29 January 1962 · Window jumps
Fake chimney sweep abseils from Bernauer Straße 13
Dressed as a chimney sweep, a young man walked past the guards into an emptied border house, broke through a bricked-up attic window and let himself down on his sweep's rope.
By early 1962 the border houses on Bernauer Straße had been emptied and their west-facing windows bricked up. On 29 January 1962 a young man dressed as a chimney sweep came from the direction of the Elisabeth cemetery and walked up to the houses without being stopped; the border soldiers believed he was there on official business.
In the attic of Bernauer Straße 13 he broke through a window that had already been bricked up and let himself down to Bernauer Straße on his chimney sweep's rope, unhurt.
A border soldier posted in Bernauer Straße 6 only noticed him as he ran across the street. Two squad leaders were disciplined because of the escape.
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19 February 1962
Scraping out the mortar by candlelight at Bernauer Straße 46
Guards found a hole broken through a bricked-up first-floor window; a man had apparently scratched out the joints with nails by candlelight and jumped.
17 September 1962
West Berlin police open a cellar window for three young men
While a West Berlin officer held the guards' observation post at gunpoint, police broke open a walled-up cellar window and three young men climbed out.
19 August 1961
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Rudolf Urban and his wife let themselves down on a rope from their first-floor flat; he was badly injured and died in hospital four weeks later.
24 August 1961
Parents and 14-year-old daughter rope down from Bernauer Straße 10
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