23 August 1961 · By train · Staaken
An engine driver uses the night shunting at Staaken station
At 2.30 a.m. on 23 August 1961 an engine driver from Wustermark took advantage of shunting work at Staaken station, then on the GDR side of the border, and crossed into West Berlin.
Ten days after the sector border was sealed, the Stasi's daily situation report of 24 August 1961 (No. 477/61) noted that breakthroughs were falling as the barriers were strengthened. Even so, it listed five cases on 23 August in which people got from the GDR into West Berlin across the outer ring.
The first was at the railway. At about 2.30 a.m. an engine driver from Wustermark broke through the border in the section of Staaken station, which then lay in Kreis Nauen on the GDR side of the line. The report says only that he made use of shunting operations to do it; it does not say whether he crossed on a locomotive or on foot between the moving trains.
The border fence around the station was new. West Berlin police had reported on the night of 20 to 21 August that FDJ members were putting up a second fence along Nennhauser Damm and Finkenkruger Weg in Staaken, and that nine layers of barbed wire already ran from the Brunsbütteler Damm to Staaken station.
Sources
- Jahrgang 1961: Lage nach dem Bau der Berliner Mauer (7) – Bericht Nr. 477/61, 24. August 1961Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)
- Chronik 1961, August (daily entries, incl. West Berlin police reports of 20/21 August on the Staaken fence)Chronik der Mauer
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