In October 1961 a young East German man drowned while trying to reach West Berlin by swimming across the river. Shortly after his body recovered, a service and protest meeting was attended by 2,500 people. A few weeks later West Berliners erected a memorial where the man's body had been recovered, and made sure that it could be clearly seen from East Berlin.

By the time the memorial was erected, authorities had determined that the refugee's name was Udo Düllick, but they withheld the information at the request of his family, who feared repercussions by the East German state.

The memorial in 1963.

Close-up of the memorial stone as it looks today.

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This page was last updated on 04/12/2017.