31 October 1973 · False papers and disguises · Checkpoint Charlie
Juergen Vicari tries to walk through Checkpoint Charlie in a US Army uniform
On 31 October 1973 East German guards at Checkpoint Charlie detained a man seen in US uniform with sergeant's stripes. According to his fiancée he was Juergen Vicari, an East Berlin actor who had planned to walk out through the checkpoint that day.
At about 5 p.m. on 31 October 1973 bus drivers coming back from East Berlin told the US military police at Checkpoint Charlie that the East Germans had detained an American soldier at the last guard hut. The checkpoint log showed that no US personnel who had crossed on foot were still in East Berlin.
At 5.20 p.m. the MPs saw a person covered with an overcoat being escorted by five East German officers from the guard hut to the customs building across the street. Tourists later reported seeing a man in US uniform, with the Berlin patch and sergeant's stripes, inside the building. When the American NCO in charge went in to ask, the East German checkpoint commander said only that there was no US soldier there.
The US Mission concluded that it was probably dealing with an unsuccessful escape attempt in US uniform, similar to an earlier case it had reported (BERLIN 1340), but as a precaution asked the Soviet protocol officer to investigate.
Soon afterwards a US citizen, Amelia Meissner, told the Americans that she was engaged to Juergen Vicari, an actor with an East Berlin theatre group. He had obtained a US Army uniform, she and several West Berlin friends had taken patches and badges to him, and he had planned to walk through Checkpoint Charlie at 5 p.m. on 31 October. He had not appeared in West Berlin. The consul warned her not to go back to East Berlin to look for him; the Mission, concluding that the East German police had caught and interrogated him, planned to advise her not to visit East Berlin again or leave West Berlin by surface routes.
Sources
- Incident at Checkpoint Charlie (telegram 1973BERLIN01890, 1 November 1973)US National Archives, Access to Archival Databases (Central Foreign Policy Files, RG 59)
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