Wall Memorial in the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders Building

Since the Wall was built on August 13, 1961, individuals, private organizations, and public institutions have gathered information about people who lost their lives while attempting to escape. The commendable research conducted by many dedicated individuals forms the basis for the figures listed at the Wall Memorial.

People were killed not only here in Berlin and along the entire inner-German border while attempting to flee, but also many who tried to escape across the Baltic Sea or across borders outside Germany. Others were arrested and executed while preparing their escape or were killed in other ways. Even people who felt safe after fleeing to the West were killed in their supposed safety or forcibly returned to the GDR and killed there. Soldiers of the GDR’s National People’s Army and members of the Soviet Armed Forces also lost their lives while attempting to escape at the Wall.
The cases known and verified to date are listed on the Wall segments in numerical form, sorted by year (as of December 2003).

The Wall segments were secured by Ben Wagin and labeled with the figures. Stephan Braunfels, the architect of the Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus, has arranged the Wall segments to follow the original course of the Wall, which cuts into the architecture like a painful foreign object.

(Source: German Bundestag)