Border Troops of The German Democratic Republic - Casualties

Casualties

29 Grenztruppen died in the line of duty. The first three deaths occurred at the time of the Soviet occupation zone, after the founding of the German Democratic Republic in October 1949 until its end of 1990 were a further 26 border policemen and border soldiers were killed. Of these 29, 20 died on the inner-German border, eight in Berlin at the Wall and one on the border with Czechoslovakia. Concrete information on the individual perpetrators and their motives is not possible in all cases. Known perpetrators were persons attempting to flee to the West (either civilian or military), citizens of West Germany assisting such escapes, or members of either West German police/border guard units or NATO armed forces.

The list of names of the deceased are only occasional light on the cause of death and the actual polluters.

• Paul Sager († 10. November 1948)
• Gerhard Hofert († 3. August 1949)
• Fritz Otto († 1. September 1949)
• Siegfried Apportin († 2. July 1950)
• Herbert Liebs († 21 February 1951)
• Werner Schmidt († 2 March 1951)
• Heinz Janello († 2 March 1951)
• Rudolf Spranger († 7 August 1951)
• Manfred Portwich († 27 October 1951)
• Ulrich Krohn († 16 May 1952)
• Helmut Just († 30 December 1952)
• Waldemar Estel († 3 September 1956)
• Jörgen Schmidtchen († 18 April 1962; army deserter shot dead by two cadets from the flak school at Stahnsdorf.)
• Manfred Weiss († 19 May 1962)
• Peter Göring († 23 May 1962)
• Reinhold Huhn († 18 June 1962)
• Rudi Arnstadt († 14 August 1962)
• Günter Seling († 30 September 1962)
• Siegfried Widera († 8 September 1963; killed by refugees on August 23, 1963)
• unknown Volkspolizei member († 15 September 1964)
• Egon Schultz († 5 October 1964)
• Hans-Adolf Scharf († 10 June 1966)
• Rolf Henniger († 15 November 1968)
• Lutz Meier († 18 January 1972)
• Klaus-Peter Seidel, and Jürgen Lange (both † 19 December 1975; both shot dead by deserting army soldiers Werner Weinhold.
• Ulrich Steinhauer († 4 November 1980; a postal officer from his post deserter killed with a shot in the back. The offender managed to escape, he was convicted in West Berlin in 1981 for manslaughter in a youth custody of 6 years.)
• Klaus-Peter Braun († 1 August 1981)
• Eberhard Knospe († 5 May 1982)
• Uwe Dittmann († 22 March 1985)
• Horst Hnidyk († 3 August 1989)