4 February 1976 · False papers and disguises · Invalidenstraße and the Humboldthafen
Look-alikes for hire: the Dawid organisation's couriers arrested in Potsdam
Three West Berliners went into the GDR as tourists. They were to hand their own identity papers, clothes and handbags to two East Germans, who would then leave through the Invalidenstraße crossing as their look-alikes. The Stasi arrested them in Potsdam.
On 4 February 1976 three West Berliners crossed into the GDR at the Invalidenstraße crossing at about 11 a.m., posing as tourists in an Opel Rekord. Two lived in Wedding and one in Tiergarten. They were a former gardener born in 1955, a former wood-factory worker born in 1943 and a former housewife born in 1940.
According to the Stasi, they had been recruited by a senior employee of the Dawid escape-help organisation, a man born in 1947, and a second agent of the group. The report says he picked people in financial trouble and promised them money; these two were promised 2,000 DM. The youngest was to brief two East Germans on their escape, which was planned for that day. The other two were to give the escapees their own identity and border-crossing papers, parts of their clothing and their handbags. The escapees would then leave through the Invalidenstraße crossing on the 'look-alike principle', a method the Stasi said it had repeatedly come across recently.
The three drove to Potsdam to meet the escapees. At about 4 p.m., when they tried to make contact, they were arrested. Investigations for 'subversive trafficking in human beings' under § 105 of the GDR criminal code were opened against all three, and arrest warrants were obtained. The Stasi suggested raising the case with the West Berlin Senate at a meeting planned for 12 February 1976.
Sources
Whose account is this? Told from a GDR record only: documents of the GDR’s police, Stasi or border troops. No other account of the event is cited.
GDR records
- Jahrgang 1976: Festnahme von Angehörigen der Fluchthilfeorganisation Dawid – Information Nr. 106/76Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
Facts checked against the sources: September 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “Look-alikes for hire: the Dawid organisation's couriers arrested in Potsdam”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/dawid-lookalike-documents-invalidenstrasse-1976/ (accessed [date]).
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