Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

26 October 1962 · Over the wall · Bernauer Straße

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.

A long grey concrete wall covered in graffiti runs across a grassy field; a simple wooden cross stands in the foreground and large buildings with red-tiled roofs rise behind the wall.
The preserved section of the border wall on Bernauer Straße, seen from the Sophien cemetery side, with the Lazarus hospital buildings in West Berlin behind it (January 2008) Photo: Beek100. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

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 poorly visible 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. The two men reached West Berlin.

Sources

Historians and memorials

Facts checked against the sources: September 2026

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Berlin Experiences, “Two young men swing over the Sophien cemetery wall under fire”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/sophienfriedhof-two-young-men-1962/ (accessed [date]).

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