They wanted to escape the GDR by sea – and paid with their lives: The research team ‘Todesfälle bei Fluchtversuchen über die Ostsee’ (Deaths Linked to Escape Attempts across the Baltic Sea) identified 135 escape attempts that ended fatally between 1961 and 1989. Most of the deadly escape attempts took place shortly after the Wall was built in 1961 and 1962. Women accounted for ten percent of the victims; most of the escapees were teenagers and young men between the ages of 16 and 30.
“Since learning about so many harrowing biographies of people who died trying to flee across the Baltic Sea, my view of the Baltic Sea has changed, because I often think about what they must have gone through during their escape,” says Prof. Dr. Hubertus Buchstein. “At the same time, I feel a historical and political responsibility to ensure that the fate of these individuals is not forgotten.”
Merete Peetz, a research assistant on the project, emphasises how important the input from relatives, friends and descendants was for her research: “Their memories were particularly important to us and helped to improve our knowledge of the people behind the escape attempts and rectify false information in the GDR files.” Therefore, Ms. Peetz considers this project to have been about more than just gathering data and presenting figures. She says: “It was also about respect, compassion and achieving a small measure of justice.”
Testimony to the struggle for freedom and state repression
“People who chose the dangerous route across the Baltic Sea to escape from the GDR wanted to be free and determine their own lives. That, and that alone, was their crime. The SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany) caused immeasurable suffering for the refugees and their families,” said State Secretary Susanne Bowen at the book launch in Schwerin. “The research project and the resulting publication trace these personal fates and suffering. And they also document the excessive, authoritarian claim to ownership that the GDR regime had over its people.”
‘Deaths Linked to Escape Attempts across the Baltic Sea’ is one of three sub-projects of the research project ‘Border Regimes: Fatal Escapes from the GDR’, based at the Universities of Berlin, Potsdam, and Greifswald. It was financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Ministry of Science, Culture, Federal and European Affairs of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Further information
Prof. Dr. Buchstein and Merete Peetz will give the celebratory lecture ‘Fatal escapes from the GDR across the Baltic Sea 1961–1989’ (in German) at this year’s Dies academicus:
Thursday, 15 May 2025, 4 p.m., Lecture Hall 2, Ernst-Lohmeyer-Platz 6, 17489 Greifswald
The research results and interviews are available online at:
https://www.eiserner-vorhang.de/projekt/ostsee/index.html [de]
The book is available for purchase in the online shop of the Landeszentrale für politische Bildung MV (State Agency for Political Education Mecklenburg-Vorpommern):
https://www.lpb-mv.de/nc/publikationen/detail/toedliche-ostseefluchten-aus-der-ddr-1961-1989/ [de]
Contact at the University of Greifswald
Prof. Dr. Hubertus Buchstein
Department of Political Science and Communication Science
Field of Political Science
Project ‘Deaths Linked to Escape Attempts across the Baltic Sea’
Ernst-Lohmeyer-Platz 3, 17489 Greifswald
buchsteiuni-greifswaldde
