18 August 1961 · False papers and disguises

Two 'postal workers' cycle to the West

Five days after the border was sealed, two men in postal service uniforms told the guards at the Brunnenstraße crossing they had to check cable lines at the border, were let through, and simply cycled into West Berlin.

A street with a double line of cobblestones set into the road where the Wall once ran
A double row of cobblestones marking the former line of the Berlin Wall across Brunnenstraße (2018) Photo: Andrzej Otrębski. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

In the first days after 13 August 1961 there was still a crossing point at Brunnenstraße, on Bernauer Straße; it remained open until 23 August 1961.

On 18 August 1961 two men wearing postal service uniforms reported to the control post and said they had to inspect cable lines right at the border. The guards let them pass.

Once past the control post, the two men got on their bicycles and rode into West Berlin.

Sources

  1. Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer – Bereich C: Der Bau der Mauer (Orientierungsplan und Ereignismarken)Stiftung Berliner Mauer

Spotted an error, or know more about this story? Email us a correction or addition

  1. 21 October 1961

    Hasso Herschel leaves on a Swiss passport

    Weeks after the Wall went up, the later tunnel builder Hasso Herschel left East Berlin on someone else's Swiss passport and immediately began looking for a way to get his sister out.

    False papers and disguises · Reached the West · Mitte

  2. 15 August 1961

    Conrad Schumann's leap to freedom

    Two days after the border was sealed, 19-year-old border policeman Conrad Schumann jumped over the barbed-wire barrier at Bernauer Straße into West Berlin, dropping his submachine gun as he went.

    Guards who fled · Reached the West · Mitte

  3. 16 August 1961

    Two policemen vanish from the Kobold works

    The day after Conrad Schumann's jump, two young Volkspolizei officers said to be his friends disappeared from their post on the Kobold works site at Bernauer Straße and reached West Berlin.

    Guards who fled · Reached the West · Mitte

  4. 6 October 1961

    Sewer escape helper Carl-August von Halle walks into a Stasi trap

    A West Berlin architecture student who had helped East Germans escape through the sewers was lured into a trap by a Stasi informer and arrested at Friedrichstraße station.

    False papers and disguises · Stopped · Mitte