28 July 1965 – 29 July 1965 · Ziplines and cables
The Holzapfel family's cable slide from the Haus der Ministerien
A Leipzig family hid in the East German government's Haus der Ministerien, climbed onto its roof after dark and slid on a steel cable over the Wall into West Berlin.
Heinz Holzapfel, an industrial economist from Leipzig, regularly visited the Haus der Ministerien in East Berlin on business. The huge government complex stood only a few metres from the Wall, and he used his visits to study the building while planning an escape over a long period.
On 28 July 1965 Holzapfel, his wife Jutta and their nine-year-old son Günter hid in a toilet on an upper floor and waited until the working day was over and darkness fell. They then got onto the roof. They had spent months preparing padded socks, home-made harnesses, a hand-built pulley and a hammer wrapped in foam rubber.
Holzapfel threw a nylon line weighted with the hammer over the border strip to relatives waiting in West Berlin. They tied a steel cable of roughly 8 mm to it, which the family hauled back up and fixed to a flagpole on the roof; the other end was anchored on the western side, about 100 to 120 metres away, with the help of a truck.
The family then slid one after another along the cable over the Wall into West Berlin. According to the Federal Ministry of Finance, which now occupies the building, a Soviet observation post saw them but took them for East German agents and raised no alarm. The Holzapfels later settled in Munich.
Sources
Whose account is this? Drawn from a GDR record, a press report and historical research.
GDR records
- Jahrgang 1965: Grenzdurchbruch am Haus der Ministerien in Berlin-Mitte (2)Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
Historians and memorials
- Flucht der Holzapfels (Textfassung)Bundesministerium der Finanzen
- Haus der Ministerien der DDRChronik der Mauer
Facts checked against the sources: September 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “The Holzapfel family's cable slide from the Haus der Ministerien”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/holzapfel-family-cable-haus-der-ministerien/ (accessed [date]).
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