Lothar Lehmann – a young policeman swims from Sacrow

Lothar Lehmann grew up with foster parents in Falkensee, trained as a fitter and was a keen racing cyclist. In September 1961, a few weeks after the Wall was built, he began his military service with the readiness police at Groß Glienicke, which guarded the border between the Potsdam district and West Berlin.

His decision to flee was not spontaneous. At the beginning of November, on leave, he asked his mother for the address of relatives in West Germany and told her they would be surprised when he turned up; when she warned him that people were shot at the border, he said it would work out.

On 26 November 1961 he was working with his unit's boat group, repairing boats on the Havel bank at Sacrow. Towards evening, in an unobserved moment, he entered the river wearing a life jacket to swim to the opposite bank, where the border ran along the middle of the river. The cold water caused a shock and he lost consciousness. Guards pulled him out and took him towards the district hospital in Potsdam, but he died on the way at around 9 p.m.; the post-mortem found indirect drowning caused by cold shock and circulatory collapse.

His parents were told that evening that he had drowned while trying to desert, and were ordered to keep silent; at his funeral in Falkensee only an accident could be mentioned. A friend, Wolfgang S., learned the truth from border officers and, after escaping himself in January 1962, reported it in West Berlin.