Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

22 November 1961 · Over the wall · Bernauer Straße

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; the briefcase he left behind, found the next morning, allowed the guards to reconstruct his escape and identity.

A street with a double line of cobblestones set into the road where the Wall once ran
Cobblestones marking the line of the Wall across Brunnenstraße at Bernauer Straße (2018), close to No. 139 Photo: Andrzej Otrębski. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

On the evening or during the night of 22 November 1961 Bernd Sp. escaped without being seen by the guards. He approached the border from the grounds of the Kobold works and reached the back yard of the house at Brunnenstraße 139.

He got over the yard's boundary wall with the help of a door leaned at an angle against it, which put him directly behind the border wall. From there he climbed over the Wall into the West unhindered.

Sunny street corner with a grass strip and path in front, low apartment buildings behind, and on the right a white gable wall labelled 'Bernauer Straße' with a large black-and-white mural and a row of photo panels.
The corner of Bernauer Straße and Brunnenstraße in 2022 Photo: Francesco Adami. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

He left his briefcase behind. The guards found it the next morning, and with the People's Police they reconstructed the escape, his route and his identity.

Sources

Historians and memorials

Facts checked against the sources: September 2026

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Cite this page

Berlin Experiences, “Bernd Sp. leaves only his briefcase behind”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/bernd-sp-brunnenstrasse-139-1961/ (accessed [date]).

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