7 May 1963 · False papers and disguises
Fake UN diplomats: the taxi driver's 'CD' car caught on Karl-Marx-Allee
A West Berlin taxi owner carrying a UN diplomatic passport in a Swiss man's name said he had already driven 16 people through Checkpoint Charlie in cars with 'CD' plates on six trips since April 1963. On 7 May 1963 he was arrested on Karl-Marx-Allee.
On the evening of 6 May 1963 a stranger with a West German identity card visited a shoemaker in Berlin-Lichtenberg and told him that his mother, who had left the GDR in 1958, had arranged for him to be brought to West Berlin. He was to appear the next day at 1 p.m. at a meeting point on Karl-Marx-Allee, wearing a white shirt and tie, and was given passwords: 'I want to go to the House of the Child' and 'The plane leaves at 4 p.m.'.
On 7 May a black Mercedes with 'CD' diplomatic plates drew up. A woman from Berlin-Hohenschönhausen and her two small children, who were also to be smuggled out, were already inside. All of them were arrested. In the car were two Geneva-issued diplomatic passports, with photos of the two adults but not yet signed.
The driver carried a UN diplomatic passport in the name of a Swiss citizen, but turned out to be a self-employed West Berlin taxi owner from Tempelhof, born in 1936. Questioned by the Stasi, he said that since April 1963 he had made six trips for a West Berlin escape organisation, in a Citroën, an Opel Kapitän and a Mercedes 220, always marked 'CD', and had taken 16 East Germans through the Friedrichstraße/Zimmerstraße crossing on forged UN diplomatic passports. The people had been told by couriers to wait at meeting points such as the Soviet war memorial, the Tierpark, the 'Haus des Kindes' and Karl-Marx-Allee.
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
- Jahrgang 1963: Verhinderte Ausschleusung nach Westberlin (1) – Einzelinformation Nr. 293/63, 7 May 1963Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
- Jahrgang 1963: Verhinderte Ausschleusung nach Westberlin (2) – Einzelinformation Nr. 297/63, 9 May 1963Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
Facts checked against the sources: September 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “Fake UN diplomats: the taxi driver's 'CD' car caught on Karl-Marx-Allee”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/un-diplomatic-passports-karl-marx-allee-1963/ (accessed [date]).
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