Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

21 August 1988 · Swimming

Four swim the Spree by the Reichstag as West Berliners watch

Four East Germans fled through the Spree near the Reichstag in front of many West Berlin onlookers; the crew of the pursuing border patrol boat did not open fire and all four reached the West unhurt.

A river in the foreground and, on the opposite bank, a sandy strip and a long graffiti-covered wall, with an elevated railway and a high-rise hospital beyond.
The Spree seen from the Reichstag bank in August 1990, with the Wall still standing on the far, East Berlin bank and the Charité tower behind Photo: Robert Hösle. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Near the Reichstag the Spree ran along the sector border between East and West Berlin, and the East German border troops patrolled the water with boats.

On 21 August 1988 four citizens of the GDR fled through the Spree near the Reichstag. The escape took place in front of numerous West Berlin onlookers.

A border patrol boat went after them, but its crew did not use their weapons. All four reached the western part of the city without injury.

The Chronik der Mauer does not give their names, their ages or exactly how they got into the water.

Sources

  1. Chronik 1988 – 21. August 1988Chronik der Mauer (bpb / ZZF / Deutschlandradio)

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Related escapes

  1. 10 December 1961 – 11 December 1961

    Ingo Krüger – a diver's attempt to reach his fiancée

    Separated from his West Berlin fiancée by the Wall, a 21-year-old cook and sport diver entered the Spree in diving gear near Friedrichstraße station; he drowned, and she watched from the far bank as a body was pulled from the water.

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  2. 4 November 1963

    Klaus Schröter – homemade diving suit at the Reichstag

    Engineer Klaus Schröter sold his television to build a weighted diving suit and tried to dive through the Spree to the Reichstag bank; guards shot him and he drowned.

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  3. 24 August 1961

    Günter Litfin – shot swimming the Humboldthafen

    Eleven days after the border was sealed, 24-year-old tailor Günter Litfin tried to swim across the Humboldthafen and became the first refugee killed by targeted shots at the Berlin Wall.

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  4. 15 December 1962

    Pulled out of the Spree 15 metres from the line

    Before dawn on 15 December 1962 border guards on a patrol boat fired about 25 shots at a man of about 45 who was swimming the Spree. They pulled him into the boat 15 metres short of the sector border, and he shouted to West Berlin police that he was wounded.

    Swimming · Stopped · Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg