26 October 1962 · Over the wall
Two young men swing over the Sophien cemetery wall under fire
Shortly before midnight two men in their early twenties used the cover of the cemetery to reach the Wall; guards at Ackerstraße 42 fired, but both got to West Berlin.
Shortly before midnight on 26 October 1962 two young men in their early twenties escaped over the wall of the Sophien cemetery. They had used the cluttered, hard-to-overlook cemetery grounds to get close to the border barriers in the dark.
The sentries posted at Ackerstraße 42 only spotted them as they swung themselves from a barbed-wire entanglement up onto the Wall. Both guards opened fire. One of the escapees was probably hit in the hand.
One bullet struck the porter's lodge of the Lazarus hospital on the western side. The two men reached West Berlin.
Sources
- Gedenkstätte Berliner Mauer – Bereich A: Die Mauer und der Todesstreifen (Orientierungsplan und Ereignismarken), marker A 304Stiftung Berliner Mauer
- A 304 – Digital Guide, Berlin Wall MemorialStiftung Berliner Mauer
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