10 September 1961 · Driving through
A lorry feints a turn, then ploughs through the Wall at Adalbertstraße
Two men in an H 6 lorry signalled a turn into Fritz-Heckert-Straße, then accelerated, forced a guard to jump aside and broke through the Wall into Kreuzberg.
At about 2.30 a.m. on 10 September 1961 an H 6 lorry with two men on board approached control point 49 at the corner of Adalbertstraße and Bethaniendamm.
The driver signalled that he was turning into Fritz-Heckert-Straße, but then suddenly accelerated and drove round the barrier sign in the middle of the road. The guard commander tried to stop the lorry with his torch and had to jump aside so as not to be run over.
The lorry broke through the border wall and came to a halt about 50 metres inside West Berlin. The Stasi report notes that several West Berlin police officers and American soldiers with four jeeps were present and concluded that it had to be assumed that the breakthrough had been prepared and was to be covered by the Americans.
Sources
Whose account is this? Drawn from a GDR record and a press report.
GDR records
- Jahrgang 1961: Lage nach dem Bau der Berliner Mauer (20) – Bericht Nr. 554/61, 10 September 1961Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
Press
Facts checked against the sources: October 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “A lorry feints a turn, then ploughs through the Wall at Adalbertstraße”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/h6-truck-adalbertstrasse-bethaniendamm-1961/ (accessed [date]).
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