26 December 1962 · Driving through
The armoured bus of Boxing Day
On 26 December 1962 two families in a bus armoured with steel plates and fitted with a snowplough broke through the three barriers of the GDR control point at Drewitz and reached Dreilinden in West Berlin.
The bus belonged to Hans Weidner, a businessman whose small firm was threatened with nationalisation. With the driver, Jürgen Wagner, he turned it into an improvised armoured vehicle, with 9-millimetre steel plates, protection for the tyres and a ram at the front. It was disguised as a workshop vehicle and fitted with a snowplough.
Early on 26 December 1962, Boxing Day, two men, two women and four children set off. They chose the Drewitz/Dreilinden crossing because the long approach let the bus build up speed. The West Berlin police called the GDR side the Babelsberg control point. With the border guards firing at it, the bus smashed through all three barriers.
Three bullets hit the bus, but no one was injured. The driver's hands were slightly cut by the shattering windscreen. At about 5.30 the group arrived at the West Berlin checkpoint at Dreilinden. Two days later GDR customs officials began installing tank barriers at the Heerstraße crossing, which the West Berlin police linked to this breakthrough.
Sources
- Chronik 1962 – DezemberChronik der Mauer
- Report of the West Berlin Schutzpolizei for December 1962Chronik der Mauer (document: Polizeihistorische Sammlung des Polizeipräsidenten in Berlin)
- DDR und die Mauer: So spektakulär flüchteten Menschen in die Freiheitt-online
- Mit gepanzertem Bus und Seilbahn in den WestenNordwest-Zeitung
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