Following his second escape he lived on the border of Germany and Austria under eight different aliases. From 1960 to 1961 he worked as a warden on a mountain near the river Alm. After 1961, despite poorly forged documents, Burger moved with his wife Elfriede to the city of Essen and began working as a salesman under the name Wilhelm Bauer. After being laid off in 1974 and suffering a heart attack he lived out his days in Essen until his death from natural causes on Christmas Day 1991. His identity was not uncovered until March 1994, more than two years after his death. This was confirmed to the Vienna Simon Wiesenthal Center by the Bavarian Landeskriminalamt.
