Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

5 December 1961 · Window jumps · Bernauer Straße

Through a hole in a bricked-up window at Bernauer Straße 2

A 27-year-old man crept through back yards into the cleared border houses, knocked bricks out of a walled-up window and jumped down about seven metres.

Historical photograph of a corner building with bricked-up windows and a small memorial with wreaths on the pavement
Bernauer Straße 1, next door to No. 2, in August 1963, its windows bricked up like those of No. 2 Photo: Roger Wollstadt. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0

On 5 December 1961 a 27-year-old man escaped from the first floor of Bernauer Straße 2. By then the border houses had already been cleared of their residents; he reached them unnoticed through the back yards.

He knocked several bricks out of a walled-up window, squeezed through the hole and jumped down about seven metres.

The western face of the Wall, scrawled with graffiti, runs along a snowy pavement; an 'Ackerstraße' street sign is in the foreground and a heap of broken masonry lies behind the Wall in front of apartment blocks.
The Wall at the corner of Bernauer Straße and Ackerstraße in 1985 Photo: Werner Kremer. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

The border policemen only noticed him when he was already hanging on the outside wall. West Berlin police picked him up and took him away.

Sources

Historians and memorials

Facts checked against the sources: September 2026

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Cite this page

Berlin Experiences, “Through a hole in a bricked-up window at Bernauer Straße 2”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/bricked-window-bernauer-strasse-2-1961/ (accessed [date]).

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