Themes · Along the border
Border guards killed
Records in which a GDR border guard died.
7 events: 5 successful escapes, 1 partly successful escape and 1 fatal attempt. At least 67 people reached the West in these events. The records span 1962–1980. Most used methods: guards who fled 3, tunnels 2, swimming 1.
Often together with: Shots fired (6), Children and families (2), Escape helpers (2), Trials after reunification (2)
18 April 1962
Deserting cadets' gunfight at Griebnitzsee
Two armed NVA officer cadets tried to desert to West Berlin across disused S-Bahn land at Griebnitzsee; in the exchange of fire border guard Jörgen Schmidtchen and cadet Peter Böhme were killed, while Wolfgang G. reached the West.
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.
18 June 1962
Rudolf Müller's Tunnel and the Death of Reinhold Huhn
Rudolf Müller brought his wife, two children and sister-in-law through a self-dug tunnel to West Berlin, shooting dead the young border guard Reinhold Huhn when he tried to check their papers.
23 August 1963 – 8 September 1963
Border guard Siegfried Widera fatally injured at the Massante Bridge
Three construction workers overpowered two East German border guards at the Massante Bridge and ran across to West Berlin; guard Siegfried Widera died of a fractured skull two weeks later.
3 October 1964 – 5 October 1964
Tunnel 57
57 East Berliners crawled through a 145-metre tunnel dug by West Berlin students under Bernauer Straße. The escape ended in a shoot-out in which border guard Egon Schultz was killed; records opened after 1990 showed the fatal shots came from a fellow GDR soldier.
15 November 1968
Deserting policeman and border soldier die near Klein Glienicke
A 21-year-old Volkspolizist deserting towards West Berlin opened fire on a border patrol vehicle in Babelsberg Park, killing driver Rolf Henniger, and was himself shot dead by the patrol leader.
4 November 1980
Egon B.'s desertion and the death of Ulrich Steinhauer
Border soldier Egon B. disconnected the border communication system, shot his patrol leader Ulrich Steinhauer and climbed the Wall from the saddle of his service bicycle into Spandau; a West Berlin court later convicted him of manslaughter.
