May 1962 · False papers and disguises · Checkpoint Charlie
Reinhard Spiller drives his parents out on a forged diplomatic pass
In 1962 the engineering student Reinhard Spiller, who had got to West Berlin himself two days after the Wall went up, drove his parents out through Checkpoint Charlie using a fellow student's Austrian passport and a forged diplomatic pass, then helped about 50 more people out the same way.
Reinhard Spiller had been studying at the Ingenieurschule Gauß in West Berlin since 1959. The Zeitzeugenbüro says he used the commotion of the first days after the Wall was built and got across on 15 August 1961 at the Friedrichstraße/Kochstraße crossing, later Checkpoint Charlie.
In 1962 he brought his parents out over the same crossing. According to the Zeitzeugenbüro he drove them across using a fellow student's Austrian passport with his own photograph and a forged diplomatic pass; the ddr-zeitzeuge.de witness portal says the parents came out in May 1962 with forged diplomatic passports. Until 1963 he helped about 50 more people from his circle of friends escape this way. The nervous strain of every crossing, which he always made himself, the health problems that followed and the cost of the route made him stop. His methods of forging diplomatic passes were used further by other escape helpers.
Sources
- Zeitzeuge Reinhard SpillerZeitzeugenbüro (Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung)
- DDR-Zeitzeuge Reinhard SpillerDDR-Zeitzeuge (Koordinierendes Zeitzeugenbüro, Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen)
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