29 October 1968 · Guards who fled
After a night of drinking, a deputy company commander climbs out with a painter's ladder
Facing a dressing-down for a drunken farewell party, the deputy commander and party secretary of a border company crawled through the barracks fence, borrowed a painter's ladder and climbed into West Berlin in uniform with his pistol.
On the evening of 28 October 1968 an Oberleutnant of Border Regiment 36 – deputy commander and party secretary of the 2nd Company, born in Dresden in 1939, married with two children – was duty officer at the farewell for soldiers leaving for the reserve. Despite orders, alcohol was drunk, and at 1 a.m. an inspecting officer had to restore order; the Oberleutnant was already very drunk. At 8 a.m. his company commander woke him and told him the matter would be taken up; the regimental commander summoned them both.
By about 9.10 a.m. he had gone. He crawled through the fence of the company compound, told the posts at the entrance to Stolpe-Süd that he was going shopping, took a painter's ladder from a family's home at Fasanenweg 22 and walked to the border about 450 metres away. Ducking to use the ground, he avoided the patrols and climbed over the barriers with the ladder, in uniform and carrying his Makarov pistol with twelve rounds.
The border guards noticed the breakthrough only at 10.15 a.m. A woman from Stolpe-Süd had seen him walking towards the border but thought nothing of it because he was an NVA officer. The Stasi recorded that he had joined the border police voluntarily in 1957 and had been disciplined several times for drinking; it concluded that he had deserted on impulse, and worried about the military secrets he could reveal.
Sources
- Jahrgang 1968: Fahnenflucht des stellv. Kompaniechefs der Grenzregiments 36 – Einzelinformation Nr. 1192/68, 29 October 1968Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
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