11 September 1966 · Driving through
Bulldozer through the Staaken border
Two married couples and a three-year-old child flattened the Staaken border fences with an armoured 18-tonne bulldozer until a tree stopped them in Spandau.
The bulldozer weighed 18 tonnes and had originally been used to clear weeds on the death strip. The escapees armoured the driver's cab and the injection pump with steel plates.
On 11 September 1966 two married couples and a three-year-old child drove it from Staaken towards Spandau. It broke through an alarm fence and flattened several wire fences.
GDR border soldiers fired almost 60 bullets at the machine, and two of the adults suffered light grazing wounds.
The bulldozer was finally stopped by a tree, which stood on West Berlin territory in Spandau. All five had made it to the West.
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