Swimming
The Spree, the Teltow Canal, the Havel and Berlin's lakes, crossed by swimmers.
Swimmers crossed from the first day. On 13 August 1961 the East Berlin police counted about eighteen people crossing the Teltow Canal between the Massante and Wrede bridges, some of them on air mattresses, and Manfred Wenzel swam it to Rudow. Eleven days later Günter Litfin was shot in the Humboldthafen, the first refugee killed by aimed fire at the Wall.
Most of the swimming records on this site date from 1961 to 1964, and many of them are deaths. Klaus Schröter sold his television to pay for breathing gear, sewed himself a weighted diving suit, entered the Spree under the Marschallbrücke in November 1963 and was shot; the same month Hubert Hohlbein swam low in a diving suit from near Cecilienhof to the Glienicker Brücke in about 90 minutes. Hartmut Richter spent about four hours in the Teltow Canal in August 1966.
The water border was guarded and fenced as well. From the mid-1960s a boat company of the border troops at Villa Starck patrolled the Jungfernsee, Havel and Griebnitzsee with speedboats,1 and the records mention barbed wire strung under the water: Bernd Lehmann drowned in it 20 metres short of the Flutgraben in 1968. A landscape architect in a diving suit got through a corroded gap in the underwater chain net at Nedlitz in October 1986.
A second cluster comes in 1986 to 1989, and in two of these records a patrol boat followed the swimmers without firing. In September 1986 three young people crossed the barriers in Teltow with a wooden ladder and swam the 40-metre canal; four swam the Spree at the Reichstag in August 1988 with a boat behind them; in September two men swam the Havel with another following. In February 1989 Martin Notev was pulled back by the hair from the West Berlin quay wall by a boat crew.
Sources for this text
- Bootskompanie der DDR-GrenztruppenChronik der Mauer
Checked October 2026. Facts taken from an escape record on this site link to that record, which lists its own sources.
55 events: 25 successful escapes, 3 partly successful escapes, 4 failed attempts and 23 fatal attempts. At least 74 people reached the West in these events.
Related methods: by boat
August 1961
Rita Bergemann and Michael Reck swim the Havel from Sacrow
A good two weeks after the Wall went up, a young Potsdam couple swam roughly 300 metres across the narrowest part of the Havel from Sacrow to Moorlake, just as a patrol boat turned away.
13 August 1961
Manfred Wenzel swims the Teltow Canal on the first evening
On the evening the border was sealed, a father slid into the Teltow Canal at Johannisthal and swam to Rudow with a briefcase in one hand. His wife and children followed a year later in an escape helper's car.
13 August 1961
A young girl undresses and swims the Flutgraben
At about 10 a.m. on 13 August 1961 a young girl undressed to her underwear at the Flutgraben near Lohmühlenstraße, jumped in and swam to West Berlin, where the crowd there 'received' her.
13 August 1961
Three youths swim the Landwehrkanal in their clothes
At 1.30 p.m. on 13 August 1961 three youths swam fully clothed across the Landwehrkanal from Lohmühlenstraße to West Berlin.
13 August 1961
About eighteen people cross the Teltow Canal on the first evening
On 13 August 1961 about eighteen people left East Berlin across the Teltow Canal between the Massante and Wrede bridges. The police saw young people swimming across, some using air mattresses, while about 400 West Berliners gathered on the far bank.
15 August 1961
Married couple swims the Britz canal under police fire
On 15 August 1961 East German police fired at a married couple swimming across the 'Britz Canal'; both escaped the bullets and reached the West Berlin bank exhausted.
16 August 1961
Two men at the Späthbrücke: one swims, one walks over the bridge
At 6.15 p.m. on 16 August 1961 two men went to West Berlin at the Späthbrücke – one swimming, the other on foot over the bridge – without the police on duty there stopping them.
16 August 1961
Three jump from the works yard into the Flutgraben
At 11.05 a.m. on 16 August 1961 three people jumped from the grounds of the OLW works in Treptow into the Flutgraben and reached West Berlin.
17 August 1961
Overboard from an excursion boat at the Schillingbrücke
On the morning of 17 August 1961 a man jumped from an East Berlin passenger boat near the Schillingbrücke and swam to the West Berlin bank.
17 August 1961
Across the Spree behind the Charité
On 17 August 1961 a person swam the Spree from behind the Charité hospital towards West Berlin. The Stasi said the confusing terrain there made the border very hard to secure.
17 August 1961
A swimmer from Stralauer Allee is caught by works guards
In a report at 1.35 a.m. on 17 August 1961 the Friedrichshain police recorded that a man had jumped into the Spree at the level of Stralauer Allee to reach the western side, but had been caught by the works security on the grounds of 'VE BAW Treptow'.
18 August 1961
Pulled out of the Spree at the Osthafen gate
At about 1 a.m. on 18 August 1961 a man jumped into the Spree at the gate of the Osthafen to swim to West Berlin; the works guards pulled him out.
23 August 1961
Horst P. and Wolfgang R. are caught swimming at the Treptower Brücke
Before 4.20 a.m. on 23 August 1961 two men born in 1940 were found swimming in the water at the Treptower Brücke, trying to get to West Berlin, and were arrested.
24 August 1961
Günter Litfin – shot swimming the Humboldthafen
On 24 August 1961 tailor Günter Litfin, born 1937, tried to swim across the Humboldthafen and became the first refugee killed by targeted shots at the Berlin Wall.
26 August 1961
A man and a woman swim the Teltow Canal near the Späthbrücke
At about 4.30 p.m. on 26 August 1961 a woman and a man swam across the Teltow Canal near the Späthbrücke into West Berlin.
29 August 1961
Roland Hoff – shot in the Teltow Canal
Five days after Günter Litfin's death, 27-year-old Roland Hoff jumped into the Teltow Canal with a briefcase under his arm and was killed by border police gunfire.
30 August 1961
Under fire across the Teltow Canal at the Späthbrücke, a day after Roland Hoff
At 7.35 a.m. on 30 August 1961, less than a day after Roland Hoff was shot dead in the Teltow Canal, a guard at the Späthbrücke saw a man swimming the canal; despite warning shots and aimed fire he reached the western bank, probably wounded.
September 1961
Eight people escape over the Flutgraben from the VEB OLW works
According to a Stasi report of 14 September 1961, eight people had fled 'in recent days' from the grounds of VEB OLW in Treptow across the Flutgraben to West Berlin, and two more were arrested trying. The works' building on the channel was itself part of the border.
10 September 1961
A couple from Potsdam swims the Havel with their infant son in a rubber tub
Early on 10 September 1961 a young couple from Potsdam swam across the Havel into West Berlin, pushing their 18-month-old son across the river in a rubber tub, the New York Times reported.
5 October 1961
Udo Düllick – drowned under fire in the Spree
Railway worker Udo Düllick tried to swim the Spree at the Oberbaumbrücke around midnight; chased by gunfire, he drowned just short of the western bank.
14 October 1961
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.
20 November 1961
Swimmers under fire at the Schillingbrücke reach the West Berlin bank
Shortly before 1 a.m. on 20 November 1961 the Spree was swum under fire at the Schillingbrücke. A Stasi report speaks of one man, injured by shots from the water police boat 'Toni 132'; the West Berlin police recorded three men who reached West Berlin, one of them wounded, and the fire brigade took them to hospital.
26 November 1961
Lothar Lehmann – a young policeman swims from Sacrow
A 19-year-old member of the Groß Glienicke readiness police slipped into the Havel at Sacrow wearing a life jacket; the cold water caused a shock and he died after being pulled out by guards.
10 December 1961 – 11 December 1961
Ingo Krüger – a diver's attempt to reach his fiancée
Separated from his West Berlin fiancée by the Wall, a 21-year-old cook and sport diver entered the Spree in diving gear near Friedrichstraße station; he drowned, and she watched from the far bank as a body was pulled from the water.
April 1962
Philipp Held – a West German who could not get back
A 19-year-old from Worms who had moved to the GDR in 1961 tried to return to the West by swimming the Spree; his body was recovered on 22 April 1962.
23 May 1962
Wilfried Tews swims the canal – border guard Peter Göring killed
A 14-year-old schoolboy from Erfurt swam the Berlin-Spandau Ship Canal under heavy fire and reached West Berlin badly wounded; in the exchange of fire with West Berlin police, 21-year-old border guard Peter Göring was killed by a ricochet.
11 June 1962
Erna Kelm – swimming belt under her clothes
On Whit Monday 1962 an angler found the body of 53-year-old Erna Kelm from Sacrow in the Havel; she wore a swimming belt under her clothes and had apparently tried to swim to West Berlin.
8 October 1962
Anton Walzer – shot swimming from a barge
Sixty-year-old Anton Walzer climbed onto a moored barge and jumped into the Spree; a border guard shot him in the back of the head.
19 November 1962
Horst Plischke – missing in the Havel for four months
A 23-year-old from Potsdam went into the Havel north of the Glienicke Bridge before dawn; guards spotted him and fired, and he drowned. His body surfaced four months later.
5 December 1962 – 6 December 1962
Günter Wiedenhöft – through the ice of the Griebnitzsee
Days after being sentenced for a first escape attempt, a 20-year-old electrician tried again across the partly frozen Griebnitzsee; he broke through the ice and drowned.
15 December 1962
Pulled out of the Spree 15 metres from the line
Before dawn on 15 December 1962 border guards on a patrol boat fired about 25 shots at a man of about 45 who was swimming the Spree. They pulled him into the boat 15 metres short of the sector border, and he shouted to West Berlin police that he was wounded.
1 January 1963
Hans Räwel – New Year's morning in the icy Spree
After a New Year's Eve party, baker Hans Räwel, born 1941, swam into the freezing Spree and was shot at close range from a border boat about 35 metres from the western bank.
31 January 1963
Two trainees swim through the ice floes of the Nieder Neuendorfer See
On the night of 31 January 1963 an LEW apprentice and a 20-year-old student on a work placement got through the border fences at Nieder Neuendorf and swam through the ice floes of the lake to Heiligensee in West Berlin.
February 1963 – 1 April 1963
Wolf-Olaf Muszynski drowns in the Spree, presumably while trying to escape
A 16-year-old from Friedrichshain went missing in February 1963; on 1 April his body was found in the Spree on the West Berlin bank near the Oberbaumbrücke. Historians conclude he most likely drowned trying to escape, unseen by the border guards.
26 April 1963
Peter Mädler – 'Don't shoot!' in the Teltow Canal
A 19-year-old electrician swam into the Teltow Canal at Kleinmachnow before dawn; about ten metres from the border he called out 'Don't shoot!' but was shot dead by border guards.
4 November 1963
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.
20 November 1963 – 21 November 1963
Hubert Hohlbein – through the Jungfernsee in a diving suit
Wearing a diving suit and weight belt, 21-year-old Hubert Hohlbein swam low in the water from near Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam to the West Berlin shore by the Glienicker Brücke.
28 July 1964
Norbert Wolscht and Rainer Gneiser – homemade diving gear in the Havel
Two 20-year-old friends from Freiberg in Saxony tried to reach West Berlin underwater through the Havel near Potsdam using self-built breathing equipment; both drowned in the night of 27–28 July 1964.
26 November 1964
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.
27 August 1965 – 28 August 1965
A miner escapes through the Spree at Mühlenstraße
In the night of 27 to 28 August 1965 a 31-year-old miner made his way through ruined buildings in the border strip at Mühlenstraße, entered the Spree and escaped to West Berlin.
26 August 1966 – 27 August 1966
Hartmut Richter swims the Teltow Canal
Eighteen-year-old Hartmut Richter spent about four hours in the Teltow Canal, swimming roughly a kilometre past the border defences to Dreilinden in West Berlin.
27 January 1967
Max Sahmland – shot while swimming the Teltow Canal
Wounded after setting off the alarm at the signal fence, Max Sahmland reached the Teltow Canal and swam for the western bank, but guards kept firing and he sank only metres from safety.
28 May 1968
Bernd Lehmann – caught in underwater barbed wire
Eighteen-year-old Bernd Lehmann entered the Spree near Treptower Park, apparently heading for the Flutgraben, but became entangled in barbed wire strung under the water and drowned.
14 November 1970 – 17 November 1970
Hans-Joachim Zock – a planned swim across the Spree
After years of Stasi suspicion, Hans-Joachim Zock travelled from Halle to East Berlin in November 1970 intending to swim the Spree to the West; he drowned, and his body was found weeks later.
14 February 1972
Manfred Weylandt – shot in the Spree
Stoker Manfred Weylandt crossed the border installations and entered the Spree near the Schillingbrücke late at night; two guards shot him in the head and he drowned.
May 1977 – 27 July 1977
Henri Weise found drowned in the Spree at the Marschallbrücke
A 22-year-old from Thuringia whose applications to leave the GDR had been refused left his father's East Berlin flat on 17 May 1977 and never came back. Two months later his body was found in the Spree water barrier at the Marschallbrücke; he had probably tried to swim to West Berlin.
December 1980 – 9 February 1981
Peter Grohganz drowns in the winter Spree
On 9 February 1981 a GDR border boat found a body caught in a water barrier in the Spree east of the Oberbaumbrücke. It was Peter Grohganz, 32, from Premnitz, who had disappeared in December 1980; earlier that year he had asked to leave the GDR and then withdrawn the request.
August 1986
A teenage couple climbs the Wall with fence boards and swims the Spree
In August 1986 an East Berlin apprentice bricklayer and his 17-year-old girlfriend used parts of a wooden fence to climb the Wall on the eastern bank of the Spree and swam the short distance to West Berlin. The escape was kept secret until September so the route could stay open.
3 September 1986
Sacrower See – one friend makes it, Rainer Liebeke drowns
Rainer Liebeke and his friend Dirk K. tried to swim about 500 metres across the Sacrower See; the friend reached West Berlin, but Liebeke, still recovering from a broken collarbone, drowned.
24 September 1986
Three young people swim the Teltow Canal
Shortly after 2 a.m. three young people used a wooden ladder to scale the barriers in Teltow and swam the 40-metre-wide Teltow Canal to Zehlendorf, helped by a guard's lost magazine.
8 October 1986
A landscape architect dives through the Jungfernsee barrier
A 29-year-old landscape architect in a diving suit slipped through a corroded gap in the underwater barrier at Nedlitz and swam to West Berlin north of the Glienicker Brücke.
21 August 1988
Four swim the Spree by the Reichstag as West Berliners watch
Four East Germans fled through the Spree near the Reichstag in front of many West Berlin onlookers; the crew of the pursuing border patrol boat did not open fire and all four reached the West unhurt.
2 September 1988
Two men swim the Havel with a patrol boat behind them
In the early hours of 2 September 1988 two men swam across the Havel in the north of Berlin and reached West Berlin unhurt, although a GDR border patrol boat chased them.
29 September 1988
A man and a woman swim the Havel to Heiligensee in the dark
Before dawn on 29 September 1988 a 34-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman swam about 450 yards across the Havel from near Nieder Neuendorf to Heiligensee, eluding a GDR patrol boat; a passer-by took them to the nearest police station.
14 February 1989
Martin Notev is dragged back out of the Spree at the West Berlin bank
Martin Notev and two young neighbours smashed through the barriers with a truck and jumped into the Spree near the Reichstag. The neighbours escaped; Notev was pulled back by the hair from the West Berlin quay wall by a GDR patrol boat crew.
