Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

13 January 1989 · By train

Ingolf Diederichs dies jumping from an S-Bahn at Bösebrücke

The 24-year-old climbed out of a moving S-Bahn train with a home-made folding ladder near the Bornholmer Straße crossing, got caught on the train and was killed.

A railway cutting with tracks, a concrete wall alongside, and a steel road bridge crossing overhead
The railway corridor at the Bösebrücke in June 1988, with the Berlin Wall, the bridge and Bornholmer Straße station – the stretch where Ingolf Diederichs jumped from an S-Bahn train in January 1989 Photo: Roehrensee. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ingolf Diederichs was born on 13 April 1964. Early on the evening of 13 January 1989 he boarded an S-Bahn train at Pankow heading towards Schönhauser Allee, carrying a wooden folding ladder he had built from the slats of a child's cot.

At about 6:30 p.m., at a point very close to the Bornholmer Straße crossing and the Bösebrücke bridge, he climbed out and jumped from the moving train. He got caught on the train, was dragged along, and suffered severe head injuries that killed him instantly.

Railway land split by a long concrete wall, with West Berlin tracks on the left and East Berlin tracks on the right
The Berlin Wall dividing the railway lines just north of the Bösebrücke at Bornholmer Straße, August 1984 Photo: Hagen Pelka, Berlin. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

It is not known exactly what led him to take such a risk. The Stasi constructed a cover story presenting the escape attempt as a mere accident, and his relatives were told only that he had fallen from a moving train.

A preliminary investigation opened by Berlin prosecutors in late August 1994 was closed the following month, as there was no evidence that anyone else had caused his death.

Sources

Press

Historians and memorials

Facts checked against the sources: September 2026

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Berlin Experiences, “Ingolf Diederichs dies jumping from an S-Bahn at Bösebrücke”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/ingolf-diederichs-1989/ (accessed [date]).

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