Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

27 August 1961 · Guards who fled

A railway policeman at Bornholmer Straße asks to relieve himself and is gone

At about 3.30 a.m. on 27 August 1961 an Oberwachtmeister of the railway police on duty at the Bornholmer Straße control point told his superior he needed to relieve himself and did not return, taking his carbine, pistol and truncheon.

Black-and-white photo: two East German railway policemen in peaked caps stand guard on the left while workmen with pickaxes take up the rails of a railway track beside an overgrown embankment.
East German railway police guard workmen tearing up tracks into West Berlin at Bornholmer Straße on 28 September 1961 (CIA booklet photo) Photo: The Central Intelligence Agency. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

At about 3.30 a.m. on 27 August 1961 an Oberwachtmeister of the Transportpolizei, the GDR's railway police, who was posted at the Bornholmer Straße control point, reported to his superior that he needed to relieve himself – and never came back. According to the Stasi report of that day he was armed with a carbine, a pistol and a truncheon.

The Stasi added that two of his sisters lived in West Germany or West Berlin and that one sister's husband was serving in the American army.

Photograph of the Bornholmer Straße border area with soldiers, the steel bridge and the S-Bahn station
Border troops at the Bornholmer Straße crossing and S-Bahn station in 1982 Photo: Gerd Danigel, gerddanigel.de.. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sources

  1. Jahrgang 1961: Lage nach dem Bau der Berliner Mauer (11) – Bericht Nr. 491/61, 27. August 1961Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)

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  3. 22 August 1961

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