22 September 1961 · Over the wall · Bernauer Straße

Truck driver Heinz K. over the glass-topped wall

A driver for the Murante firm, which lay inside the border area, hid his truck between site huts and climbed a five-metre wall topped with broken glass.

Heinz K. drove trucks for the Murante company at Strelitzer Straße 53. After the Wall was built the firm lay inside the border area, and he had a permit to enter it.

On 22 September 1961 he parked his truck between site huts in such a way that the border guards could not see him.

Unnoticed, he climbed over a rear fence and then over the five-metre wall, set with broken glass, between the houses at Bernauer Straße 11 and 13.

Sources

  1. Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer – Bereich B: Die Zerstörung der Stadt (Orientierungsplan und Ereignismarken), marker B 372Stiftung Berliner Mauer
  2. B 372 – Digital Guide, Berlin Wall MemorialStiftung Berliner Mauer

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  1. 23 August 1961

    A house painter sprints from the doorway and jumps the Wall

    Renovation work in the border houses carried on after 13 August; a painter working at Brunnenstraße 139 ran from the doorway and jumped the Wall four metres away.

    Over the wall · Reached the West · Mitte

  2. 6 September 1961

    Günter Tr. climbs the Wall with a company ladder

    An employee of the Murante firm in the border zone went to work as usual and then, with a woman smuggled in by a colleague, climbed the Wall on a company ladder; the colleague was arrested.

    Over the wall · Reached the West · Mitte

  3. 13 August 1961

    Through the graveyard and the church door: Hildegard K. and her son

    On the night the border closed, a radio singer and her eldest son crept through back yards and the Elisabeth cemetery to the Reconciliation Church, whose door to West Berlin was still open.

    Over the wall · Reached the West · Mitte

  4. 14 August 1961

    Peter Hohmann sprints past the guards at Brunnenstraße

    A waiter who had gone back East on the night the border closed tried the Sophien cemetery the next day, then slipped past the first soldiers in Brunnenstraße and ran when the guard holding his identity card chased another refugee.

    Over the wall · Reached the West · Mitte → Wedding