19 May 1964 · False papers and disguises
A 'lost' Danish passport at Friedrichstraße
Fifteen minutes after someone had left East Berlin on her passport, a young Danish woman turned up at the Friedrichstraße crossing to report her handbag stolen.
At 12.30 a.m. on 19 May 1964 a young woman came to the Friedrichstraße crossing and said she was a Danish citizen from Copenhagen, on holiday in West Berlin, and that her passport and currency certificate had disappeared. She had come over the day before to watch the rally and fireworks on Marx-Engels-Platz and, she said, lost her handbag with all her documents in the 'Casino' bar of the Friedrichstadtpalast between 9 and 11.30 p.m.
A check showed that at 12.15 a.m. – fifteen minutes earlier – someone had already left for West Berlin on her papers. Since she could not identify herself and reported the loss only after the other person had crossed, the Stasi suspected a planned escape by the 'look-alike principle' used by West Berlin escape organisations, and she was detained.
She stuck to her story. The Stasi planned to release her to Denmark once the arrest warrant was lifted and, to head off a press campaign, proposed a protest to the Danish authorities and a statement to the press. The person who left on her passport is not identified in the report.
Sources
- Jahrgang 1964: Festnahme einer angeblich dänischen Staatsbürgerin – Einzelinformation Nr. 412/64, 22 May 1964Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
Spotted an error, or know more about this story? Email us a correction or addition
Related escapes
16 May 1964
The borrowed identity card: a wife crosses on a stranger's papers
A man who had fled the GDR in 1963 took a young woman from Holstein on a trip to East Berlin, kept her papers 'for safety' – and his wife, who resembled her, left through Friedrichstraße on them.
6 October 1961
Sewer escape helper Carl-August von Halle walks into a Stasi trap
A West Berlin architecture student who had helped East Germans escape through the sewers was lured into a trap by a Stasi informer and arrested at Friedrichstraße station.
21 December 1961
Joachim Neumann's Swiss passport
Engineering student Joachim Neumann dyed his hair, filled his pockets with Swiss odds and ends and played an aloof Swiss tourist to pass the Friedrichstraße checkpoint on a Swiss passport supplied through West Berlin student escape helpers.
7 May 1963
Fake UN diplomats: the taxi driver's 'CD' car caught on Karl-Marx-Allee
A West Berlin taxi owner posing as a Swiss diplomat had already driven 16 people through Checkpoint Charlie in cars with 'CD' plates and forged UN diplomatic passports. His seventh trip ended in arrest.