9 March 1975 · Hidden in vehicles
A family of three in the boot of a West Berlin car at Drewitz
Three members of one family lay hidden in the boot of a car with West Berlin plates. At the Drewitz crossing the Stasi found them, arrested them and then made them climb back in so the scene could be photographed.
On 9 March 1975 the Stasi stopped the escape of a family of three at the Drewitz crossing, the GDR checkpoint on the transit autobahn where traffic left for West Berlin at Dreilinden. The three had squeezed into the boot of a car, hoping to be driven across the border without being noticed.
The attempt failed. Stasi officers opened the boot and arrested the family. The archive does not publish their names, and it does not say how the car was selected for the search.
What survives is a staged photo series. After the arrest the Stasi re-enacted the 'Personenschleusung' (people smuggling), as the official term went: the family had to lie down in the boot again and then climb out one by one while a camera recorded every step. The photographs, taken in a garage-like hall with the car standing on a kind of lifting platform, show two adults and a third person climbing out, and a man who is probably the driver helping them.
The Stasi Records Archive notes that preventing 'Republikflucht' became a central task of the Stasi in the mid-1970s; in spring 1975 Erich Mielke set up the 'Zentrale Koordinierungsgruppe' to coordinate the fight against escape and emigration.
Sources
- Nachgestellte Fotodokumentation der gescheiterten Republikflucht einer dreiköpfigen Familie an der Grenzübergangsstelle Drewitz (BArch, MfS, HA XX, Fo, Nr. 790, Bild 18-25)Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (Stasi-Mediathek)
- Nachgestellte Fotodokumentation … Grenzübergangsstelle Drewitz (PDF edition)Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (Stasi-Mediathek)
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