All escapes
267 events from August 1961 to 1989, in date order. Filter the list and the map together.
267 of 267 escapes
The Wall, as surveyed in April 1989 Dashed pin border: location approximate
13 August 1961
Through the graveyard and the church door: Hildegard K. and her son
On the night the border closed, a radio singer and her eldest son crept through back yards and the Elisabeth cemetery to the Reconciliation Church, whose door to West Berlin was still open.
13 August 1961
A VW Beetle races through the barbed wire at Ackerstraße
On the day the border was sealed, a Beetle from East Berlin drove at full speed through the single roll of barbed wire across Ackerstraße.
15 August 1961
Conrad Schumann's leap to freedom
Two days after the border was sealed, 19-year-old border policeman Conrad Schumann jumped over the barbed-wire barrier at Bernauer Straße into West Berlin, dropping his submachine gun as he went.
16 August 1961
Two policemen vanish from the Kobold works
The day after Conrad Schumann's jump, two young Volkspolizei officers said to be his friends disappeared from their post on the Kobold works site at Bernauer Straße and reached West Berlin.
17 August 1961
The Mathern family leaves by the ground floor
Alarmed when the first front doors on Bernauer Straße were locked, the Mathern family fled from their ground-floor flat on 17 August 1961.
17 August 1961
Three young men crash a truck through the new wall at Ruppiner Straße
Late on 17 August 1961 three young men drove a truck through the freshly completed wall; the guards fired, but no one was hurt.
18 August 1961
Two 'postal workers' cycle to the West
Five days after the border was sealed, two men in postal service uniforms told the guards at the Brunnenstraße crossing they had to check cable lines at the border, were let through, and simply cycled into West Berlin.
19 August 1961
Rudolf Urban's rope descent from Bernauer Straße 1
Rudolf Urban and his wife let themselves down on a rope from their first-floor flat; he was badly injured and died in hospital four weeks later.
22 August 1961
Ida Siekmann, first death at the Berlin Wall
Nine days after the border was sealed, the 58-year-old nurse jumped from her third-floor window onto the West Berlin pavement and died of her injuries.
22 August 1961
A pretend visitor jumps from Bernauer Straße 7
Claiming to be visiting someone, a young woman talked her way past the rear guard posts, then jumped from a first-floor window two hours later.
23 August 1961
A house painter sprints from the doorway and jumps the Wall
Renovation work in the border houses carried on after 13 August; a painter working at Brunnenstraße 139 ran from the doorway and jumped the Wall four metres away.
24 August 1961
Parents and 14-year-old daughter rope down from Bernauer Straße 10
Probably on 24 August 1961 a married couple and their 14-year-old daughter let themselves down on a rope from a first-floor window.
24 August 1961
Max W.'s rope breaks at Bernauer Straße 24
Max W. let himself down from his first-floor flat; the rope snapped and he fell to the pavement, where West Berlin police picked him up.
24 August 1961
Günter Litfin – shot swimming the Humboldthafen
Eleven days after the border was sealed, 24-year-old tailor Günter Litfin tried to swim across the Humboldthafen and became the first refugee killed by targeted shots at the Berlin Wall.
26 August 1961
A woman jumps from the first floor of Bernauer Straße 2
On 26 August 1961 a woman jumped from a first-floor window of Bernauer Straße 2; she was hurt and taken to safety by West Berlin police.
28 August 1961
Dieter R. jumps from Bruno P.'s empty flat
Unseen by the guards, Dieter R. got into the flat of Bruno P. – who, investigators found, had already fled – and jumped from a second-floor window.
29 August 1961
Roland Hoff – shot in the Teltow Canal
Five days after Günter Litfin's death, 27-year-old Roland Hoff jumped into the Teltow Canal with a briefcase under his arm and was killed by border police gunfire.
30 August 1961
Two rope escapes in one night from Bernauer Straße 2
At 1.30 a.m. a tenant and two friends roped down from Bernauer Straße 2; at about 4 a.m. five more people fled through a window of the same house.
3 September 1961
Ulla D. and Hans K. break into an empty flat and jump
Using a pretext to get through the checks, the pair broke into the flat of a family who had already fled and jumped from its window.
5 September 1961
Karl-Heinz S. climbs down a fire brigade ladder while police hold the guards at bay
At 3 a.m. West Berlin police drew pistols and dazzled the guards with mirrors while the fire brigade set a ladder against the corner house for four escapees.
6 September 1961
Günter Tr. climbs the Wall with a company ladder
An employee of the Murante firm in the border zone went to work as usual and then, with a woman smuggled in by a colleague, climbed the Wall on a company ladder; the colleague was arrested.
8 September 1961
A young man dashes from a bakery while a photographer distracts the guards
While sentries were checking the papers of an East Berlin magazine photographer, a young man stepped out of a bakery by the Wall and climbed over.
11 September 1961
69-year-old Ella K. escapes with the fire brigade's help
Shortly after midnight the West Berlin fire brigade helped 69-year-old Ella K. out of her first-floor flat; the guards noticed only when she was already safe.
12 September 1961
Down a telephone cable from Bernauer Straße 47
An unknown man broke into the Sch. family's first-floor flat and let himself down from the window on a telephone cable.
13 September 1961
Fire-net escapes at Harzer Straße, Treptow
Two men escaped from Harzer Straße 109 into a fire brigade net, but two hours later East Berlin police used a water cannon and tear gas to stop two women jumping from No. 117.
17 September 1961
Three people rope down from the corner house Brunnenstraße 138
On the evening of 17 September 1961 three people let themselves down on a rope from the corner house at Brunnenstraße 138.
19 September 1961
Heavily pregnant Helga Knittel jumps first
The Knittel family called the West Berlin fire brigade, then jumped one after another from their second-floor window into its net: first the heavily pregnant mother, then the daughter, then the father.
19 September 1961
Five escapees rope down from the roof of Bernauer Straße 43
Four men and a woman crossed the rooftops, tied a rope to a chimney and let themselves down to the western pavement; the woman fell from the third-floor level and was badly hurt, and another woman was caught in the attic.
19 September 1961
Three generations jump into the net at Bernauer Straße 10
At about 11.30 p.m. Mrs K., her daughter-in-law and her grandson Detlef jumped from the second floor into a West Berlin fire brigade net.
19 September 1961
A young man misses the window frame and falls three storeys
Discovered on a roof by the border, a young man swung over the edge, missed his foothold and fell three floors; West Berlin paramedics picked him up with several broken bones.
19 September 1961
Erich B.'s family jumps from Bernauer Straße 42
A family of five from Swinemünder Straße 23 jumped from the first floor of the neighbouring house into a fire brigade net; the father broke his thigh.
20 September 1961
Five fire engines for two jumpers at Bernauer Straße 10
Just after midnight guards watched five fire engines take up position with jumping sheets; shortly afterwards two people jumped.
22 September 1961
Family F. jumps under fire from the third floor
While a border policeman fired a warning shot and West Berlin police answered with tear gas, a mother jumped into the fire brigade's net; her husband threw down their five-year-old son and then jumped himself.
22 September 1961
Truck driver Heinz K. over the glass-topped wall
A driver for the Murante firm, which lay inside the border area, hid his truck between site huts and climbed a five-metre wall topped with broken glass.
22 September 1961
Selma P. and her son Peter W. jump from the third floor
After warning relatives in the West, mother and son barricaded their door and waited for the fire brigade; both jumped into the net before the guards could break in.
23 September 1961 – 30 September 1961
Horst K. jumps, and a week later his wife follows with their baby
After a row with a party secretary, Horst K. jumped into a fire brigade net from a friend's lower flat; a week later his wife and five-month-old child escaped from the same flat.
23 September 1961
Irma B. barricades her door and climbs down a fire brigade ladder
At 2 a.m. Irma B. barricaded her flat door, and the West Berlin fire brigade set a ladder against the house for her.
23 September 1961 – 24 September 1961
Two night-time jumps from the second floor of Bernauer Straße 16
On two consecutive days in September 1961 an unknown man jumped from a second-floor window of Bernauer Straße 16 into the West.
24 September 1961
Frieda Schulze's tug-of-war at the window
As forced evictions began, a 77-year-old widow climbed onto her window ledge while East Berlin police tried to pull her back and West Berliners tried to help her down; she fell into the fire brigade's net.
24 September 1961
Evacuation-squad member jumps from Bernauer Straße 6
A doctoral candidate who had been sent with a militia unit to clear the border houses used a moment when a guard stepped away to jump from a first-floor balcony door into the West.
24 September 1961
Marianne S. flees as the eviction squads arrive
On the morning the forced evictions began, Marianne S. roped down from a window on a washing line and fell five metres; her disabled partner was left behind.
25 September 1961
Olga Segler's jump into the fire brigade net
Encouraged by her daughter waiting below, 80-year-old Olga Segler jumped from her second-floor window into a fire brigade net. She died the next day.
25 September 1961
Rudolf B., his wife and son rope down from Bernauer Straße 5
A family let themselves down on a rope from their second-floor flat; the guards only noticed when a crowd gathered and the fire brigade arrived.
27 September 1961
Anni M.'s rope tied round the sofa
Returning from holiday to find the border houses being cleared, Anni M. roped down the same evening with her valuables; guards found only a rope wound round the sofa.
29 September 1961
Gerhard D.'s family escapes through a bricked-up cellar window
A neighbour reported West Berlin police loading things into a car; East Berlin police found the family's walled-up cellar window broken open and the four of them gone.
29 September 1961
The couple who came to rent a cellar
A woman and a man posing as would-be tenants of an 89-year-old's cellar ran straight to her window and jumped.
4 October 1961
Bernd Lünser's fatal rooftop jump
Chased across the rooftops by border guards, 22-year-old student Bernd Lünser jumped from the roof of Bernauer Straße 44 and missed the fire brigade net by a few metres.
4 October 1961
Three men try to escape through the sewer under Ackerstraße
Border policemen arrested three men who had already opened a manhole cover on Ackerstraße; two of them were already inside the sewer.
5 October 1961
Udo Düllick – drowned under fire in the Spree
Railway worker Udo Düllick tried to swim the Spree at the Oberbaumbrücke around midnight; chased by gunfire, he drowned just short of the western bank.
6 October 1961
Sewer escape helper Carl-August von Halle walks into a Stasi trap
A West Berlin architecture student who had helped East Germans escape through the sewers was lured into a trap by a Stasi informer and arrested at Friedrichstraße station.
14 October 1961
Werner Probst – shot at the West Berlin ladder
Truck driver Werner Probst swam the Spree at night near the Schillingbrücke and was hit by gunfire as he climbed the ladder on the West Berlin quay wall.
15 October 1961
The rope snaps at Ackerstraße 43
A man lowering himself from a second-floor staircase window fell when his rope broke; passers-by carried him across the street.
16 October 1961
Family D. jumps onto a truck's tarpaulin
A long-planned escape: at 12.30 a truck pulled up and a couple, their 15-year-old son and a friendly couple jumped onto its canvas cover.
17 October 1961
Removal worker jumps onto a waiting truck
A removal worker clearing flats under police guard slipped into a front room, signalled West Berlin police to bring a truck under the window and jumped onto it.
18 October 1961
Bricklayer Norbert Raasch jumps while walling up windows
Sent to brick up the windows of Bernauer Straße 44 under guard, construction worker Norbert Raasch waited for an unwatched moment and jumped to his fiancée in the West.
21 October 1961
Hasso Herschel leaves on a Swiss passport
Weeks after the Wall went up, the later tunnel builder Hasso Herschel left East Berlin on someone else's Swiss passport and immediately began looking for a way to get his sister out.
22 October 1961
Dog handler Werner K. slips away over the cemetery wall
While training his successor as a dog handler in the Sophien cemetery, Private Werner K. made an excuse to leave his comrade and disappeared over the wall.
23 October 1961
Border policeman Lutz M. jumps from Bernauer Straße 2
A border policeman who found the prospect of shooting at refugees unbearable slipped away from his post, broke into an evacuated flat at Bernauer Straße 2 and jumped to the western pavement.
27 October 1961
Over the roofs from Ackerstraße 41 with a washing line
Two men climbed across the roofs, let themselves down on a washing line to the roof of the corner house and waited for morning; one jumped into a fire brigade net, the other was never noticed.
4 November 1961
Günter A. climbs the Wall under machine-pistol fire
Seeing three guards chatting 40 metres from the Wall, Günter A. sprinted from the Kobold works to the Wall at Brunnenstraße; possibly hit by a burst of fire, he fell back, got up, climbed again and dropped into the West.
14 November 1961
Armoured pre-war Opel at Chausseestraße
Five East Berliners drove an armoured pre-war Opel P4 through the Chausseestraße crossing under heavy fire and reached West Berlin unhurt.
22 November 1961
Bernd Sp. leaves only his briefcase behind
Unseen by the guards, Bernd Sp. came from the Kobold works, used a door propped against a yard wall and climbed the Wall; his forgotten briefcase gave him away the next morning.
26 November 1961
Lothar Lehmann – a young policeman swims from Sacrow
A 19-year-old member of the Groß Glienicke readiness police slipped into the Havel at Sacrow wearing a life jacket; the cold water caused a shock and he died after being pulled out by guards.
5 December 1961
Through a hole in a bricked-up window at Bernauer Straße 2
A 27-year-old man crept through back yards into the cleared border houses, knocked bricks out of a walled-up window and dropped about seven metres to the pavement.
5 December 1961
The last train to freedom
Locomotive driver Harry Deterling drove a passenger train at full speed through the terminus at Albrechtshof and across the border into West Berlin.
6 December 1961
Gefreiter K. climbs the Wall behind a sight screen at Strelitzer Straße
Posted directly at the Wall, out of his squad leader's sight behind a screen, a transferred riot policeman climbed over just after midday.
9 December 1961
Dieter Wohlfahrt, escape helper shot at Staaken
A 20-year-old West Berlin resident with Austrian citizenship was shot while cutting through the border fence at Staaken to help a woman escape; the plan had been betrayed and he bled to death in the border strip.
10 December 1961 – 11 December 1961
Ingo Krüger – a diver's attempt to reach his fiancée
Separated from his West Berlin fiancée by the Wall, a 21-year-old cook and sport diver entered the Spree in diving gear near Friedrichstraße station; he drowned, and she watched from the far bank as a body was pulled from the water.
19 December 1961
Georg Feldhahn – a border policeman's escape at the Massante Bridge
A 20-year-old border policeman on patrol at the Teltow Canal slipped away towards the bridge to West Berlin and vanished; the GDR assumed he had escaped, until his body was found in the canal in March 1962.
19 December 1961
The Pankow Cemetery Tunnel
A young East Berlin bride, separated from her West Berlin husband by the Wall, crawled to freedom through a short tunnel whose entrance was hidden behind a gravestone.
21 December 1961
Joachim Neumann's Swiss passport
Engineering student Joachim Neumann dyed his hair, filled his pockets with Swiss odds and ends and played an aloof Swiss tourist to pass the Friedrichstraße checkpoint on a Swiss passport supplied through West Berlin student escape helpers.
29 December 1961
The boot left in the barbed wire
A border guard climbed the Sophien cemetery wall into West Berlin; when he got stuck in the barbed wire, two West Berlin policemen pulled him over, leaving one of his boots behind.
16 January 1962
Private Klaus Sch. switches off the lights and climbs over on a stool
When his squad leader went to the next post, Gefreiter Klaus Sch. turned off the border lighting and climbed the Wall using a stool.
24 January 1962
The Becker Tunnel ("Tunnel 28")
Twin brothers dug a tunnel from the cellar of the family home on the border, and 28 people crawled through it to Frohnau in West Berlin in a single night.
26 January 1962
The Collapsed Tunnel under Wollankstraße Station
Students tried to dig from the bricked-up arches beneath Wollankstraße S-Bahn station into East Berlin, but the tunnel collapsed under the platform and was discovered before anyone could escape.
29 January 1962
Fake chimney sweep abseils from Bernauer Straße 13
Dressed as a chimney sweep, a young man walked past the guards into an emptied border house, broke through a bricked-up attic window and let himself down on his sweep's rope.
16 February 1962
NCO Egon Z. knocks down his squad leader and flees with two women
A border troops NCO knocked out his squad leader and escaped near Gartenstraße together with his sister and her friend.
19 February 1962
Scraping out the mortar by candlelight at Bernauer Straße 46
Guards found a hole broken through a bricked-up first-floor window; a man had apparently scratched out the joints with nails by candlelight and jumped.
19 February 1962
Dorit Schmiel – five friends crawl towards Reinickendorf
Five young East Berliners cut through the fence in Rosenthal after midnight and crawled across the snowy border strip; guards opened fire without warning, killing 20-year-old seamstress Dorit Schmiel and wounding a 16-year-old.
21 February 1962
Rudi Thurow leads refugees to Steinstücken
Border policeman Rudi Thurow sabotaged his comrades' weapons and led a small group of civilians under fire into the West Berlin enclave of Steinstücken, from where they were flown out by US helicopter.
21 March 1962 – 27 March 1962
Heidelberger Straße Tunnel and the Death of Heinz Jercha
Dozens of East Berliners escaped through a tunnel under Heidelberger Straße until a Stasi informer betrayed it; escape helper Heinz Jercha was shot in an ambush and died after crawling back to the West.
April 1962
Philipp Held – a West German who could not get back
A 19-year-old from Worms who had moved to the GDR in 1961 tried to return to the West by swimming the Spree; his body was recovered on 22 April 1962.
18 April 1962
Deserting cadets' gunfight at Griebnitzsee
Two armed NVA officer cadets tried to desert to West Berlin across disused S-Bahn land at Griebnitzsee; in the exchange of fire border guard Jörgen Schmidtchen and cadet Peter Böhme were killed, while Wolfgang G. reached the West.
18 April 1962
Fatal truck breakthrough at Heinrich-Heine-Straße
Three young East Berliners crashed a truck through the Heinrich-Heine-Straße crossing; they reached the West, but the driver, 23-year-old Klaus Brueske, died of his injuries.
29 April 1962
Horst Frank – caught in the last wire at Schönholz
Two friends from Saxony crawled for four hours across the border strip at the Schönholz allotments; Detlev W. reached West Berlin, while 19-year-old Horst Frank was spotted in the last barbed-wire fence and shot.
5 May 1962
The Pensioners' Tunnel (Thomas Tunnel)
A group of mostly elderly men led by 81-year-old Max Thomas dug an unusually tall tunnel from a chicken coop so that they and their wives could walk upright to West Berlin.
23 May 1962
Wilfried Tews swims the canal – border guard Peter Göring killed
A 14-year-old schoolboy from Erfurt swam the Berlin-Spandau Ship Canal under heavy fire and reached West Berlin badly wounded; in the exchange of fire with West Berlin police, 21-year-old border guard Peter Göring was killed by a ricochet.
27 May 1962
Lutz Haberlandt – shot at the Charité
On a warm Sunday a 24-year-old bricklayer climbed from the Charité hospital grounds into the border strip; a guard on the tower of the Supreme Court shot him in the head and he lay in the bushes for about 40 minutes.
5 June 1962
Axel Hannemann – from a cargo barge into the Spree
A 17-year-old apprentice from Cottbus jumped from the Marschallbrücke onto a westbound cargo barge; when the skipper stopped, he jumped into the Spree and was shot a few metres from the West Berlin bank.
8 June 1962
The excursion ship "Friedrich Wolf"
Young East Berliners commandeered the passenger steamer "Friedrich Wolf", locked up its crew and swerved under heavy fire into West Berlin's Landwehrkanal.
9 June 1962 – 11 June 1962
The Whitsun Tunnel (Pfingsttunnel)
Over the Whitsun weekend of 1962, helpers around Harry Seidel dug from the cellar of a Neukölln corner pub under Heidelberger Straße and brought East Berliners out through a photographer's shop.
10 June 1962
Helmut P. is shot at but gets over the cemetery wall
Helmut P. chose the Sophien cemetery for its cover; two guards at Ackerstraße fired as he pulled himself up the wall, but he got over, wounded.
11 June 1962
Erna Kelm – swimming belt under her clothes
On Whit Monday 1962 an angler found the body of 53-year-old Erna Kelm from Sacrow in the Havel; she wore a swimming belt under her clothes and had apparently tried to swim to West Berlin.
18 June 1962
Rudolf Müller's Tunnel and the Death of Reinhold Huhn
Rudolf Müller brought his wife, two children and sister-in-law through a self-dug tunnel to West Berlin, shooting dead the young border guard Reinhold Huhn when he tried to check their papers.
28 June 1962
The Betrayed Sebastianstraße Tunnel
Three West Berliners dug a tunnel to bring their wives and children out of East Berlin, but a Stasi informer had infiltrated the plan; Siegfried Noffke was shot dead when they broke through.
2 July 1962
Truck driver Günter P. climbs the Wall on his first day at the site
On his first day on a guarded demolition site, a driver climbed the Wall while another truck blocked the guards' view.
1 August 1962
Conscript Jörg S. stages a check and escapes with two friends
A conscript on rear-guard duty waved two friends through, lured his squad leader into a back yard where one of them knocked him down with a spade, and the three ran for the Wall; a fourth friend gave up when shots were fired.
7 August 1962
The Betrayed Kiefholzstraße Tunnel
Several escape-helper groups joined forces on a tunnel to a small house on Kiefholzstraße for a planned mass escape, but a Stasi informer among the couriers betrayed it and dozens of would-be refugees were arrested.
17 August 1962
Peter Fechter bleeds to death at Zimmerstraße
18-year-old bricklayer Peter Fechter was shot while climbing the Wall on Zimmerstraße and left to die at its foot for about 50 minutes in full view of West Berliners; his companion escaped.
23 August 1962
Hans-Dieter Wesa shot at Bornholmer Straße station
Transport policeman Hans-Dieter Wesa, 19, climbed the border fence at the closed Bornholmer Straße S-Bahn station and was shot dead by his post partner after he had already reached West Berlin territory.
4 September 1962
Ernst Mundt shot on the Sophien cemetery wall
Ernst Mundt, 40, climbed onto the glass-topped wall of the Sophien cemetery on Bernauer Straße and was shot in the head by a transport police officer.
14 September 1962 – 15 September 1962
Tunnel 29
Around 30 helpers, mostly students, dug a tunnel from a factory on Bernauer Straße to a cellar in East Berlin; 29 people escaped through it over two days while an American TV crew filmed.
17 September 1962
West Berlin police open a cellar window for three young men
While a West Berlin officer held the guards' observation post at gunpoint, police broke open a walled-up cellar window and three young men climbed out.
6 October 1962
The Second Heidelberger Krug Tunnel to Elsenstraße
A second tunnel from the Heidelberger Krug pub brought a tailor couple to the West in their pyjamas, but an informer tipped off the Stasi within hours and an escape helper was shot and captured.
8 October 1962
Anton Walzer – shot swimming from a barge
Sixty-year-old Anton Walzer climbed onto a moored barge and slipped into the Spree; border guards shot him in the back of the head.
26 October 1962
Two young men swing over the Sophien cemetery wall under fire
Shortly before midnight two men in their early twenties used the cover of the cemetery to reach the Wall; guards at Ackerstraße 42 fired, but both got to West Berlin.
14 November 1962
The Kleinmachnow Tunnel and the Arrest of Harry Seidel
The betrayal of a 70-metre tunnel into Kleinmachnow ended with the capture of the famous escape helper Harry Seidel, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in a show trial.
19 November 1962
Horst Plischke – missing in the Havel for four months
A 23-year-old from Potsdam went into the Havel north of the Glienicke Bridge before dawn; guards spotted him and fired, and he drowned. His body surfaced four months later.
27 November 1962
Otfried Reck – the S-Bahn tunnel plan
Two friends tried to open a ventilation shaft to the North–South S-Bahn tunnel near the Nordbahnhof and stop a westbound train; discovered, they ran away and 17-year-old Otfried Reck was shot in the back.
5 December 1962 – 6 December 1962
Günter Wiedenhöft – through the ice of the Griebnitzsee
Days after being sentenced for a first escape attempt, a 20-year-old electrician tried again across the partly frozen Griebnitzsee; he broke through the ice and drowned.
27 December 1962
Circus artiste Horst Klein on the high-voltage line
A circus artiste tried to cross the Teltow Canal hand over hand along a high-voltage line, lost his strength and fell onto the eastern bank, from where West Berlin firemen fetched him in a rubber dinghy.
1 January 1963
Hans Räwel – New Year's morning in the icy Spree
After a New Year's Eve party, 21-year-old baker Hans Räwel swam into the freezing Spree and was shot at close range from a border boat about 35 metres from the western bank.
15 January 1963
Horst Kutscher – shot 25 metres from West Berlin
On the night before the SED party congress, a 31-year-old coal worker and a colleague crawled towards the border in Johannisthal; about 25 metres from West Berlin shots were fired and Horst Kutscher was killed.
24 January 1963
Peter Kreitlow – shot by Soviet soldiers near Nieder Neuendorf
Five young men decided on the spur of the moment to flee from Hennigsdorf to West Berlin; still about two kilometres from the border, a Soviet patrol opened fire and 20-year-old Peter Kreitlow was killed.
February 1963
The betrayed second tunnel from Bernauer Straße 78
Tunnel 29's builders dug again from the same cellars; on breakthrough day Stasi officers lay in wait at Brunnenstraße 45. The diggers noticed in time, but 14 would-be escapees and three couriers were arrested.
10 March 1963
The Aagaard Tunnel
A family in Glienicke spent five months digging a 50-metre tunnel by hand from their living room, hiding 25 cubic metres of sand inside their house, before 13 people crawled to West Berlin.
17 April 1963
Wolfgang Engels' armoured personnel carrier
A 19-year-old civilian army employee drove a stolen Soviet-built armoured personnel carrier into the Wall and was shot while climbing over, but was pulled into the West.
26 April 1963
Peter Mädler – 'Don't shoot!' in the Teltow Canal
A 19-year-old electrician swam into the Teltow Canal at Kleinmachnow before dawn; about ten metres from the border he called out 'Don't shoot!' but was shot dead by border guards.
5 May 1963
Under the barrier in an Austin-Healey Sprite
An Austrian, Heinz Meixner, drove a low-slung Austin-Healey Sprite with its windscreen removed under the barrier at Checkpoint Charlie, carrying his fiancée and her mother hidden in the car.
12 May 1963
Failed bus escape at Invalidenstraße
Eight young East Berliners tried to ram a stolen, steel-plated bus through the Invalidenstraße crossing; it was riddled with bullets and stopped one metre short of the West.
24 May 1963
The betrayed Kremmener Straße tunnel, dug from East to West
East Berliners dug a 45-metre tunnel from a disused bakery cellar at Kremmener Straße 15 almost to Bernauer Straße before it was discovered in May 1963; 19 people were jailed.
July 1963
Betrayed a few metres short: the tunnel to Eberswalder / Oderberger Straße
A tunnel from the former freight yard towards the corner house at Eberswalder and Oderberger Straße had to be abandoned a few metres short in July 1963 after the plan was betrayed and two diggers were arrested in East Berlin.
23 August 1963 – 8 September 1963
Border guard Siegfried Widera fatally injured at the Massante Bridge
Three construction workers overpowered two East German border guards at the Massante Bridge and ran across to West Berlin; guard Siegfried Widera died of a fractured skull two weeks later.
4 September 1963
Jürgen Cr. jumps from the new wall
While guarding engineers who were building a second concrete wall at Bernauer Straße, conscript Jürgen Cr. waited for his partner to go for cigarettes and jumped over the front wall into West Berlin.
9 September 1963
Two border policemen escape from their bulldozer in Falkensee
Two GDR border policemen, aged 20 and 23, who had been levelling the death strip at Falkensee drove their bulldozer up to the barriers, climbed the fences and reached West Berlin unnoticed.
18 October 1963
Border policeman crashes a crawler tractor through the wire
A 22-year-old border policeman assigned to construction work took a tracked vehicle through the wire barriers between Wilhelmsruh and Reinickendorf; when it stuck halfway, he ran the rest of the way to the West.
4 November 1963
Klaus Schröter – homemade diving suit at the Reichstag
Engineer Klaus Schröter sold his television to build a weighted diving suit and tried to dive through the Spree to the Reichstag bank; guards shot him and he drowned.
20 November 1963 – 21 November 1963
Hubert Hohlbein – under the Jungfernsee in a diving suit
Wearing a diving suit and weight belt, 21-year-old Hubert Hohlbein swam submerged from near Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam to the West Berlin shore by the Glienicker Brücke.
25 November 1963
Dietmar Schulz – killed on the S-Bahn tracks north of Bornholmer Straße
A 24-year-old man from Pankow tried to reach Wedding across the railway tracks in the border zone north of Bornholmer Straße and was fatally struck by a train.
25 December 1963
Paul Schultz – shot on the Wall on Christmas Day
Two 18-year-old friends from Neubrandenburg climbed the Wall at dusk on Christmas Day 1963; Hartmut D. got across unhurt, while Paul Schultz was shot on the Wall and died that evening in a West Berlin hospital.
1964 – November 1967
The Cadillac with a dashboard hideout
Escape helper Burkhart Veigel used a Cadillac DeVille with a hiding place behind the dashboard to smuggle refugees out of the GDR for about three years without being caught.
7 January 1964
The first Bernauer Straße 97 tunnel ends in a coal yard
The first tunnel from a bakery cellar at Bernauer Straße 97 surfaced in a coal yard in view of the guards; three young women got through before it was discovered.
19 January 1964
Wounded teenager pulled over the Wall at the Brandenburg Gate
A youth ran for the Wall south of the Brandenburg Gate, was shot in the leg, limped along the Wall and was pulled over by West Berlin police officers.
27 February 1964
Walter Hayn shot beside the 'Sorgenfrei' allotments
Former People's Police officer Walter Hayn was shot just short of the fence to West Berlin's allotments; his family was told he had drowned.
14 March 1964
The wheelchair on the S-Bahn to Zoo
Two young men, one of them posing as a frail wheelchair user, broke open the lift to the westbound platform at Friedrichstraße and let the S-Bahn staff help them onto a train to Bahnhof Zoo.
17 March 1964
An unknown escapee slips past the guards at Gartenstraße
In the early morning of 17 March 1964 an unidentified person got over the border installations at Gartenstraße, about a metre from where the sentries were standing.
20 April 1964
Concrete lorry to the canal bank, then a swim
Two lorry drivers drove a loaded Škoda truck from a Teltow concrete works through the border fences down to the canal bank and swam across to West Berlin.
23 May 1964
Smuggled out in a BMW Isetta
Klaus-Günter Jacobi hid his friend Manfred in a modified BMW Isetta, the smallest car ever used for an escape, and drove him under the barrier to the West.
12 June 1964
Smoke screen at the Wilhelmsruher Damm
Under cover of smoke canisters thrown from West Berlin, a doctor and a relative abandoned their Trabant in the barrier and ran through a pre-cut gap in the fence in broad daylight.
22 June 1964
Walter Heike shot at the Invalidenfriedhof
Former customs officer Walter Heike climbed the cemetery wall and was pulling himself up the last wall before the canal when a border NCO shot him.
28 July 1964
Norbert Wolscht and Rainer Gneiser – homemade diving gear in the Havel
Two 20-year-old friends from Freiberg in Saxony tried to reach West Berlin underwater through the Havel near Potsdam using self-built breathing equipment; both drowned in the night of 27–28 July 1964.
18 August 1964 – 20 August 1964
Wernhard Mispelhorn shot at the Schönholz allotments
Eighteen-year-old Wernhard Mispelhorn, whose girlfriend had just moved to West Berlin, suddenly ran for the fence at the Schönholz allotments and was shot in the head.
18 August 1964
Hildegard Trabant shot in the back on the disused S-Bahn line
Discovered hiding behind an elder bush on the disused railway, 37-year-old Hildegard Trabant ran away from the border and was shot in the back.
9 September 1964
Fifteen people behind the pig carcasses
A trusted meat-transport driver took his wife, their eight children and his brother-in-law's family of five through the Heinrich-Heine-Straße checkpoint hidden among pig carcasses.
13 September 1964
Michael Meyer pulled over the Wall under fire
Badly wounded by border guards' bullets, 21-year-old Michael Meyer was hauled over the Wall on a rope by a US military police sergeant while West Berlin police and US soldiers returned fire.
3 October 1964 – 5 October 1964
Tunnel 57
57 East Berliners crawled through a 145-metre tunnel dug by West Berlin students under Bernauer Straße. The escape ended in a shoot-out in which border guard Egon Schultz was killed; records opened after 1990 showed the fatal shots came from a fellow GDR soldier.
26 November 1964
Hans-Joachim Wolf shot in the Britzer Zweigkanal
Seventeen-year-old apprentice Hans-Joachim Wolf jumped into the ice-cold Britzer Zweigkanal; guards fired 61 shots without warning and ignored his calls to stop.
3 December 1964
Joachim Mehr shot in the wire near Bergfelde
After a spontaneous decision in a pub, 19-year-old carpenter Joachim Mehr and Hans-Jürgen K. ran for the wire near Frohnau; both were wounded, and Mehr was killed by further shots after they had given up.
11 December 1964
Hidden in the airport bus's spare-wheel box
The driver of the Interflug shuttle bus to West Berlin simply did not come back one morning; his girlfriend rode with him through the Invalidenstraße checkpoint inside the spare-wheel box.
January 1965
Through a cut grille between the S-Bahn platforms
A young West Berliner who had fled himself the year before cut a grille beneath the glass wall between the S-Bahn platforms at Friedrichstraße so that his girlfriend could slip through.
4 January 1965
Rope-ladder escape at Ruppiner Straße
Equipped with wire cutters, a rope ladder and a throwing line, a man of about 25 got over the Wall near Ruppiner Straße despite gunfire; stray bullets hit a West Berlin bedroom.
3 March 1965
Clothesline rope escape from a Treptow border house
A 26-year-old engineer tied a knotted 50-metre clothesline to a fourth-floor window, lowered himself down, swung over the Wall and dropped into Neukölln.
4 March 1965
Christian Buttkus – a snowstorm escape at Kleinmachnow
After abandoning plans to dive through the Teltow Canal, Christian Buttkus and his fiancée Ilse P. tried to cross at Kleinmachnow in a snowstorm; he was killed at the last fence and she was wounded and jailed.
7 May 1965
Roofers escape from the Klein Glienicke chapel
Two roofers repairing the chapel roof in the GDR exclave of Klein Glienicke disarmed one of their guards and crossed the Wall with a ladder into Zehlendorf.
9 June 1965 – 11 January 1966
Dieter Brandes – shot at the Nordbahnhof, died months later
Eighteen-year-old Dieter Brandes was shot a few metres from the last barrier at the Nordbahnhof; paralysed, he died in hospital seven months later.
28 July 1965 – 29 July 1965
The Holzapfel family's cable slide from the Haus der Ministerien
A Leipzig family hid in the East German government's Haus der Ministerien, climbed onto its roof after dark and slid on a steel cable over the Wall into West Berlin.
8 August 1965
Klaus Kratzel killed in the S-Bahn tunnel at Bornholmer Straße
Having returned to East Berlin after a family quarrel, bricklayer Klaus Kratzel tried to get back to his wife and children in the West along the railway at Bornholmer Straße and was apparently struck by a train.
16 August 1965
In the shadow of a tourist bus at Checkpoint Charlie
A young man walked out of the Checkpoint Charlie control area unchecked, keeping to the blind side of a West German coach full of American tourists.
17 August 1965 – 18 August 1965
Klaus Garten – left to bleed in the vehicle ditch
Disillusioned SED member Klaus Garten was shot in the thigh climbing a garden fence at the border in Teltow-Seehof; guards hid him from Western view and he died after a long detour to a Stasi prison hospital.
27 August 1965 – 28 August 1965
A miner swims the Spree at Mühlenstraße
In the night of 27 to 28 August 1965 a 31-year-old miner worked his way through ruined buildings in the border strip at Mühlenstraße and swam the Spree to Kreuzberg.
18 October 1965
Walter Kittel – killed after surrendering at Kleinmachnow
Walter Kittel and a chance acquaintance had already given themselves up when a border troop commander fired 30 shots at him from 15 metres; the shooter later received the longest sentence of any Wall guard.
5 November 1965
Two young conscripts vanish in the fog at Bergmann-Borsig
A two-man patrol of new conscripts from the same home town climbed the fence and the new concrete wall at Wilhelmsruh in thick fog and took their submachine guns with them.
10 November 1965 – 11 November 1965
Heinz Cyrus – hunted into Gartenstraße 85
Chased from the border strip by gunfire, Heinz Cyrus fled into a building on Gartenstraße, climbed out of a fourth-floor window and fell into the courtyard; he died the next morning.
25 November 1965
Heinz Sokolowski – shot at the Wall near the Brandenburg Gate
Former journalist and political prisoner Heinz Sokolowski, 47, had reached the Wall between the Reichstag and the Brandenburg Gate when a guard shot him in the abdomen.
26 November 1965 – 3 December 1965
Erich Kühn shot 'blindly into the bushes' at Kiefholzstraße
Sixty-two-year-old Erich Kühn was wounded when a guard, ordered to act, fired blindly at a noise on the railway embankment at Kiefholzstraße; he died eight days later.
26 December 1965
Heinz Schöneberger – escape helper shot at Heinrich-Heine-Straße
Two West German brothers tried to smuggle two East Berlin women out in a Ford Taunus; when one hiding place was discovered, Heinz Schöneberger tried to force the barrier and was shot just before reaching the West.
31 December 1965
Two conscripts flee on New Year's Eve at Gartenstraße
On New Year's Eve 1965 two conscript border soldiers posted at Gartenstraße ran round the S-Bahn entrance, forced their way through barbed-wire and mesh fences and jumped down into West Berlin.
15 January 1966
Gerd L. turns back under warning shots and hides at Brunnenstraße 141
A local resident reached the border strip, then under construction; warning shots turned him back and he was arrested on the top floor of Brunnenstraße 141.
28 January 1966
80 shots at Manfred B.
After a marital row, Manfred B. climbed two fences; the Kremmener Straße sentries fired 80 rounds and arrested him. West Berlin answered with a poster addressed to the soldiers.
7 February 1966
Willi Block – trapped in the wire and shot at Staaken
Caught in a roll of barbed wire in full view of West Berlin police, former border policeman Willi Block was shot dead after a stand-off; the regimental commander himself fired.
14 March 1966
Children Jörg Hartmann and Lothar Schleusener shot in Treptow
Ten-year-old Jörg Hartmann and 13-year-old Lothar Schleusener slipped into the border strip in Treptow after dark and were shot by border guards; the regime told their families false stories about how they had died.
19 March 1966
Two NCOs run for the border at Kohlhasenbrück – one gets through
NVA sergeants Willi Marzahn and Eberhard M. took weapons from their barracks and ran through the death strip near Steinstücken; in a firefight Eberhard M. reached West Berlin, while Marzahn died of a head wound.
23 March 1966
"Now there are two fewer of you!"
Two conscripts on duty at Eberswalder Straße broke open a door in the sight screen, climbed onto the freight-yard wall and jumped into the West; their comrades only noticed when a West Berlin policeman shouted across.
30 March 1966
Eberhard Schulz shot after standing up to surrender
Farm worker Eberhard Schulz, 20, and his friend Dieter K. had already given up when guards surrounded them; Schulz rose from the grass and was shot in the face and neck.
25 April 1966
Michael Kollender – a soldier's flight from guard duty
Conscript Michael Kollender left his sentry post in uniform and ran for the Teltow Canal; four guards fired 109 rounds and he died a few metres from the border.
19 May 1966
Peter St. escapes on his birthday, losing his wallet
On his birthday Peter St. crawled from the Sophien cemetery across the border strip; a signal device failed and he got through, leaving behind a wallet containing his call-up papers.
26 July 1966
Eduard Wroblewski – 274 shots at Mahlow
Family man Eduard Wroblewski was hit twelve times from behind in the barbed wire beside the old Mahlow–Lichtenrade railway, in one of the heaviest shootings at the Wall.
26 August 1966 – 27 August 1966
Hartmut Richter swims the Teltow Canal
Eighteen-year-old Hartmut Richter spent about four hours in the Teltow Canal, swimming roughly a kilometre past the border defences to Dreilinden in West Berlin.
7 September 1966
Klaus N. escapes his pursuers but is arrested in Brunnenstraße
Fired on after climbing the rear fence at Schönholzer Straße, Klaus N. hid behind the tank traps, slipped back to East Berlin, and was arrested by an off-duty policeman who had watched.
11 September 1966
Bulldozer through the Staaken border
Two married couples and a three-year-old child flattened the Staaken border fences with an armoured 18-tonne bulldozer until a tree stopped them in Spandau.
29 October 1966
Siegfried J. sets off an alarm and gives up at Bergstraße
A man who had moved from West to East Berlin only in 1965 climbed the cemetery wall at Bergstraße, triggered a signal device, turned back and was caught hiding in a school yard.
16 December 1966
Karl-Heinz Kube shot near the Teltow harbour
Seventeen-year-old Karl-Heinz Kube and his friend Detlev S. were one fence from West Berlin when they were fired on; Kube was killed in the ditch where they sought cover.
27 January 1967
Max Sahmland – shot while swimming the Teltow Canal
Wounded while cutting through the fences, Max Sahmland reached the Teltow Canal and swam for the western bank, but guards kept firing and he sank only metres from safety.
17 October 1967
Franciszek Piesik – from the Oder to the Nieder Neuendorfer See
Polish inland-waterways worker Franciszek Piesik crossed the Oder into the GDR, stole a motorboat at Hennigsdorf and, when spotted, tried to swim the cold Nieder Neuendorfer See to West Berlin; he drowned.
18 February 1968 – 19 February 1968
Elke and Dieter Weckeiser shot opposite the Reichstag
A young married couple from Fürstenwalde were fired on from a watchtower as they crawled through the first barbed wire opposite the Reichstag; both died of their wounds.
28 May 1968
Bernd Lehmann – caught in underwater barbed wire
Eighteen-year-old Bernd Lehmann set off from Treptower Park to swim to the Flutgraben but became entangled in barbed wire strung under the water and drowned.
7 July 1968
Bernd B. is shot five metres from the Wall
Crawling in the shelter of the Reconciliation Church, Bernd B. got within five metres of the Wall before a guard fired a warning shot and then shot him as he tried to jump up.
27 October 1968
The guards couldn't open their window: folding-ladder escape at Schönholzer Straße
At 1 a.m. a man with a folding ladder crossed every barrier; by the time the Ruppiner Straße tower crew had smashed their jammed window and fired, he was in the West.
15 November 1968
Deserting policeman and border soldier die near Klein Glienicke
A 21-year-old Volkspolizist deserting towards West Berlin opened fire on a border patrol vehicle in Babelsberg Park, killing driver Rolf Henniger, and was himself shot dead by the patrol leader.
9 April 1969
Johannes Lange shot at the last wall on Adalbertstraße
Decorative painter Johannes Lange, 28, was killed just short of the final concrete wall on Adalbertstraße after eight border guards fired 148 rounds.
7 July 1969
The 'Trojan cow' at Drewitz
A 28-year-old woman from Karl-Marx-Stadt was hidden inside a hollow model bull in a wooden crate, but the hiding place was found at the Drewitz crossing.
13 September 1969
Klaus-Jürgen Kluge shot on the crest of the Wall
Facing military service he loathed, 21-year-old Klaus-Jürgen Kluge tried to climb the Wall near the Bornholmer Straße crossing and was shot as he lay on its crest.
20 September 1969
Leo Lis shot near the Nordbahnhof
Leo Lis, a 45-year-old dairy worker from Saxony, had already crossed several barriers near the Nordbahnhof when border guards opened fire; he died of a chest wound.
24 October 1969
35 shots at Karl-Heinz Br. and Gerd W. in the cemetery strip
Two men crawling across the control strip were spotted from the Ackerstraße watchtower; the guards fired 35 rounds, and both were arrested unhurt behind the vehicle barrier.
10 March 1970
Christel and Eckhard Wehage's attempted hijacking of an Interflug plane
A young couple tried to force an Interflug An-24 on a domestic flight to fly to Hanover. The crew secretly turned back to Schönefeld; as the plane landed, Christel and Eckhard Wehage took their own lives.
21 March 1970
A 22-year-old is shot in the leg at Strelitzer Straße
A young man got almost to the foot of the Wall before the Strelitzer Straße watchtower spotted him; two aimed shots stopped him, one hitting his right leg.
May 1970
The 85-metre tunnel from Bernauer Straße 80, dug out by the Stasi
Eight years after Tunnel 29, a new tunnel was begun at Bernauer Straße 80; after a tip-off and listening probes the Stasi exposed it by cross-trenching in May 1970, when it was already 85 metres long.
7 July 1970
Willi Born – a young soldier's flight ends in the Bergfelde woods
Nineteen-year-old conscript Willi Born left his unit and tried to reach West Berlin near Bergfelde; when border soldiers cornered him in a strip of woodland he took his own life.
14 November 1970 – 17 November 1970
Hans-Joachim Zock – a planned swim across the Spree
After years of Stasi suspicion, Hans-Joachim Zock travelled from Halle to East Berlin in November 1970 intending to swim the Spree to the West; he drowned, and his body was found weeks later.
25 December 1970
Christian Peter Friese shot on Christmas night at Köllnische Heide
On Christmas Eve 1970 a 22-year-old mechanic from Naumburg travelled to East Berlin and, around midnight, entered the border strip at Johannisthal. Five guards fired 98 shots; he died a few metres short of the last fence.
February 1971
Tunnel 71 – The Last Tunnel under Bernauer Straße
Hasso Herschel's team lived underground for nine weeks digging a tunnel beneath Bernauer Straße, but came within ten metres of their goal before GDR border troops dug it up.
4 July 1971
An off-duty lieutenant climbs out at Stolpe-Süd
A platoon leader of the border troops, born in 1946, went home after a dance, then climbed the Wall near his own home with a wooden ladder while his former comrades fired 20 shots.
22 August 1971
Three Leipzig youths over the fence at Kleinmachnow
Four friends from Leipzig cut their way through the signal fence at Kleinmachnow; three climbed the expanded-metal fence in their socks and reached West Berlin, the fourth was caught.
December 1971
Two border guards take a patrol boat across the Spree
In December 1971 two 20-year-old GDR border guards disarmed a comrade, took the patrol boat moored at Mühlenstraße and crossed the Spree to Kreuzberg in broad daylight.
31 December 1971
Horst Kullack shot on New Year's Eve at Großziethen
On New Year's Eve 1971 Horst Kullack climbed the rear fence at Großziethen and reached the border wall before guards shot him without warning. He died of his wounds three weeks later.
9 January 1972
The heaters' tunnel under the Zimmerstraße
Two brothers and a friend dug a short tunnel from the sealed border cellars of an East Berlin electricity-company building near Checkpoint Charlie and came up just beyond the Wall.
14 February 1972
Manfred Weylandt – shot in the Spree
Stoker Manfred Weylandt crossed the border installations and entered the Spree near the Schillingbrücke late at night; two guards shot him in the head and he drowned.
7 March 1972
Klaus Schulze killed, Dieter Krause escapes at Falkenhöh
Two young friends from Falkensee crossed the border strip at Falkenhöh with a ladder from a garden shed. Dieter Krause got over the last fence under fire; Klaus Schulze, who had tripped, was shot in the chest.
22 January 1973
15-month-old Holger H. suffocates during his parents' escape
A young couple hid with their baby son in crates on a West Berlin acquaintance's truck. They passed the Drewitz checkpoint undetected, but when the crates were opened in the West, 15-month-old Holger was no longer breathing.
15 March 1973
Horst Einsiedel shot on a ladder at Pankow cemetery
Engineer Horst Einsiedel used two ladders from a cemetery tool shed to cross the fences at Pankow and was shot from a watchtower as he climbed the last wall. The Stasi hid his death from his wife for months.
27 April 1973
Manfred Gertzki's armoured escape attempt at the Reichstag
Wearing a home-made bulletproof vest and a steel-masked helmet, engineer Manfred Gertzki crept along the Spree bank by the Reichstag. He was shot two metres from the demarcation line and pushed into the river, where the armour dragged him down.
26 July 1973
The Klein Glienicke Family Tunnel
Two brothers, their wives and five children escaped from the GDR exclave of Klein Glienicke through a 19-metre tunnel dug with a child's spade during a heatwave.
5 January 1974
Burkhard Niering's hostage escape attempt at Checkpoint Charlie
A 23-year-old conscript of the Volkspolizei alert units left his guard post with his submachine gun, took a Stasi passport controller hostage at Checkpoint Charlie and tried to push through to the West. He was shot at the last barrier.
4 March 1975
Escape helper Hartmut Richter caught at Drewitz with his sister in the boot
After smuggling 33 people out in the boot of his car, escape helper Hartmut Richter was stopped at the Drewitz crossing with his own sister and her fiancé hidden inside, and sentenced to 15 years.
3 April 1975
Herbert Halli shot while turning back at Zimmerstraße
After a drinking session on the Palast der Republik building site, 21-year-old Herbert Halli climbed into the border strip at Zimmerstraße. He had already turned back when a guard shot him in the back.
27 June 1975
Herbert Kiebler shot near Mahlow; death disguised as suicide
Shortly after midnight on 27 June 1975 Herbert Kiebler crossed the signal fence near Mahlow and was shot from about 100 metres as he left the vehicle trench. The Stasi told his family he had killed himself in a forest near Potsdam.
27 August 1976
A home-made ladder from the garden at Am Böttcherberg
A painter, his wife and their four-year-old child cut through the rear fence opposite their garden in the Klein Glienicke enclave and climbed the 3.5 m Wall with a ladder they had built themselves.
16 February 1977
Dietmar Schwietzer killed near Schönwalde
An 18-year-old from Magdeburg got through several border fences at Schönwalde but was killed by gunfire a few metres from the Wall; four guards fired 91 rounds.
May 1977
A former border officer helps Rainer P. over the Wall and is caught
Having reconnoitred the border, the pair crossed every barrier from a back yard on Kremmener Straße; Uwe W. boosted Rainer P. over the Wall and was then arrested at its foot.
15 November 1977
In a US Air Force uniform at Checkpoint Charlie
An East Berlin musician tried to leave through Checkpoint Charlie dressed as a US Air Force NCO, driven there by the American sergeant who had supplied the uniform — but the Stasi was waiting.
8 March 1980
Hitch-hiking on the U8
An East Berlin U-Bahn signal mechanic led three relatives through a disused connecting tunnel to the West Berlin U8 line, stopped a western train with his signal lamp and asked for a lift.
4 November 1980
Egon B.'s desertion and the death of Ulrich Steinhauer
Border soldier Egon B. disabled the alarm system, shot his patrol leader Ulrich Steinhauer and climbed the Wall from the saddle of his service bicycle into Spandau; a West Berlin court later convicted him of manslaughter.
22 November 1980
Marienetta Jirkowsky shot from a ladder at Hohen Neuendorf
18-year-old Marienetta Jirkowsky and two friends climbed the border barriers with a ladder; the two young men reached West Berlin, but she was shot as her hands reached the top of the Wall.
14 April 1981
Hans-Jürgen Starrost shot during capture at Sigridshorst
Facing a return to prison, 25-year-old Hans-Jürgen Starrost tried to climb into the border area at Teltow with a ladder. Caught and held, he was shot in the abdomen at close range and died a month later.
12 December 1981
Thomas Taubmann jumps from a freight train under the Bösebrücke
On the evening of 12 December 1981 Thomas Taubmann climbed onto a freight train leaving Pankow and jumped off beneath the Bösebrücke, right at the border. He was found dead on the tracks.
19 January 1982
A bucket, the S-Bahn tracks and the bridge over the Gartenstraße
An unknown person stood a bucket against the rear wall in a Mitte back yard, climbed onto the tracks of the North-South S-Bahn and walked across the railway bridge into Wedding.
3 March 1982
Emergency brake and ladder south of the Bösebrücke
Two men pulled the emergency brake of an S-Bahn train on the curve at Bornholmer Straße, jumped out and climbed the border barriers into Wedding with a ladder.
22 April 1982
The Abandoned Sigridshorst Tunnel
A train driver and his wife dug 17 metres of tunnel from their cellar before realising the border was hundreds of metres away; a later balloon plan was betrayed and both were imprisoned.
31 March 1983
Holger Bethke and Michael Becker slide over the Wall on a steel cable
Using a bow and arrow to shoot a line over the border strip, Holger Bethke and his friend Michael Becker rigged a steel cable and rode home-made pulleys over the Wall from Treptow.
27 May 1983
The S-Bahn hijacking at Friedrichstraße
A 24-year-old forced his way into an S-Bahn driver's cab with an air rifle and tried to make the train run on into West Berlin; it stopped short of a buffer stop and he was overpowered by officers of the passport control unit.
28 July 1983
Stolen tipper truck at Heinrich-Heine-Straße
A 21-year-old postal driver stole a heavy KrAZ tipper truck and smashed through the gates of the Heinrich-Heine-Straße crossing, but was stopped by the roll barrier.
25 December 1983
Silvio Proksch shot on Christmas Day at Pankow cemetery
On Christmas evening 1983 the 21-year-old bricklayer climbed the cemetery fence into the border strip without any plan and was shot; he bled to death before he received treatment.
2 June 1984
Trabant against the Staaken barrier
A 38-year-old driver tried to force his Trabant through the Staaken crossing but crashed into a heavy barrier at the passport control line.
24 July 1984
Ladder escape at Brunnenstraße despite an aimed shot
An unknown man climbed the inner wall with a ladder, set off the alarm cutting the signal fence, and got over the Wall after the Schönholzer Straße tower fired a warning shot and a missed aimed shot.
1 December 1984
Michael Schmidt shot at Schulzestraße
A 20-year-old carpenter used ladders from his worksite to climb into the border strip at Schulzestraße; shot in the back and knee, he waited almost an hour for an ambulance and died in hospital.
14 July 1985
Ladder escape from Kleinmachnow
An 18-year-old used a ladder at Erlenweg in Kleinmachnow to get into the death strip and crossed every barrier under fire; a Stasi report blamed a lamp that kept going dark for 30 seconds.
September 1985
A water police officer sails his patrol boat to the West
In September 1985 a GDR water police officer slipped away from his colleagues, boarded his service boat, faked a routine patrol and motored across the water border to West Berlin.
17 January 1986
Telecom fitter runs through Checkpoint Charlie
A 21-year-old East Berlin telecommunications fitter, installing surveillance cameras at Checkpoint Charlie, used an unguarded moment to sprint through the control area to West Berlin.
20 January 1986
"Ladder of success" at Glienicke/Nordbahn
Shortly after midnight a man used a two-metre ladder to climb the rear wall at Glienicke/Nordbahn, set off the signal fence, ran the last 17 metres and used the same ladder to get over the final wall — the guards never saw him.
27 January 1986
Frank K. is caught at the signal fence
An applicant for an exit visa who worked near the border prepared tools and a change of trousers, got over the inner wall, and was arrested climbing the signal fence.
29 August 1986
Gravel truck through Checkpoint Charlie
Truck driver Hans-Joachim Pofahl, his partner and their eight-month-old baby smashed through Checkpoint Charlie in a truck loaded with five tonnes of gravel.
2 September 1986
Over the rear wall and across the Bösebrücke
A janitor and a construction helper climbed into the Bornholmer Straße checkpoint area with a ladder, got into the diplomats' lane and simply walked across the Bösebrücke — guards who saw them assumed they had been cleared.
3 September 1986
Sacrower See – one friend makes it, Rainer Liebeke drowns
Rainer Liebeke and his friend Dirk K. tried to swim about 500 metres across the Sacrower See; the friend reached West Berlin, but Liebeke, hampered by a broken collarbone, drowned.
24 September 1986
Three young men swim the Teltow Canal
Shortly after 2 a.m. three young men used a wooden ladder to scale the barriers in Teltow and swam the 40-metre-wide Teltow Canal to Zehlendorf, helped by a guard's lost magazine.
27 September 1986
Lada crash at Chausseestraße
Two young East Berliners drove a Lada through the gate at Chausseestraße at 80 km/h but crashed into a barrier and were jailed for over four years.
8 October 1986
A landscape architect dives through the Jungfernsee barrier
A 29-year-old landscape architect in a diving suit slipped through a corroded gap in the underwater barrier at Nedlitz and swam to West Berlin north of the Glienicker Brücke.
19 November 1986
Dieter H.'s folding-ladder escape under fire
A toolmaker who had been refused permission to emigrate and jailed for two years built a small collapsible ladder, cut through the signal fence at Brunnenstraße and got over the 3.6-metre Wall while twelve shots were fired at him.
21 November 1986
Manfred Mäder and René Gross – lifting-platform truck at Karpfenteichstraße
Two East Berliners who had applied to leave the GDR drove a stolen truck with a lifting platform through the rear border wall in Treptow. Border guards opened continuous fire and both men were killed.
24 November 1986
Michael Bittner shot at Glienicke/Nordbahn
The 25-year-old climbed the inner wall with a wooden ladder and was shot in the back as he reached the final wall; the Stasi then erased almost every trace of his death.
2 December 1986
One gets over, one is caught: Mahlow to Lichtenrade
Two workmates from Beelitz helped each other over the barriers at Mahlow-Waldblick; the 22-year-old made it over the three-metre Wall into Lichtenrade while his 18-year-old companion was arrested.
20 December 1986
Failed motorised hang-glider escape near Potsdam
A 37-year-old toolmaker took off in a home-built motorised hang glider towards West Berlin, but darkness, cold and disorientation forced him down in the GDR.
12 February 1987
Lutz Schmidt shot helping his friend over the Wall
Truck drivers Lutz Schmidt and Peter Schulze drove to the border with ladders; Schmidt helped his colleague onto the Wall and was shot dead as he tried to follow.
15 July 1987
18-year-old flies a light aircraft from Potsdam to RAF Gatow
On only his second solo flight, 18-year-old Thomas K. took off in a single-engine plane south of Potsdam and landed at the British airfield in Gatow.
9 December 1987
Wolga car on the Glienicke Bridge
Two men from Potsdam tried to ram a Wolga M 21 through the barriers on the Glienicke Bridge but were stopped at the very first gate.
10 March 1988
Truck full of gas cylinders over the Glienicke Bridge
Three men drove a truck disguised as a hazardous-goods transport and loaded with 92 empty gas cylinders through four barriers on the Glienicke Bridge. It was the first successful escape over the bridge.
19 April 1988
Building cleaner's window-ladder escape
A 31-year-old building cleaner used a window-cleaning ladder to cross every barrier from Treptow into Neukölln while two guards fired 18 shots at him without a hit.
13 January 1989
Ingolf Diederichs dies jumping from an S-Bahn at Bösebrücke
The 24-year-old climbed out of a moving S-Bahn train with a home-made folding ladder near the Bornholmer Straße crossing, got caught on the train and was killed.
5 February 1989
Chris Gueffroy, the last person shot dead at the Wall
Chris Gueffroy, 20, and his friend Christian Gaudian tried to climb the border fences at the Britzer Zweigkanal, believing the order to shoot had been lifted; Gueffroy was shot through the heart and Gaudian was wounded and arrested.
8 March 1989
Winfried Freudenberg's fatal gas balloon flight
The last person to die at the Berlin Wall: Winfried Freudenberg crossed into West Berlin in a home-made natural-gas balloon but was killed when it came down in Zehlendorf.
10 March 1989
Tipper truck and ladder in Staaken
Three men tried to flatten the border fences in Staaken with a tipper truck and climb the Wall with a ladder, but the truck stuck in the second fence and one of them was shot.
8 April 1989
Jan-Michael G.'s truck is caught in a cable barrier
Seven months before the Wall fell, a heavy truck smashed through both service gates at Ruppiner Straße but was stopped by a cable barrier designed to catch lorries.
26 April 1989
Stolen truck stuck in the death strip at Glienicke
A 21-year-old steelworker broke through the inner wall with a stolen truck but got stuck in the sand of the death strip after hitting a lamp post.
9 May 1989
Citroën at the Stolpe crossing
A 27-year-old fitter drove a Citroën through the first barrier at Stolpe at 80 km/h, losing the car's roof, before crashing into the base of a second barrier.
26 May 1989
Ultralight flight from Treptower Park to the Reichstag
Two brothers who had already fled flew ultralight aircraft from West Berlin into Treptower Park at dawn, picked up their youngest brother Egbert and landed in front of the Reichstag.
29 June 1989
Škoda through three barriers at Mahlow
A 27-year-old electrician approached the Mahlow crossing at walking pace, then accelerated through three barriers before crashing into a heavy crash barrier.
8 August 1989
Trabant caught by a steel cable at Drewitz
Three months before the Wall fell, a 33-year-old man from Belzig drove his Trabant into the Drewitz crossing, where a steel cable barrier stopped him.
15 August 1989
Army truck overturned at Stolpe
A 28-year-old man drove a ZIL-131 truck through several gates at the Stolpe crossing until it overturned against another barrier.
