Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

16 July 1988 · Over the wall

Over the gate and into the control area at Checkpoint Charlie

In broad daylight a 23-year-old lorry driver working on Berlin building sites climbed a gate and a wire fence and tried to run through the control area at Checkpoint Charlie. Tourists on the western viewing platform photographed his arrest.

Black-and-white photo of a coach entering numbered control lanes under a canopy, with a gatehouse, brick walls and a sign reading 'Fußgänger Pedestrians Piétons'.
The GDR control area at Checkpoint Charlie in June 1988, a month before the escape attempt, with its pedestrian entrance and vehicle lanes Photo: Unknown photographer. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de

At about 5.25 p.m. on 16 July 1988 a 23-year-old lorry driver from Cottbus, who was working on East Berlin building sites under the 'Berlin Initiative' and living in a workers' hostel, climbed over a gate and a wire-mesh fence at the Friedrichstraße/Zimmerstraße crossing and tried to get through the control area into West Berlin.

Passport controllers and border troops overpowered him; he resisted violently and was heavily drunk. The crossing was closed for five minutes, from 5.25 to 5.30 p.m.

Night photo looking over a graffiti-covered wall into a brightly floodlit control area, with a dark building at right and street lights glowing in mist.
Checkpoint Charlie at night in 1988, seen over the Wall from the western side Photo: Roland Arhelger. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

About 100 travellers in 20 cars and three coaches were at the crossing, and about 30 people watched from the viewing platform on the West Berlin side; Western media published photos taken from there. He had already been sentenced to eight months in 1984 for trying to leave via Czechoslovakia.

Sources

  1. Jahrgang 1988: Fluchtversuch an der GÜST Berlin Friedrichstraße/Zimmerstraße – Information Nr. 355/88, 18 July 1988Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)

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