13 August 1961 · Over the wall · Treptow and Neukölln
A family walks out at the Heidekampweg before the fence goes up
At 10.30 a.m. on 13 August 1961 a man, a woman and a child left East Berlin over the Heidekampweg, where no barrier had yet been built.
The Treptow police reported at 11.20 a.m. on 13 August 1961 that at 10.30 a.m. a family – man, woman and child – had left East Berlin illegally over the Heidekampweg. The barrier had not yet been put up there at that time, and a police auxiliary (VP-Helfer) saw them go.
At 12.05 p.m. the railway police reported that from the S-Bahn line at Baumschulenweg they had seen a total of eleven people cross through the Heidekampgraben into West Berlin that day, and that the armed units working there were behaving 'passively'. In the afternoon the combat groups reported that the pioneers on the Heidekampweg had stopped building the barrier because they had been given nothing to eat all day.
Sources
- Stab PdVP Berlin - Journal der Handlung, 13. August 1961Chronik der Mauer (document: Landesarchiv Berlin, C Rep. 303/26.1/239)
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