A hijacked taxi from Zerbst and a Boxing Day dash at Schönefeld

On Christmas Day 1963 three men left the reception home at Barby without permission. Two were 'returnees' who had previously lived in West Germany and had come back to the GDR, the third had moved from Hildesheim. After a day in pubs they decided not to return and to cross into West Berlin at Schönefeld, a stretch of border one of them knew because he had already crossed there on 26 February 1962.

Late that night they ordered a taxi in Zerbst. Outside Güterglück they ordered the driver, under threat, to drive to Potsdam; when he tried to get out, one hit him with a full beer bottle and the others tried to pull him from the wheel onto the back seat; they also pretended to have a gun. They picked up a cousin of one of them in Zerbst, took the motorway towards Berlin and, just before a checkpoint, made the driver leave it and drive via Mahlow and Kleinziethen. Near Schönefeld they paid him 156 marks fare and 50 marks 'compensation for pain' and walked into the border area.

At about 4.50 a.m. on 26 December 1963 the four tried to cross at the railway line from Schönefeld to Lichtenrade. Border guards opened fire, and all four were arrested. The taxi driver drove back to the motorway and alerted the security forces from the Rangsdorf service station.