Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

20 November 1963 – 21 November 1963 · Swimming

Hubert Hohlbein – under the Jungfernsee in a diving suit

Wearing a diving suit and weight belt, 21-year-old Hubert Hohlbein swam submerged from near Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam to the West Berlin shore by the Glienicker Brücke.

A marker buoy floating on a wide lake, with wooded shoreline in the background.
East German border buoy No. 13 on the Jungfernsee, one of the buoys marking the water border between the GDR and West Berlin, 1 May 1989 Photo: Lothar Weber. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Hubert Hohlbein, 21, had secretly practised in Berlin's waters with friends; two of them had already escaped by the same route.

In the night of 20 to 21 November 1963 he entered the Jungfernsee near the disused Meierei restaurant close to Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam. Wearing a diving suit and a weight belt to stay low in the water, he swam as quietly as possible through the cold border water.

A steel bridge over a wide river, with a wall and a watchtower on the opposite shore.
The Havel at the Glienicker Brücke on 1 May 1989, seen from West Berlin; the border ran across the middle of the bridge, with the Wall and a watchtower on the Potsdam side Photo: Lothar Weber. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

After about an hour and a half he came ashore unharmed near the Glienicker Brücke in Berlin-Wannsee.

In West Berlin he studied electrical engineering and later joined the helpers of the October 1964 tunnel through which 57 people escaped — among them his own mother.

Sources

  1. Gelungene Flucht durch Potsdamer Grenzgewässer, 21. November 1963Chronik der Mauer
  2. Flucht aus der DDR: Durchs WasserDemokratiegeschichten

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