3 March 1965 · Window jumps · Treptow and Neukölln
Clothesline rope escape from a Treptow border house
A 26-year-old engineer tied a knotted 50-metre clothesline to a fourth-floor window, lowered himself down, swung over the Wall and dropped into Neukölln.
Dieter W., a 26-year-old mechanical engineer from Görlitz, had joined the SED reluctantly as a student and was now being pressed to join the factory combat group. He fled from the flat of friends in a border house in the East Berlin district of Treptow.
In the early morning of 3 March 1965 he fastened a 50-metre clothesline, knotted four times over, to a window frame on the fourth floor. He climbed down it to the level of the first floor, pushed off from a window sill, swung out over the Wall towards West Berlin and let go.
He landed in the West Berlin district of Neukölln, breaking his ankle.
Sources
Whose account is this? Told from historical research only.
Historians and memorials
- Die Seilflucht von Treptow nach Neukölln, 3. März 1965Chronik der Mauer
Facts checked against the sources: September 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “Clothesline rope escape from a Treptow border house”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/dieter-w-rope-treptow-1965/ (accessed [date]).
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