5 December 1961 · By train · Staaken

The last train to freedom

Locomotive driver Harry Deterling drove a passenger train at 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 from Oranienburg. Together with his fireman Hartmut Lichy he planned to escape over the rail line from Albrechtshof to Spandau in West Berlin, which was still open.

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 train was later hauled back to Albrechtshof by another locomotive.

The line was then cut: tracks were torn up and barriers erected. It remained the last successful escape by train through the Berlin border.

Where the sources differ

Numbers differ. Chronik der Mauer: 25 people stayed in the West and 7 passengers returned voluntarily (about 32 on board). The Stasi report (Information Nr. 758/61) gives about 50 passengers, of whom about 30 plus the driver and fireman stayed in the West and 19 returned. The Stasi report gives the time as about 20:45. escapees uses the Chronik figure of 25. Chronik der Mauer says a GDR locomotive pulled the train back; the Stasi report says a locomotive of the BW Grunewald depot. Chronik der Mauer says the line was cut the next day; the Stasi report says the main track towards Spandau was to be interrupted from 10 December; Die Welt (2022) says the GDR closed the line the next day, and the Berliner Morgenpost (2011) that the tracks between Albrechtshof and Spandau were dismantled the next day. Coordinates are for Albrechtshof station. Round 10: the West Berlin Schutzpolizei report for December 1961 (Chronik der Mauer node 180443) gives about 20.50, the zone border crossed at Finkenkruger Weg and the train stopping at Leuthinger Weg, and 25 passengers of whom 18 registered as refugees and 7 went back voluntarily (Chronik der Mauer: 25 stayed and 7 returned; Stasi: about 30 stayed and 19 returned). It says the train was later pushed back by a Soviet-zone locomotive and that the line at Finkenkruger Weg had been cut 'seit dem 5.12.61' by tearing up rails and putting up barbed-wire fences (Chronik der Mauer: the next day). Three sources, three totals; escapees stays at the Chronik figure. Round 11: Die Welt (Sven-Felix Kellerhoff, 5 Dec 2022) gives 75 km/h and counts the refugees as ten women, eight men and seven children (25, the same total as the Chronik der Mauer); it says the uninformed conductor pulled the emergency brake, which Deterling had disabled, that two more people climbed through the wire while the guards were busy with the train, and that a Reichsbahn locomotive pushed the train back about an hour and a half later. The Berliner Morgenpost (Katrin Starke, 6 Aug 2011) gives 80 km/h and 32 travellers, among them his wife, four children, mother and sister, of whom seven returned. The Stasi report says the BW Pankow depot needed lengthy enquiries to name the driver, which suggests he worked there; that is an inference and the story does not state a depot. The locomotive number (78 079) is no longer given: no reputable fetched source names it. The New York Times of 6 December 1961 (front page; first paragraph free, read in a browser, Oct 2026) also gives 25 refugees, among them ten women and seven children, the youngest eight days old (West Berlin police), on a train of a locomotive and eight coaches from Oranienburg that was due to stop at Albrechtshof; it says one of the refugees leaped off as the train drew into Spandau and pulled an alarm to inform the police, and that West Berlin authorities later returned the train.

Sources

Whose account is this? Drawn from a GDR record, a Western official record, press reports and historical research.

GDR records

Jahrgang 1961: Grenzdurchbruch mit einem PersonenzugStasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)

Western official records

Tätigkeitsbericht der West-Berliner Schutzpolizei für den Monat Dezember 1961 [Auszug]Chronik der Mauer (document: Polizeihistorische Sammlung des Polizeipräsidenten in Berlin)

Press

Flucht aus der DDR: „Heute 19.33 Uhr fährt der letzte Zug in die Freiheit“ (Sven-Felix Kellerhoff, 5 Dec 2022)Die Welt
Vom Liegestuhl aus die DDR-Grenze durchbrechen (Katrin Starke, 6 Aug 2011)Berliner Morgenpost
25 East Germans Flee Aboard Train (6 December 1961)The New York Times

Historians and memorials

„Letzter Zug in die Freiheit“: Gelungene Flucht mit einem Dampfzug von Albrechtshof nach West-Berlin, 5. Dezember 1961Chronik der Mauer

Facts checked against the sources: October 2026

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Cite this page

Berlin Experiences, “The last train to freedom”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/deterling-steam-train-1961/ (accessed [date]).

Where: Albrechtshof station → Spandau (West Berlin), Spandau (map position approximate)
Map position: From a landmark named in the sources
52.550° N, 13.128° E
Border section: Outer ring (West Berlin / GDR)
Outcome: Reached the West
Reached the West: 25
Sourcing: Confirmed by several independent sources
Whose account: A GDR record, a Western official record, press reports and historical research
People: Harry Deterling, Hartmut Lichy
Themes: Children and families

Key facts

Train 2192, Oranienburg–Albrechtshof; one locomotive and eight carriages (Stasi report)
The train stopped about 500 m inside West Berlin
The line was cut within days (Chronik der Mauer: the next day)

The last train to freedom

Sources

GDR records

Western official records

Press

Historians and memorials

Cite this page

The works locomotive that stopped on the line

An engine driver uses the night shunting at Staaken station

Hitch-hiking on the U8

A Konsum delivery van rolls through the wire at Staaken

Sources

GDR records

Western official records

Press

Historians and memorials

Cite this page

Related escapes

The works locomotive that stopped on the line

An engine driver uses the night shunting at Staaken station

Hitch-hiking on the U8

A Konsum delivery van rolls through the wire at Staaken