17 April 1963 · Driving through
Wolfgang Engels' armoured personnel carrier
A 19-year-old civilian army employee drove a stolen Soviet-built armoured personnel carrier into the Wall and was shot while climbing over, but was pulled into the West.
Wolfgang Engels, 19, was a trained car mechanic working as a civilian employee of the East German National People's Army (NVA). On 17 April 1963 he took one of the parked armoured personnel carriers, a BTR-152, and drove it to the border.
At the border between Treptow and Neukölln, near Elsenstraße and Heidelberger Straße, he rammed the Wall at 19:44. The vehicle broke into the barrier but became stuck.
When he got out he became tangled in barbed wire he had pulled down with the vehicle. A border guard opened fire from close range, and Engels was shot through the back and chest.
A West Berlin police officer returned fire to give him cover. Engels climbed over the Wall from the hood of the vehicle and was pulled onto the western side, seriously wounded, with the help of members of a savings club from a nearby bar.
Sources
- Gelungene Flucht mit einem gestohlenen Panzer von Berlin-Treptow nach Neukölln, 17. April 1963Chronik der Mauer
- Wolfgang Engels (Flüchtling)Wikipedia (de)
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