Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

25 April 1980 · Over the wall · Bernauer Straße

Martin M. reaches the watchtower at Ackerstraße

A day after quitting his job, Martin M. climbed the inner wall at Ackerstraße and got as far as the watchtower before he was arrested.

Black-and-white photo taken over the top of a graffiti-covered wall: beyond a sanded patrol road with a small military vehicle stand a square watchtower, a fence and a long white inner wall, with a tenement block and bare trees lining a street in the distance.
The border strip at Ackerstraße in 1989, seen over the Wall from Bernauer Straße: patrol road, watchtower, fence and the inner wall facing East Berlin Photo: Gerd Danigel, ddr-fotograf.de. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

On 24 April 1980 Martin M. quit his job.

The next day, 25 April 1980, he climbed over the inner wall at Ackerstraße and made it into the border strip as far as the watchtower.

Colour photo from above: a cobbled street with parked cars and cyclists runs between leafy trees; on the right a rusty steel wall and a square concrete watchtower stand in a sandy strip, and a white gable wall with a large black-and-white photo rises on the left.
Ackerstraße and the preserved watchtower and border strip of the Berlin Wall Memorial, seen from above in June 2013 Photo: Adam Jones, Ph.D.. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Border soldiers arrested him there.

Sources

Historians and memorials

Facts checked against the sources: September 2026

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Berlin Experiences, “Martin M. reaches the watchtower at Ackerstraße”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/martin-m-ackerstrasse-1980/ (accessed [date]).

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