Themes · Surveillance and aftermath
Memorials and remembrance
Records linked to a memorial, museum or later research, and records marked as the first or last death at the Wall.
9 events: 3 successful escapes, 1 failed attempt and 5 fatal attempts. At least 15 people reached the West in these events. The records span 1961–1989. Most used methods: swimming 3, tunnels 2, window jumps 1.
Often together with: Shots fired (3), Trials after reunification (3), Escape helpers (2)
22 August 1961
Ida Siekmann, first death at the Berlin Wall
Nine days after the border was sealed, 58-year-old Ida Siekmann jumped from her third-floor window onto the West Berlin pavement and died of her injuries.
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.
10 March 1963
The Aagaard Tunnel
A family in Glienicke spent five months digging a 50-metre tunnel by hand from their living room, hiding the sand inside their house, before 13 people crawled to West Berlin.
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.
23 May 1964
Smuggled out in a BMW Isetta
Klaus-Günter Jacobi hid his friend Manfred Koster in a modified BMW Isetta, the smallest car ever used for an escape; a student friend drove it across the border into West Berlin.
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.
February 1971
Tunnel 71 – The Last Tunnel under Bernauer Straße
Hasso Herschel's team lived underground for nine weeks digging a tunnel beneath Bernauer Straße, but came within ten metres of their goal before GDR border troops dug it up.
5 February 1989
Chris Gueffroy, the last escaper shot dead at the Wall
Chris Gueffroy, 20, and his friend Christian Gaudian tried to climb the border fences at the Britzer Zweigkanal, believing the order to shoot had been lifted; Gueffroy was shot through the heart and Gaudian was wounded and arrested.
8 March 1989
Winfried Freudenberg's fatal gas balloon flight
The last refugee to die at the Berlin Wall, as the Chronik der Mauer counts it: Winfried Freudenberg crossed into West Berlin in a home-made natural-gas balloon but was killed when it came down in Zehlendorf.
