19 May 1964 · False papers and disguises · Friedrichstraße station
A 'lost' Danish passport at Friedrichstraße
Fifteen minutes after someone had left East Berlin on her passport, a Danish woman turned up at the Friedrichstraße crossing to report that her papers had gone missing.
At 12.30 a.m. on 19 May 1964 a 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 said she had come over again at about 8.15 p.m. the day before to watch the rally and fireworks on Marx-Engels-Platz and that, after visiting the 'Casino' bar in the Friedrichstadtpalast, she had lost her handbag with all her documents 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
Whose account is this? Told from a GDR record only: documents of the GDR’s police, Stasi or border troops. No other account of the event is cited.
GDR records
- Jahrgang 1964: Festnahme einer angeblich dänischen Staatsbürgerin – Einzelinformation Nr. 412/64, 22 May 1964Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
Facts checked against the sources: September 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “A 'lost' Danish passport at Friedrichstraße”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/look-alike-danish-passport-friedrichstrasse-1964/ (accessed [date]).
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