Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

10 March 1988 · Driving through · Glienicker Brücke and Klein Glienicke

Truck full of gas cylinders over the Glienicke Bridge

Three men drove a truck disguised as a hazardous-goods transport and loaded with 92 empty gas cylinders through four barriers on the Glienicke Bridge. It was the first successful escape over the bridge.

Colour photo of the green steel arch bridge with an empty roadway, a single car parked at the side.
The Glienicke Bridge border crossing in 1987, looking across the bridge towards Potsdam Photo: Jochims. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Around 2:00 on 10 March 1988 three East Germans, truck driver Bernd Puhlmann (37), former waiter Gotthard Ihden (37) and transport worker Werner Jäger (27), drove a truck onto the Glienicke Bridge in Potsdam.

The truck, loaded with 92 empty gas cylinders, was disguised as a hazardous-goods transport. It broke through the entrance gate, a swing barrier, a boom barrier and a steel gate.

Colour photo along the steel bridge deck towards a barrier gate, a stop sign, a red flag and a yellow 'Potsdam' sign.
The East German barriers at the Potsdam end of the Glienicke Bridge in 1987 Photo: Jochims. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

No shots were fired. According to the Stasi report, using firearms was impossible given the risk to people and buildings in West Berlin. The badly damaged truck came to a stop about 200 metres inside West Berlin, and all three were unhurt.

One of the men later said he had done it for love, to follow his wife to the West, and called it 'not an adventure but a suicide mission'.

Sources

  1. Gelungene LKW-Flucht über die Glienicker Brücke in Potsdam, 10. März 1988Chronik der Mauer
  2. LKW-FluchtChronik der Mauer
  3. Jahrgang 1988: Grenzdurchbruch mit Lkw an der Glienicker BrückeStasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)

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