18 August 1961 · Guards who fled
A police sergeant swims the Teltow Canal
At 10.00 on 18 August 1961 Kurt Sch., an Oberwachtmeister in the Volkspolizei's Rummelsburg pioneer platoon, swam across the Teltow Canal to West Berlin, about 200 metres west of the Massante Bridge.
In the days after 13 August many people swam the Teltow Canal between Treptow and Neukölln. On 18 August one of them was a member of the Volkspolizei.
At about 10.00 Oberwachtmeister Kurt Sch., of the pioneer platoon from Rummelsburg, swam across the canal about 200 metres west of the Massante Bridge and reached West Berlin. The Stasi's Treptow district office passed on the report at 11.15, and the Treptow police informed headquarters shortly before noon.
Sources
- Stab PdVP Berlin – Journal der Handlung, 18 August 1961Chronik der Mauer (document: Landesarchiv Berlin, C Rep. 303/26.1/239)
- Bericht Nr. 447/61, 18 August 1961 – Lage nach dem Bau der Berliner Mauer (2)Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
- Einzel-Information Nr. 462/61, 20 August 1961 – Flucht von BereitschaftspolizistenStasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
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Related escapes
18 August 1961
Two policemen climb out of the Liesenstraße cemetery
At 17.45 on 18 August 1961 two Bereitschaftspolizei men on guard duty climbed from the Liesenstraße cemetery over the wall into Gartenstraße. A crowd and a film van from the West Berlin broadcaster SFB were waiting on the other side.
19 August 1961
A policeman crawls under the wire at mealtime
On 19 August 1961 Volkspolizei Wachtmeister Manfred B. used the handing-out of food as cover and crawled under the barbed wire near the Sonnenallee crossing, in full kit and carrying a submachine gun. His fellow guard's weapon jammed.
23 August 1961
Two guards use a piece of fence as a ladder
Just after midnight on 23 August 1961 two Bereitschaftspolizei men posted in the courtyard of Kremmener Straße 5 leaned a piece of fence against the wall and climbed over to West Berlin with their weapons.
19 December 1961
Georg Feldhahn – a border policeman's escape at the Massante Bridge
A 20-year-old border policeman on patrol at the Teltow Canal slipped away towards the bridge to West Berlin and vanished; the GDR assumed he had escaped, until his body was found in the canal in March 1962.
