Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

10 April 1976 · Hidden in vehicles · Friedrichstraße station

Refugees in the boot of an embassy car: the Zaire attaché and the ARAMCO network

An administrative attaché of Zaire's embassy in East Berlin used his diplomatic car to drive at least eight East Germans to West Berlin in the boot. The operation ended when his courier was arrested at the Friedrichstraße crossing.

Black-and-white photo: men and women in coats, several holding documents, come out of doorways beneath a sign reading 'Zur S-Bahn in alle Richtungen und zur U-Bahn', with uniformed officials among them.
Visitors leaving the border crossing at Friedrichstraße station on 18 May 1972; the courier was arrested at this crossing in 1976 Photo: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-L0518-0036 / Horst Sturm. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de

At about 9 p.m. on 10 April 1976 a citizen of Zaire, born in 1946 and living in West Berlin, was arrested at the Bahnhof Friedrichstraße crossing as he tried to enter East Berlin. The Stasi suspected him of 'subversive trafficking in human beings'.

According to the Stasi, he was working as a courier and go-between for the commercial escape-help organisation it called 'ARAMCO AG'. He brought East Germans who wanted to leave to a second man, the administrative attaché of Zaire's embassy in the GDR, born in 1933, and helped them into the boot of the escape car.

Using his diplomatic immunity, the attaché had then driven at least eight GDR citizens to West Berlin through various East Berlin crossings. He mostly used the embassy's Opel Rekord and once his private Opel Admiral. The Stasi said he did it for money.

Because the attaché was a diplomat, the GDR did not arrest him. The Stasi proposed that the GDR ambassador in Zaire raise the matter at Zaire's foreign ministry and ask for the attaché's recall, so as not to strain relations between the two countries.

Sources

  1. Jahrgang 1976: Versuchte Fluchthilfe durch einen Angehörigen der Botschaft Zaires – Information Nr. 290/76, 13 April 1976Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv (DDR im Blick)

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