A jump from a moving S-Bahn at Bornholmer Straße
An East Berlin lorry driver tried to jump from a moving S-Bahn where the tracks ran through the border strip at Bornholmer Straße; he fractured the base of his skull and was arrested by border troops.
Between Pankow and Schönhauser Allee the East Berlin S-Bahn ran along the so-called 'Ulbricht curve', a stretch electrified in 1952 so that trains could bypass West Berlin and extended in 1961. At Bornholmer Straße the tracks passed through the border area right beside the Wall.
On 30 June 1974 a lorry driver from East Berlin, born in 1949, tried to jump off a moving S-Bahn train at this point. The jump went badly: he suffered a fracture at the base of his skull.
Border troops arrested him. According to the account based on Stasi files, nothing is known about what became of him afterwards.
Sources
Whose account is this? Told from a press report only.
Press
Facts checked against the sources: September 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “A jump from a moving S-Bahn at Bornholmer Straße”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/bornholmer-strasse-s-bahn-jump-1974/ (accessed [date]).
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