Jens Bernhardt waits until his partner falls asleep and climbs the fence into Spandau
In July 1987 a young conscript border guard hid his sleeping tower partner's ammunition at 3 a.m., climbed down and pulled himself over the steel-mesh fence into Spandau with metal hooks. He later spoke publicly about how the shoot-to-kill order was applied.
Jens Bernhardt was called up for his basic military service into the GDR border troops. After six months' training he was posted to the Wall, 'whether I wanted it or not'. He later said he decided to flee because he feared the moment when he might have to shoot someone who was escaping.
He said guards always served in pairs, but partners and towers were changed regularly so that trust between them could not grow. After two weeks of planning, one night in July 1987 Bernhardt waited until his tower partner fell asleep at 3 a.m., hid the other man's ammunition and climbed down from the tower.
By his account, his knees were weak with fear of being seen and shot at from another tower; he staggered across the strip to the steel-mesh fence, about 10 feet (3 metres) high, that separated GDR territory near Potsdam from West Berlin's Spandau district, and pulled himself over it with metal hooks stuck into the holes of the panels. He crossed in uniform.
On 11 August 1987 he appeared at a press conference of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft 13. August and said the shoot-to-kill order was applied flexibly: during visits by prominent people to West Berlin, such as President Reagan and the Queen, the border guard was reinforced, at night even doubled, and any use of firearms against escapees was forbidden. He stayed in West Berlin, working as a guide at a museum on the West Berlin side of Checkpoint Charlie, and told AP in December 1988 that he would be prosecuted as a deserter if he went home.
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