19 August 1961 · Driving through
A Konsum delivery van rolls through the wire at Staaken
The guards knew the van – it delivered to the Volkshaus restaurant every day – so nobody stopped it until it sped up and drove over the new wire fence into West Berlin.
At around 11.30 a.m. on 19 August 1961 a delivery van of the Konsum cooperative, a 'Granit' model, drove along the Nennhauser Damm in Staaken, in the section of the 2nd Border Detachment. The van regularly supplied the HOG 'Volkshaus' restaurant in Staaken, so the guards did not check it.
It drove at walking pace to about 100 metres from the border. At the Volkshaus it suddenly accelerated and drove over the barbed-wire barrier that had just been put up, into West Berlin. There was one man inside.
The Stasi's situation report of 19 August 1961 calls this breakthrough 'particularly noteworthy'. About 30 people gathered on the western side and were dispersed by a West Berlin police patrol car.
Sources
- Jahrgang 1961: Lage nach dem Bau der Berliner Mauer (3) – Bericht Nr. 457/61, 19 August 1961Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
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