25 August 1961 · Over the wall
A volunteer fireman slips away through the Eiskeller
A member of the Nauen volunteer fire brigade, sent to help build the border fortifications, fled to West Berlin through the Eiskeller exclave on the morning of 25 August 1961.
In the weeks after 13 August 1961 the GDR sent all kinds of auxiliaries to build fences along the border around West Berlin. One of them was the volunteer fire brigade of Nauen, which was doing 'pioneer work' near the Eiskeller, a small West Berlin enclave south of Schönwalde that jutted into GDR territory.
According to the Stasi situation report of 25 August 1961, one of the firemen used the job to escape: between 9.30 and 9.45 a.m. he got away to West Berlin via the Eiskeller enclave.
The same report noted four breakthroughs with six people on the ring around Berlin that day. In two cases workers building border fortifications, at Glienicke-Nordbahn and among a crew from the transformer works in Nauen, used their work to leave. The Stasi also listed the Eiskeller enclave among the places where the border barriers still had gaps.
Sources
- Jahrgang 1961: Lage nach dem Bau der Berliner Mauer (9) – Bericht Nr. 486/61, 25 August 1961Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
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