A man and a woman swim the Havel to Heiligensee in the dark
Before dawn on 29 September 1988 a 34-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman swam about 450 yards across the Havel from near Nieder Neuendorf to Heiligensee, eluding a GDR patrol boat; a passer-by took them to the nearest police station.
In the dark early morning of Thursday 29 September 1988 a man and a woman from the GDR swam the Havel to Heiligensee in the north of West Berlin, the police said. According to AP they set out from the bank near the GDR village of Nieder Neuendorf and swam about 450 yards; border guards in a patrol boat searched for them with searchlights.
The man was 34, the woman 20. On the western bank they spoke to a passer-by, who took them to the nearest police station.
The escape came one day after two young men had climbed the Wall in Kreuzberg despite several shots from GDR border guards.
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