Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

24 January 1989 · Over the wall

Thomas Drescher and his friend caught at the Wall in Glienicke

On the night of 24 January 1989 the carpenter Thomas Drescher and his friend Dirk set a ladder against the Wall at Glienicke/Nordbahn and climbed, but a dog barked, a searchlight caught them and three armed border guards surrounded them. He was sentenced to 15 months and ransomed by West Germany in October 1989.

Thomas Drescher, born in Hennigsdorf in 1967, went to school in Schildow and trained as a carpenter. On the night of 24 January 1989 he and his friend Dirk rode their bicycles towards the Wall at Glienicke/Nordbahn, on the northern edge of West Berlin. He told the Spanish paper La Razón that they got past the watchtower on all fours, covered about a hundred metres, set their ladder against the Wall and climbed.

At the first bark of a dog a searchlight came on, and within seconds three border guards with Kalashnikovs had surrounded them. Drescher, then 21, was held in Oranienburg; La Razón says he was tried on 14 March 1989, and the Zeitzeugenbüro says the Oranienburg court sentenced him to 15 months. He believes a resident must have betrayed them. The Märkische Allgemeine reported in 2014 that the original ladder, found in a Stasi depot in Leipzig, stood behind him when he spoke to a school class at the Potsdam memorial Lindenstraße 54.

Drescher was sent to the Zeithain prison and did forced labour in the Riesa steelworks. He was ransomed by the Federal Republic in October 1989, a few weeks before the Wall opened.

Sources

  1. Zeitzeuge Thomas DrescherZeitzeugenbüro (Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung)
  2. DDR-Zeitzeuge Thomas DrescherDDR-Zeitzeuge (Koordinierendes Zeitzeugenbüro, Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen)
  3. Das Tatwerkzeug war eine Leiter (MAZ Magazin, 8./9. November 2014)Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung (PDF on zeitzeugenbuero.de)
  4. «A gatas conseguimos burlar la torre de vigilancia» (La Razón, 2 November 2014)La Razón (PDF on zeitzeugenbuero.de)

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