70 years after Jörg's death: Commemoration of a victim of the Wall in Berlin

70 years after Jörg's death: Commemoration of a victim of the Wall in Berlin

On October 24, 2025, the 70th birthday of Jörg Hartmann, one of the youngest victims of the Berlin Wall, will be celebrated. Hartmann, who was shot on March 14, 1966 in the border area between Berlin-Treptow and Berlin-Neukölln, was only 10 years old at the time. His tragic fate casts a lasting shadow over the dark history of the Berlin Wall and the violence it brought with it. Loud Berlin.de He died on the same evening when he and his friend Lothar Schleusener reached the border area near Kiefholzstrasse and the “Sorgenfrei” allotment garden colony.

On the evening of March 14, 1966, 10-year-old Jörg was out with his friend Lothar to get bread rolls. They reach the dangerous border area unnoticed, where they were discovered by border guards. They opened fire without warning the children. Jörg Hartmann was shot immediately, while Lothar Schleusener later died from his injuries in hospital. The GDR government tried to cover up what happened by informing relatives that the children had had an accident. This misinformation was only cleared up years later, after the Wall came down and investigations were launched that revealed the true circumstances, according to this Chronicle of the Wall.

The background to the tragedy

Jörg Hartmann grew up with his grandmother on Schreinerstrasse in Berlin-Friedrichshain. His mother was mentally ill and his father was unknown. Classmates described him as a shy, friendly boy with light blonde hair. The family circumstances were stressful for Jörg and his siblings, which makes the significance of his sudden death all the more tragic. Two weeks after the incident, the grandmother received a false report that Jörg had drowned, which the family did not believe. His body was cremated anonymously and buried in the Baumschulenweg cemetery, as documented in the reports of the shootings at the Wall Wikipedia determines.

In 1997, the border guard who fired the fatal shots was convicted of manslaughter but only received a suspended sentence of 20 months. This verdict caused outrage and made it clear how complex the legal process of dealing with the shootings in the wall was. Regarding the number of fatal shots fired at the Berlin Wall, it is estimated that at least 251 people died during border controls in Berlin, including numerous children. Jörg Hartmann is one of at least 13 child victims who bring with them the cruel legacy of the Wall.

The memorial and the memory

A memorial on Kiefholzstrasse has commemorated the two children who were shot since 1999, and was erected on the initiative of Jörg's former teacher Ursula Mörs. This culture of remembrance is of great importance in order to keep the victims of division and the cruelty of the GDR regime in the collective memory. The memorial stands as a symbol of the grief and loss that remains felt across generations.

Jörg Hartmann would have been 70 years old on October 27, 2025. His short life and the circumstances of his death are a warning example of the brutality that happened to many people during the division of Germany and illustrate the need to continually remember and process this history.