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 being pressed to join a factory combat group. He decided to flee from the flat of a friend 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
- Die Seilflucht von Treptow nach Neukölln, 3. März 1965Chronik der Mauer
Spotted an error, or know more about this story? Email us a correction or addition
Related escapes
23 August 1961
Both legs broken: a jump from Harzer Straße 110
On the evening of 23 August 1961 a young man slipped into Harzer Straße 110 by a back entrance and jumped from the second-floor stairwell window into West Berlin, breaking both legs.
13 September 1961
Fire-net escapes at Harzer Straße, Treptow
Two men escaped from Harzer Straße 109 into a fire brigade net, but two hours later East Berlin police used a water cannon and tear gas to stop two women jumping from No. 117.
19 September 1961
Five escapees rope down from the roof of Bernauer Straße 43
Four men and a woman crossed the rooftops, tied a rope to a chimney and let themselves down to the western pavement; the woman fell from the third-floor level and was badly hurt, and another woman was caught in the attic.
24 September 1961
Marianne S. flees as the eviction squads arrive
On the morning the forced evictions began, Marianne S. roped down from a window on a washing line and fell five metres; her disabled partner was left behind.