29 April 1963 · Driving through
A stolen army workshop lorry through the Wall at Leuschnerdamm
Shortly after midnight on 29 April 1963 a stolen army lorry drove through the sight screen, two wire barriers and the Wall at Leuschnerdamm. The Stasi recorded it as a serious border breakthrough by presumably four men.
This is a reported escape. It appears in a reputable publication, but its key details could not be checked against a second source. See the note below.
At about ten past midnight on 29 April 1963 two guards on the sector border in Berlin-Mitte saw a lorry approaching the border at about 50 km/h from the direction of Michaelkirchplatz. It was an army workshop lorry of the type G 5 belonging to the National People's Army (NVA). Because all traffic was being diverted along this route for the dress rehearsal of the May Day parade, the guards took little notice when it signalled a turn towards Heinrich-Heine-Straße.
Instead the lorry kept its speed and drove straight at the border. It broke through the sight screen, an iron gate in the first wire barrier and the second wire barrier, drove about 60 metres along the control strip and then smashed into the Wall level with the plot Leuschnerdamm 7. Only when it broke through the sight screen and the gate did the guards open fire; they fired five shots, and the only hit found was a bullet hole in the windscreen.
The lorry went through the Wall as far as its load body. Falling wall slabs and their ring anchoring stopped it from breaking through completely, and according to the Stasi its front was still on East Berlin territory, because the kerb formed the actual border line. The Stasi blamed the guards' slow reaction and a gap in the vehicle barrier that had been rebuilt three days earlier, against orders, so that it could be driven through in a straight line.
The lorry belonged to an air force technical battalion at Karlshagen/Peenemünde. Two airmen had brought it to Berlin with an engine for a repair workshop, and it had been left in a garage while its gearbox was repaired. The Stasi identified four men living in the Berlin C 2 postal district, among them an employee of the workshop, as the perpetrators. They had met on the evening of 28 April, drunk heavily in a pub and then stolen the lorry.
The Stasi report, written the next day, calls the event a serious border breakthrough by presumably four persons and says that the search for the occupants had led to the four men being identified. It does not say that any of them was arrested, and the Stasi Records Archive's edition publishes the report under the title 'Escape to West Berlin by NVA lorry'.
Sources
- Jahrgang 1963: Flucht nach Westberlin mittels Lkw der NVA – Einzelinformation Nr. 270/63, 30 April 1963Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
Spotted an error, or know more about this story? Email us a correction or addition
Related escapes
10 September 1961
A lorry feints a turn, then ploughs through the Wall at Adalbertstraße
Two men in an H 6 lorry signalled a turn into Fritz-Heckert-Straße, then accelerated, forced a guard to jump aside and broke through the Wall into Kreuzberg.
3 October 1961
A Tatra crane lorry breaks through at Heinrich-Heine-Straße
Just before the checkpoint a building firm's crane lorry swung into Dresdner Straße, crashed through the border wall between two new blocks and raced into Kreuzberg under machine-pistol fire.
18 April 1962
Fatal truck breakthrough at Heinrich-Heine-Straße
Three young East Berliners crashed a truck through the Heinrich-Heine-Straße crossing; they reached the West, but the driver, 23-year-old Klaus Brueske, died of his injuries.
4 July 1963
A gunner steals a loaded T-34 tank to break through to West Berlin
Left alone in his barracks, a young NVA tank gunner took the keys to the tank hall, loaded the machine guns of a T-34/85, picked up a friend and set off towards the border – until an officer jumped onto the moving tank.