28 September 1988 · Over the wall · The Spree between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain

Two get over the Wall at Bethaniendamm under fire; their companion is caught

At about 12.30 p.m. on 28 September 1988 two East Berliners aged 20 and 21 climbed the Wall at Bethaniendamm into Kreuzberg despite shots; a 20-year-old woman who wanted to go with them was arrested.

A wide cobbled street with parked cars running straight into a graffiti-covered Berlin Wall, with East Berlin buildings and a chimney behind it.
The Wall at Bethaniendamm, where Köpenicker Straße ended, in October 1986, two years before the escape Photo: Roehrensee. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

At about 12.30 p.m. on Wednesday 28 September 1988 three GDR citizens tried to get over the Wall to Bethaniendamm in Kreuzberg.

Two men, aged 20 and 21, got over the border installations unhurt. The third, a 20-year-old woman who had wanted to escape with them, was arrested by GDR border guards. According to the police and the Senate press office, the guards apparently again fired shots.

Senate spokesman Fest pointed to the 'increasingly frequent use of firearms' at the border and said that the GDR's wish for international standing stood in 'flagrant contradiction' to its practice at the border. Only three days earlier a guard had fired a shot during an escape attempt by two young men at the Brandenburg Gate.

The next morning a man and a woman swam the Havel to Heiligensee.

Sources

  1. Schüsse von Osten (taz, 29 September 1988, dpa)taz
  2. Zwei rübergemacht (taz, 30 September 1988)taz

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