, cut through the barbed-wire fence under the bridge and entered the river. A guard on a watchtower at the corner of Reichstagsufer and Ebertstraße spotted him and opened fire, as did two other soldiers.
A grazing shot to the back of the head knocked him unconscious and he drowned. His body was recovered around 7.45 a.m. after a long search, with the fire brigade using a water screen to block Western observers' view. In 1994 one of the guards was convicted of manslaughter. A cross at the White Crosses memorial by the Reichstag commemorates him.
Sources
Whose account is this? Drawn from a Western official record and historical research.
Western official records
- Funksprüche der West-Berliner Polizei zum Fluchtversuch und zur Bergung von Klaus SchröterChronik der Mauer (document: Polizeihistorische Sammlung des Polizeipräsidenten in Berlin)
Historians and memorials
- Schröter, KlausChronik der Mauer
- Gedenkort „Weiße Kreuze“Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Facts checked against the sources: October 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “Klaus Schröter – homemade diving suit at the Reichstag”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/klaus-schroeter-reichstag/ (accessed [date]).
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