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RESEARCHED WALL RECORD

Günter Litfin Memorial, Kieler Straße

Berlin, Germany

52.534° N / 13.369° E
This record was researched and written for this atlas rather than taken from a source inventory, which is why it carries no listing reference. Every claim on it rests on the sources below. Nobody has confirmed it in person, so current condition and access may have changed. How the catalogue is built ↗
MemorialReportedOutdoor
A square concrete border watchtower standing among trees beside a canal.
The former command tower at Kieler Straße, now the Günter Litfin Memorial. · Photograph: Singlespeedfahrer, CC0 — source

The record

A surviving GDR command tower on the Spandau ship canal, for one of the first people shot at the border.

A former GDR border command tower standing by the Spandau ship canal, kept as a memorial to Günter Litfin, shot in the Humboldthafen on 24 August 1961 — eleven days after the border was closed, and among the first people killed trying to cross. The tower is one of very few left: the watchtowers were demolished faster and more completely than the wall itself, which is why a piece of concrete is easy to find in this catalogue and a tower is not.

After reunification Günter Litfin's brother Jürgen turned the tower into a memorial to him, and in 2017 the Berlin Wall Foundation took it over. The Foundation lists the building in its directory of surviving traces as MAU-002, the command post on the Spandau ship canal. Two elements of the hinterland wall survive around the corner on Kieler Straße, kept when the street was rebuilt and now overgrown as a garden wall (MAU-038).

How did it get here?

Original structure in place. The memorial was established by Litfin's brother Jürgen and is now run by the Berlin Wall Foundation.

Sources & verification

Sites — Stiftung Berliner Mauer (Berlin Wall Foundation) ↗
The Foundation's own listing of the sites it runs and documents, with addresses and what survives at each.
Source accessed 2026-09-17

MAU-002 Führungsstelle Kieler Eck — MAUERSPUREN, Stiftung Berliner Mauer ↗
The command post on the Spandau ship canal at Kieler Straße, converted after reunification by Jürgen Litfin, brother of the first person shot at the Wall, into the Günter Litfin memorial, and taken over by the Berlin Wall Foundation in 2017; catalogued as MAU-002.
Source accessed 2026-09-17

MAU-038 Hinterlandmauer Kieler Straße — MAUERSPUREN, Stiftung Berliner Mauer ↗
Two concrete elements of the hinterland wall kept during the rebuilding of Kieler Straße, now forming an overgrown property wall; catalogued as MAU-038.
Source accessed 2026-09-17

Last verified: Not yet verified

Our sourcing standards

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On the map

Source-reported position. This marker may identify a general area; it is not confirmed visitor guidance.

Another record in Berlin

AlliiertenMuseum, ClayalleeGeorge Wyllie's Berlin Burd, Wilhelmsruher DammMauerelement am Rathaus Treptow