Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

14 October 1961 · Swimming · The Spree between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain

Werner Probst – shot at the West Berlin ladder

Truck driver Werner Probst swam the Spree at night near the Schillingbrücke and was hit by gunfire as he climbed the ladder on the West Berlin quay wall.

A tall memorial plaque with a list of names of people killed at the Berlin Wall on the Spree.
Memorial plaque on the May-Ayim-Ufer in Kreuzberg, on the Spree near the Oberbaumbrücke, listing people killed at the Wall's water border, including Werner Probst (photographed 2012) Photo: OTFW, Berlin. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Werner Probst, born in Berlin on 18 June 1936, was a driver at a state-owned enterprise and had previously worked for a West Berlin transport company.

On the evening of 14 October 1961 the 25-year-old entered the Spree below the Schillingbrücke. At about 10.20–10.30 p.m. border guards picked him out with a searchlight and, after warning shots, opened fire.

A street in East Berlin in 1990 leading towards the Schillingbrücke, with checkpoint installations ahead.
Köpenicker Straße looking towards the Schillingbrücke on 11 April 1990, when the crossing was still a checkpoint in the months after the Wall opened Photo: Roehrensee. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Already wounded in the thigh and temple, he reached the exit ladder on the western quay wall but was hit again while climbing and fell. According to a GDR report, the water police, who had been alerted, pulled him from the bank and took him by boat to the Oberbaumbrücke; he was already dead.

In May 1995 the Berlin Regional Court convicted three former border guards of joint manslaughter; which of them fired the fatal shot could not be established.

Sources

Western official records

Historians and memorials

Facts checked against the sources: October 2026

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Berlin Experiences, “Werner Probst – shot at the West Berlin ladder”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/werner-probst-schillingbruecke/ (accessed [date]).

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