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 hidden in 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 take their places in the car again and then get out one by one while a camera recorded it. The archive's captions describe a West Berlin car photographed from behind, standing on a kind of lifting platform, with a man – probably the driver – beside it holding the boot lid open and one or two people apparently lying curled up in the boot.
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
Whose account is this? Told from GDR records only: documents of the GDR’s police, Stasi or border troops. No other account of the event is cited.
GDR records
- 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)
Facts checked against the sources: September 2026
Spotted an error, or know more about this story? Email us a correction or addition
Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “A family of three in the boot of a West Berlin car at Drewitz”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/drewitz-family-car-boot-1975/ (accessed [date]).
Related escapes
4 March 1975
Escape helper Hartmut Richter caught at Drewitz with his sister in the boot
After smuggling 33 people out in the boot of his car, escape helper Hartmut Richter was stopped at the Drewitz crossing with his own sister and her fiancé hidden inside, and sentenced to 15 years.
1975
Peuker's brother hidden in the tank of a converted car at Drewitz
In the mid-1970s Detlef Hubert Peuker, who had himself escaped in 1969, helped smuggle his brother out of the GDR through the Drewitz–Dreilinden crossing, hidden in the tank of a converted car.
14 October 1972
A head waiter hidden in a car trailer at Drewitz
Two West German helpers, one a Free University student, tried to bring a head waiter from Friedrichshagen, born in 1927, into West Berlin hidden in a single-axle car trailer. The Stasi says the pair had already smuggled out several people over the transit routes.
30 May 1975
A doctor's family in the boot of a US sergeant's Cadillac
On the evening of 30 May 1975 a US Army staff sergeant drove an East German doctor, his wife and son through Checkpoint Charlie in the boot of his 1969 Cadillac. The East German guards apparently noticed nothing; US military police found the family and took the sergeant into custody on the western side.
