Otfried Reck – the S-Bahn tunnel plan

Otfried Reck, born in 1944, grew up in Mitte and dreamed of becoming an opera singer. In September 1961, aged 16, he was arrested at the Gartenstraße for protesting against the Wall and sentenced to eighteen months for 'incitement'. After his release on probation in August 1962 he feared another arrest and decided to flee, together with his friend Gerd P.

Their plan was to climb down a ventilation shaft near the closed Nordbahnhof onto the tracks of the underground North–South S-Bahn line and stop a train bound for West Berlin with a torch painted red. They had played there as children. On the early evening of 27 November 1962 they began to lever up the grille that now covered the shaft, while their friend Michael M., who did not want to flee, kept watch.

At about 6.30 p.m. a soldier on the tracks below heard noises and a search party set out. The friends sensed something was wrong and gave up for the day; when they noticed their pursuers they ran. A second lieutenant fired, and a bullet hit Otfried Reck in the back at a roller-skating rink, well away from the border installations. He died three hours later in the People's Police hospital.

Gerd P. escaped at first but was arrested the next day, like Michael M., and sentenced to three years in prison. In 1995 the Berlin regional court convicted the officer of manslaughter, finding that he fired even though he must have recognised that the escape had already been foiled.