February 1980 · Over the wall

Two printers saw through a window and scale the Wall with grappling hooks

Two East German printers sawed through an iron-barred window in their newspaper building and climbed the Berlin Wall with grappling hooks and a rope, police said in February 1980.

Under cover of darkness, two East German printers escaped to the West by sawing through an iron-barred window in their newspaper building and scaling the Berlin Wall, which the report gives as 14 feet high, with grappling hooks and a rope. Police gave the news on Monday 18 February 1980.

The Christian Science Monitor, in a brief datelined Berlin, 19 February 1980, called it the most daring flight to freedom since two families had floated across the border in a home-made hot-air balloon the previous September. The part of the report that can be read gives neither the names of the printers, nor the newspaper, nor the place where they crossed.

Sources

  1. Two printers escape over Berlin Wall (19 February 1980)The Christian Science Monitor

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  1. 19 December 1979 – 20 December 1979

    Two young men climb the Wall

    In the night of 19 to 20 December 1979 two young men climbed over the Berlin Wall from the East, West Berlin police reported.

    Over the wall · Reached the West · Berlin (exact place not given)

  2. 25 April 1980

    Martin M. reaches the watchtower at Ackerstraße

    A day after quitting his job, Martin M. climbed the inner wall at Ackerstraße and got as far as the watchtower before he was arrested.

    Over the wall · Stopped · Mitte

  3. 22 November 1980

    Marienetta Jirkowsky shot from a ladder at Hohen Neuendorf

    18-year-old Marienetta Jirkowsky and two friends climbed the border barriers with a ladder; the two young men reached West Berlin, but she was shot as her hands reached the top of the Wall.

    Over the wall · Killed · Hohen Neuendorf (Brandenburg) / Reinickendorf

  4. 5 July 1989

    Guards order a 24-year-old to halt but hold their fire as he scales the Wall

    On Wednesday 5 July 1989 East German border guards ordered a 24-year-old man to halt as he scaled the Berlin Wall, but did not fire when he defied them; he reached the West.

    Over the wall · Reached the West · Berlin (exact place not given)