11 December 1964 · Hidden in vehicles · Invalidenstraße and the Humboldthafen
Hidden in the airport bus's spare-wheel box
The driver of the Interflug shuttle bus to West Berlin simply did not come back one morning; his girlfriend rode with him through the Invalidenstraße checkpoint inside the spare-wheel box.
A bus driver born in 1938 drove the Interflug shuttle between Schönefeld airport and the Helios travel agency in the Uhlandstraße in West Berlin almost every day, and was regarded as reliable and politically positive.
On 11 December 1964, at about 5:30, he passed the Invalidenstraße checkpoint as usual with his Robur bus and trailer and was not stopped.
Hidden in the spare-wheel compartment was his girlfriend, a service clerk at Schönefeld airport born in 1944. With the trailer coupled, that compartment could not be opened. Neither returned to East Berlin.
The Stasi put the escape down to their love affair, which the young woman's parents had strongly opposed; the driver was married with three children and had promised to divorce.
Sources
Whose account is this? Told from a GDR record only: documents of the GDR’s police, Stasi or border troops. No other account of the event is cited.
GDR records
- Jahrgang 1964: Flucht mit einem Bus der InterflugStasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (Die DDR im Blick der Stasi)
Facts checked against the sources: September 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “Hidden in the airport bus's spare-wheel box”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/interflug-bus-spare-wheel-invalidenstrasse-1964/ (accessed [date]).
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