August 1961 · Over the wall · Treptow and Neukölln
A hairdresser cuts the wire at the Kiefholzstraße allotments for his daughter
When the border closed, a hairdresser who had fled in 1958 cut the new wire at his allotment so that his married daughter could crawl across, and then kept cutting holes for others.
Monika Schönicke's parents ran a hairdresser's shop in Prenzlauer Berg, and the family spent summers in a garden house on the Kiefholzstraße in Treptow. Her father left for West Berlin in 1958, opened a salon there and also took a garden plot on the Kiefholzstraße, but on the western side, only about 200 metres from the family's plot in the East.
On 13 August 1961 Monika and her parents were in the western garden house, while her older, married sister was on the eastern side and could not get through the roll of barbed wire. Her father fetched a cutter from the garden, waited until the People's Police had moved on and cut the wire so that her sister could come across.
Encouraged, he cut the fence again three plots further along. Whenever the police came close, the people waiting pulled the wire together; others handed the guards chocolate, cigarettes or schnapps, and the guards walked on without checking the roll. When they had gone, people came out of the gardens and slipped through. Monika Schönicke recalled at least ten such holes along the Kiefholzstraße. The family later went through the Marienfelde reception camp.
Sources
Whose account is this? Told from witness accounts only.
Witness accounts
- Flucht durch Schrebergärten – rbb eyewitness video (2011)rbb – Geschichte der Berliner Mauer (berlin-mauer.de)
- Flucht durch Schrebergärten – subtitles of the rbb eyewitness videorbb – Geschichte der Berliner Mauer (berlin-mauer.de)
Facts checked against the sources: September 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “A hairdresser cuts the wire at the Kiefholzstraße allotments for his daughter”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/schoenicke-kiefholzstrasse-wire-cut-1961/ (accessed [date]).
Related escapes
13 August 1961
Manfred Roseneit leaves his scooter at the Kiefholzstraße fence
Turned back at the Dammweg after going home for his papers, and filmed by the Abendschau behind the wire, a 22-year-old radio mechanic found a gap in the mesh fence between the Kiefholzstraße allotments the same day.
16 August 1961
Two men leave through the allotments at the Dammweg
At 6.10 p.m. on 16 August 1961 the guards at control point 64 on the Dammweg watched two men go to West Berlin, probably through the allotment gardens.
18 August 1961
Three wires cut at the Heidekampgraben
On 18 August 1961 a youth cut three strands of barbed wire at the Heidekampgraben near the Sonnenallee crossing and escaped. A family of three who tried to follow him through the gap was arrested.
26 August 1961
A family of five leaves through an allotment at Klemkestraße
On 26 August 1961 a family of five got past the Klemkestraße control point in Pankow by pottering about on an allotment plot until the guards stopped paying attention to them.
