Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

26 August 1961 · Over the wall

A family of five leaves through an allotment at Klemkestraße

On 26 August 1961 a family of five got past the Klemkestraße control point in Pankow by pottering about on an allotment plot until the guards stopped paying attention to them.

Colour photo of a snow-covered street passing under a steel railway bridge on iron columns, beside a high yellow-brick railway embankment with a round signal board on top.
Klemkestraße under the S-Bahn bridges in Reinickendorf in February 1986; the Wall ran along this street, separating it from Pankow Photo: Lothar Weber. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

According to the Stasi report of 26 August 1961, five people – one family – escaped at the Klemkestraße control point. Beforehand they had busied themselves on an allotment plot and so the guards had stopped watching them.

The report counted 20 people who had fled from East Berlin across the border, more than the day before, and blamed remaining gaps in the security system as well as weaknesses in the posts' checks.

Sources

  1. Jahrgang 1961: Lage nach dem Bau der Berliner Mauer (10) – Bericht Nr. 489/61, 26. August 1961Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)

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Related escapes

  1. 20 August 1961

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    At 7.50 p.m. on 20 August 1961 a man with a rucksack broke through over the railway line about 300 m from Wilhelmsruh station into West Berlin; an aimed carbine shot was fired at him.

    Over the wall · Reached the West · Pankow (Wilhelmsruh) → Reinickendorf

  2. 21 August 1961

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    On 21 August 1961 a fitter born in 1942, who was helping to put up a wire fence along the wall of VEB Bergmann-Borsig in Wilhelmsruh, left his brigade on a pretext and climbed over the wall with a ladder into West Berlin.

    Over the wall · Reached the West · Pankow (Wilhelmsruh) → Reinickendorf

  3. 29 August 1961

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    On 29 August 1961 two men from the house at Wollankstraße 14 in Pankow got away to West Berlin over the railway embankment.

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  4. 30 August 1961

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    Over the wall · Reached the West · Treptow-Köpenick → Neukölln