Deaths among GDR border guards

This article summarizes the deaths among GDR border guards who performed their border service according to orders. GDR border guards who were killed during their own escape (as “deserters” under GDR criminal law) are partly included in the list of those who died at the Berlin Wall .

Memorial (1973–1994) for border guards killed in East Berlin, 1986

Deaths among GDR border guards summarizes the cases of soldiers and officers of the border police , the border troops and the people's police of the GDR who died in the course of their duties .

Circumstances of death

After the establishment of the German Democratic Republic in October 1949 until the end of 1990, the 26 border police officers and border soldiers listed here perished on the inner-German border , on the Berlin Wall and, in one case, on the border with the Czechoslovakia . Most of these GDR border guards were members of the People's Police or the GDR border troops.

They were killed by members of the following groups:

• GDR border guards deserting (seven cases).
• Deserted members of other armed organs of the GDR , d. H. NVA , People's Police , or their predecessor organizations (four cases).
• Deserted members of the group of the Soviet armed forces in Germany (two cases).
• GDR border guards mistakenly or accidentally acting (three cases).
• Refugees from the GDR (three cases).
• Escape helper (one case).
• West Berlin police officers (one case), Federal Border Guard (one case), US soldiers (three cases).
• Unknown perpetrators (two cases).

Without third-party debt:

• By drowning while deserting (one case).

A reliable statement about the individual perpetrators is not possible in all cases.

List of names

Before the Berlin Wall was built (1949–1961)

Memorial stone for Siegfried Apportin

1. Siegfried Apportin († July 2, 1950 in Palingen ), shot dead from his deserted post.
2. Herbert Liebs († February 21, 1951 in Pferdsdorf ), shot by US soldiers.
3. Werner Schmidt and
4. Heinz Janello († March 2, 1951 Obersuhl ), shot by US soldiers.
5. Rudolf Spranger († August 7, 1951), shot by a refugee.
6. Manfred Portwich († October 27, 1951 near Wendehausen ), killed in an exchange of fire with GDR refugees .
7. Ulrich Krohn († May 16, 1952 at Thurow ), as a post leader of his deserting post, first dejected and then shot.
8. Helmut Just († December 30, 1952 in Berlin ), shot by unknown perpetrators.
9. Unnamed "control officer" of the Kasernierter Volkspolizei (KVP), shot accidentally or as a deserter by a post of the KVP on June 20, 1953 in Berlin during an inspection of the Sonnenallee checkpoint .
10. Waldemar Estel († September 3, 1956 near Buttlar ) shot dead by a presumably Spanish citizen whom he had arrested.

During the existence of the Berlin Wall (1961–1989)

11. Jörgen Schmidtchen († April 18, 1962 in Griebnitzsee ), shot by two deserted NVA officer students.
12. Manfred Weiß († May 19, 1962 in Henneberg ), shot dead from his deserted post.
13. Peter Göring († May 23, 1962 in Berlin ) was fatally hit by a ricochet in an exchange of fire with West Berlin police officers.
14. Reinhold Huhn († June 18, 1962 in Berlin ), shot by an escape worker.
15. Rudi Arnstadt († August 14, 1962 in Wiesenfeld ), shot by a BGS officer.
16. Günter Seling († September 30, 1962 in Teltow ), shot by a GDR border soldier who thought he was a refugee.
17. Siegfried Widera († September 8, 1963 in Berlin ), crushed by refugees on August 23, 1963.
18. Egon Schultz († October 5, 1964 in Berlin ), mistakenly shot by a comrade when he discovered tunnel 57 .
19. Siegfried Selke (June 1, 1966), while deserting another sergeant, Selke drowned while swimming through the Wakenitz near Schattin .
20. Rolf Henniger († November 15, 1968 in Klein Glienicke ), shot by the fleeing police officer Horst Körner .
21. Lutz Meier († January 18, 1972 in Schierke ), suicide after a gunshot wound by a fleeing guard.
20. Klaus Peter Seidel and
21. Jürgen Lange († December 19, 1975 in Harras ), both shot by the deserted NVA soldier Werner Weinhold .
22. Holger Weihmann († July 14, 1977 near Gerstungen), shot as a post by his post leader Andreas Fehder, who subsequently fled.
23. Ulrich Steinhauer († November 4, 1980 in Schönwalde ), shot as a post leader from his deserted post.
24. Klaus-Peter Braun († August 1, 1981 in Rustenfelde ), shot dead from his deserted post.
25. Eberhard Knospe († May 5, 1982 in Sommersdorf ), shot as a post leader from his deserted post.
26. Uwe Dittmann († March 22, 1985 in Spichra ), shot by a deserted GSSD soldier who then shot himself on the Werra bridge to Pferdsdorf-Spichra .
27. Horst Hnidyk († August 3, 1989), killed by a deserted GSSD member. Hnidyk was not (anymore) mentioned in the GDR official lists of killed border soldiers.

Appreciation in GDR times

In the GDR, some of the GDR border guards who were killed were posthumously promoted and honored. After them were streets, factories, pioneer camps , barracks; LPGs , PGHs , culture houses, clubhouses, holiday homes and schools named and monuments and plaques put up. After the German reunification, many monuments were demolished and naming was reversed.

More victims

In addition to coming in on duty killed border guards found to turn and peaceful revolution in East Germany many hundreds of East Germans in the autumn of 1989 at republikflucht death, the cause of either shooting by East German border guards and through border security systems ( landmines , self-firing systems, etc.), through accidents (drowning, suffering a fatal heart attack, etc.) or on suicide after discovery. In addition, there were isolated deaths among citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ information on Apportin in research association SED state
2. ^ Information on Liebs in the SED State Research Association
3. ^ Information on Schmidt in the SED State Research Association
4. ^ Information on Janello in the SED State Research Association
5. ^ Information on Spranger in the SED State Research Association
6. ^ Information on Portwich in the SED State Research Association
7. ^ Information on Krohn in the SED State Research Association
8. ↑ Gerhard Sälter, Johanna Dietrich, Fabian Kuhn: The forgotten dead. Fatalities of the GDR border regime in Berlin from division to the building of the Wall (1948–1961) . Ch.links, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86153-933-9 , p. 242.
9. ^ Information on Estel in the SED State Research Association
10. ^ Information on Selke in the SED State Research Association
11. ↑ Weihmann, Holger. December 5, 2014, accessed January 9, 2020 . 
12. ^ Information on Dittmann in the SED State Research Association
13. ^ Family Tree - Anton Web Site - MyHeritage. In: www.myheritage.de. Retrieved June 30, 2016 . 
14. ^ Rüdiger Wenzke : The desertion in the armed forces of the GDR . In: Ulrich Bröckling and Michael Sikora (eds.): Armies and their deserters . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-525-01365-5 , p. 276.