13 August 1973 · Hidden in vehicles · Staaken
A courier of the Jensch organisation is caught at Staaken with a woman in the boot
A West Berliner working for the escape organisation of Jensch was arrested at the Staaken crossing with a woman hidden in his car boot; the Stasi said he had already taken at least seven East Germans out on the Horst–Staaken transit route since June.
At about 10 p.m. on 13 August 1973 a West Berliner born in 1945, from Rudow, was arrested at the Staaken crossing as he tried to take an East German woman to West Berlin hidden in the boot of a car on the transit route between West Germany and West Berlin.
According to the Stasi report he had contacted the head of the West Berlin escape organisation Jensch in June 1973 and agreed, for money, to carry East Germans hidden in cars under cover of the transit agreement. Since then he had had no other work. By the Stasi's count he had taken at least seven East Germans to West Berlin on the transit route Horst – Staaken since June 1973.
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
- Information Nr. 810/73 über die Festnahme eines Angehörigen der Schleuserorganisation Jensch wegen Verbrechen gegen die DDRDDR im Blick (Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv)
Facts checked against the sources: November 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “A courier of the Jensch organisation is caught at Staaken with a woman in the boot”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/jensch-organisation-car-boot-staaken-1973/ (accessed [date]).
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