Peter Mindorf walks away from his post in Klein Glienicke

In the first days after the Wall went up, units of the Bereitschaftspolizei (riot police) were sent to guard the border around West Berlin alongside the Border Police. Oberwachtmeister Peter Mindorf of the 3rd company of the Potsdam training unit (Lehrbereitschaft) did guard duty with Border Police men in Klein Glienicke, the GDR village almost surrounded by West Berlin.

The Stasi situation report of 24 August 1961 records that he used a toilet break to flee. He took his submachine gun and 80 rounds of ammunition. His notebook was found near the border, and from it the Stasi concluded that he had deserted.

In unpublished memoirs quoted by the editors of the Stasi report edition, Mindorf said the idea came from his unit's political officer. Two border guards had fled together the day before, and the officer asked Mindorf for a written statement branding them traitors to the workers' and peasants' state. He wrote it as expected, but the request set him thinking. He had seen his police service mostly as sport – he boxed in Rudolstadt and became a trainer in Potsdam – while the political pressure kept growing. He said he never thought about how dangerous the escape was.