17 August 1986 · Guards who fled
Two border guards climb the Wall at Groß Ziethen and celebrate in a West Berlin tavern
Days after the Wall's 25th anniversary, two East German border guards left their watchtower, helped each other up the Wall between Groß Ziethen and Neukölln, threw their guns back into the East and went to a West Berlin tavern.
On the evening of Sunday 17 August 1986, at about 7 p.m., two members of the East German border troops left their watchtower on a sparsely guarded stretch of the Wall between Groß Ziethen and the West Berlin district of Neukölln.
One guard lifted the other onto his shoulders so that he could reach the top of the Wall, about 13 feet (4 metres) high; the man on top then pulled his comrade up after him. They said nobody saw them. Once over, they threw their weapons back over the Wall into the East.
Still in uniform, the two went to a nearby tavern in West Berlin and announced their escape; patrons bought them beers. Police gave their ages as 24 (a corporal) and 21 (a private). They had got to know each other on duty two weeks earlier and decided to flee together. The married corporal telephoned East Berlin to say he was in the West.
According to AP it was the first escape over the Wall reported since the ceremonies of Wednesday 13 August 1986 marking its 25th anniversary. The Los Angeles Times wire report adds that two border guards had escaped at the same spot three years earlier. The guards' names were not released.
Sources
- 2 East German Guards Flee, Celebrate at Tavern in West (19 August 1986)Los Angeles Times (Times wire services)
- East German flees in crop duster (19 August 1986)UPI Archives
- Around the World; 2 East German Guards Escape Over Berlin Wall (19 August 1986; same text as the AP report)The New York Times
- E. German Guards Flee Over Berlin Wall (AP, 18 August 1986)Los Angeles Times
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