Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

5 December 1961 · By train

The last train to freedom

Locomotive driver Harry Deterling drove a passenger train at full speed through the terminus at Albrechtshof and across the border into West Berlin.

Tall grey outdoor information panel with German and English text and several black-and-white photos, including a family in a refugee camp and a railway line fenced off with posts.
Information panel on German division in the Bürgermeistergarten, Falkensee, telling how train driver Harry Deterling drove through Albrechtshof station on 5 December 1961, with a photo of Deterling and his family at Marienfelde refugee camp (photographed 2017) Photo: OTFW, Berlin. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Harry Deterling was a locomotive driver at the Pankow-Heinersdorf depot. After refusing to sign a declaration supporting the border closure of 13 August 1961 he faced dismissal, and together with his fireman Hartmut Lichy he planned to escape using the rail line that still ran from the GDR to Albrechtshof, next to Spandau.

On the evening of 5 December 1961 Deterling drove passenger train 2192 from Oranienburg towards Albrechtshof, the last East German station before the border. His wife Ingrid and their four children were on board, along with relatives and friends who knew of the plan.

A suburban railway station with platform and tracks.
Albrechtshof station in 2007 – the last GDR station, which Deterling's train passed at full speed in 1961 Photo: A.Savin. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Instead of stopping at Albrechtshof, the train kept going at around 20:50, crossed the border and came to a halt roughly 500 metres inside West Berlin. Deterling and Lichy took cover in the coal tender while the informed passengers lay on the floor; no shots were fired.

Not everyone on board had wanted to leave: some passengers chose to return to the East. The locomotive itself was later hauled back by an East German engine.

The very next day the tracks were torn up and barriers erected. It remained the last successful escape by train through the Berlin border.

Sources

  1. „Letzter Zug in die Freiheit“: Gelungene Flucht mit einem Dampfzug von Albrechtshof nach West-Berlin, 5. Dezember 1961Chronik der Mauer
  2. Jahrgang 1961: Grenzdurchbruch mit einem PersonenzugStasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
  3. Harry DeterlingWikipedia (de)

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