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.
Probably on 24 August 1961, a family escaped from the first floor of Bernauer Straße 10.
The couple and their 14-year-old daughter let themselves down from the window on a rope to the pavement, which belonged to West Berlin.
In the first weeks after 13 August many residents of the border houses fled this way, climbing from ground-floor windows, sliding down ropes or jumping into fire brigade nets, until the houses were cleared in the autumn of 1961.
Sources
- Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer – Bereich B: Die Zerstörung der Stadt (Orientierungsplan und Ereignismarken), marker B 335Stiftung Berliner Mauer
- B 335 – Digital Guide, Berlin Wall MemorialStiftung Berliner Mauer
- Border House Bernauer Strasse 10a – Digital Guide, Berlin Wall MemorialStiftung Berliner Mauer
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Related escapes
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.
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.
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.
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.