12 February 1966 · Guards who fled · Treptow and Neukölln
A soldier rides a freight train into West Berlin and is marched back
A border soldier escorting a freight train through the Treptower Weichengestell stayed on board and was 80 to 100 metres inside West Berlin when the train stopped; his post leader followed him on foot and marched him back at gunpoint.
At about 1.45 p.m. on 12 February 1966 four guards of Border Regiment 37 escorted a freight train of about 20 wagons from the Görlitzer Bahnhof through the railway passage at the Treptower Weichengestell into West Berlin. At the halt the post leader, Feldwebel Lothar Titz, ordered the men off the train, opened the gate and waved the train on. One soldier, born in 1945, who had ridden in the middle of the train, did not get off.
Titz fired one aimed shot from his submachine gun as the soldier's wagon reached the border; it missed. When the last wagon had crossed, Titz ran after the train onto West Berlin ground, signalling the crew to stop. The train halted with Titz about 50 metres and the soldier 80 to 100 metres inside West Berlin.
Only after the train stopped did the soldier get down and go back to Titz, who held his weapon on him and led him the remaining 50 metres to the border line. According to the Stasi report a West Berlin policeman about 50 metres away called out to the soldier: "Junge, lass Dir Zeit." The train then went on into West Berlin.
Sources
Whose account is this? Told from GDR records only: documents of the GDR’s police, Stasi or border troops. No other account of the event is cited.
GDR records
- Einzelinformation Nr. 124/66 über die Verhinderung einer Fahnenflucht unter Anwendung der Schusswaffe am Treptower Weichengestell (Postenbereich des GR 37/1. GB) am 12.2.1966DDR im Blick (Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv)
- Information Nr. 704/73 über den ungesetzlichen Grenzübertritt eines Westberliner Bürgers von Westberlin aus in die DDR am 21. Juli 1973DDR im Blick (Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv)
Facts checked against the sources: November 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “A soldier rides a freight train into West Berlin and is marched back”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/treptower-weichengestell-freight-train-soldier-1966/ (accessed [date]).
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