13 August 1961 · Over the wall
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.
Hildegard K., a religious mother of four, worked as a singer for GDR radio and faced dismissal for criticising propaganda songs. She decided to flee in summer 1961, took some of her belongings to West Berlin and on 12 August sent three of her children to friends in the West.
The next morning she learned that the border had been closed. With her eldest son, Klaus-Peter, she looked for a way out. She knew that the Reconciliation Church stood right on the border, but several attempts to get through the wide cordon to the church failed, so they waited in a house on Strelitzer Straße until dark.
Feeling their way through back yards, they reached the Elisabeth cemetery and crept between the graves to the church. Its door to West Berlin was still open, and they passed through unnoticed.
Sources
- Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer – Bereich B: Die Zerstörung der Stadt (Orientierungsplan und Ereignismarken), marker B 338Stiftung Berliner Mauer
- B 338 – Digital Guide, Berlin Wall MemorialStiftung Berliner Mauer
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