24 July 1984 · Over the wall · Bernauer Straße

Ladder escape at Brunnenstraße despite an aimed shot

An unknown man climbed the inner wall with a ladder, set off the alarm cutting the signal fence, and got over the Wall after the Schönholzer Straße tower fired a warning shot and a missed aimed shot.

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 April 2022, where the border houses stood; the gable mural shows a 1961 photo Photo: Francesco Adami. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

On 24 July 1984 an unknown man escaped to the West at Brunnenstraße.

He climbed the inner wall with a ladder and set off the alarm while cutting through the signal fence.

The sentry in the watchtower at Schönholzer Straße fired first a warning shot and then an aimed shot at him. The shot missed, and the man got over the border wall unhurt.

Sources

  1. Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer – Bereich C: Der Bau der Mauer (Orientierungsplan und Ereignismarken), marker C 405Stiftung Berliner Mauer
  2. C 405 – Digital Guide, Berlin Wall MemorialStiftung Berliner Mauer

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  1. 19 November 1986

    Dieter H.'s folding-ladder escape under fire

    A toolmaker who had been refused permission to emigrate and jailed for two years built a small collapsible ladder, cut through the signal fence at Brunnenstraße and got over the 3.6-metre Wall while twelve shots were fired at him.

    Over the wall · Reached the West · Mitte

  2. 15 January 1966

    Gerd L. turns back under warning shots and hides at Brunnenstraße 141

    A local resident reached the border strip, then under construction; warning shots turned him back and he was arrested on the top floor of Brunnenstraße 141.

    Over the wall · Stopped · Mitte

  3. 27 October 1968

    The guards couldn't open their window: folding-ladder escape at Schönholzer Straße

    At 1 a.m. a man with a folding ladder crossed every barrier; by the time the Ruppiner Straße tower crew had smashed their jammed window and fired, he was in the West.

    Over the wall · Reached the West · Mitte

  4. 1 December 1984

    Michael Schmidt shot at Schulzestraße

    A 20-year-old carpenter used ladders from his worksite to climb into the border strip at Schulzestraße; shot in the back and knee, he waited almost an hour for an ambulance and died in hospital.

    Over the wall · Killed · Pankow