Thomas Taubmann jumps from a freight train under the Bösebrücke

Thomas Taubmann, born in Berlin in 1955, grew up in Weißensee, trained as a machine fitter and was sent by his employer to study engineering. In 1979 his marriage broke down and he left his studies shortly before finishing. He developed a drinking problem, and in autumn 1981 he was caught leaving a supermarket without paying; he was due in court on 14 December 1981.

On Saturday, 12 December 1981, after drinking heavily, he climbed unnoticed onto a freight train that had stopped briefly at the exit of Pankow station heading towards the city centre. Directly beneath the Bösebrücke, at the Bornholmer Straße crossing, he jumped off. The Wall there was almost five metres high. What happened next can only be inferred: from the traces, the Stasi concluded that he fell under the freight train after jumping and was run over. The driver of an oncoming train later noticed him on the tracks.

In his flat investigators found a farewell letter dated 11 December in which he told his parents he was going to Czechoslovakia to try to cross into Austria. Either he changed his plan, or he laid a false trail to protect his parents. The Stasi decided to treat the case as an accident, apparently also because the summit between Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Erich Honecker at the Werbellinsee was taking place at the same time.

His parents were told only of a fatal accident under the influence of alcohol. His father learned the true circumstances from the Stasi files 27 years later.