20 September 1961 · Window jumps
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.
Shortly after midnight on 20 September 1961 border guards watched five fire engines drive up to Bernauer Straße 10 and take up position with jumping sheets.
A little later two people jumped from the window into the West.
It was the second escape into fire brigade nets from this house within an hour: at about 11.30 p.m. the previous evening Mrs K., her daughter-in-law and her grandson had jumped from her flat at Bernauer Straße 10.
Sources
- Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer – Bereich B: Die Zerstörung der Stadt (Orientierungsplan und Ereignismarken), marker B 371, B 351Stiftung Berliner Mauer
- B 371 – Digital Guide, Berlin Wall MemorialStiftung Berliner Mauer
- B 351 – Digital Guide, Berlin Wall MemorialStiftung Berliner Mauer
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Related escapes
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.
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
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
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.