Hitch-hiking on the U8
An East Berlin U-Bahn signal mechanic led three relatives through a disused connecting tunnel to the West Berlin U8 line, stopped a western train with his signal lamp and asked for a lift.
West Berlin's U-Bahn line U8 ran under East Berlin without stopping, past sealed 'ghost stations'. Dieter Wendt, 28, a signal mechanic with the East Berlin transport company BVB, knew the tunnels well.
On Saturday 8 March 1980 he got off at the almost empty Klosterstraße station with his cousin, his cousin's wife and their two-year-old child. Unseen, the four jumped down from the platform and walked into the 865 m Waisentunnel, a connecting tube used only by rare works trains, towards the U8.
In the U8 tunnel under the Spree, Wendt set the train stop to halt and signalled with his red lamp. A West Berlin BVG train stopped. 'We want to come along,' he said. The driver answered: 'Get in and lie down!'
Lying on the floor so that the guards at Heinrich-Heine-Straße would not see them, the four reached Kreuzberg minutes later. Afterwards East Berlin transport staff were never again allowed into the transit tunnels alone.
Sources
- Flucht aus der DDR: Per Anhalter in den WestenBerliner Zeitung
- Flucht aus der DDR: Was der Kalte Krieg für die BVG bedeutet hatBerliner Zeitung
- Die verrückte Flucht aus der DDR durch den Waisentunnel in BerlinBerliner Kurier
- Ein Mann kaperte 1983 einen Zug und wollte mit ihm in den Westen fahren - er kam aber nur bis zum Bahnhof Friedrichstraße: Republikflucht mit der S-Bahn endete vor dem PrellbockBerliner Zeitung
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