 The first three deaths occurred at the time of the Soviet occupation zone, after the founding of the German Democratic Republic in October 1949 until its end of 1990 were a further 26 border policemen and border soldiers were killed.Of these 29, 20 died on the inner German border, eight at the Berlin Wall, and one on the border with Czechoslovakia.A 2017 study by the Free University of Berlin recorded 24 border guards being killed