13 October 1961 · Driving through · Kleinmachnow, Teltow and the Teltow Canal

Nine refugees run on when their lorry sticks in the wire

On 13 October 1961 nine East Germans tried to drive a lorry through the border into Zehlendorf. It got stuck in the barriers, but all nine ran on under constant fire and reached West Berlin; none of them was hit.

On 13 October 1961 nine refugees tried to break through in a lorry in the south of Berlin, on the border with Zehlendorf.

The lorry got stuck in the barriers, and the nine had to go on on foot while the border police kept firing at them.

None of them was hit, and all nine reached West Berlin. RIAS broadcast a conversation with the refugees.

Where the sources differ

Chronik der Mauer day entry (based on a RIAS recording) and Stasi report 679/61 of 1 November 1961. The Stasi report places the attempt 'bei Klein-Machnow' (on the Zehlendorf border) and attributes the escape to the guards' 'zu späten Waffengebrauch' (using their weapons too late). Map position: where Machnower Straße meets the former border at Kleinmachnow (OpenStreetMap; Senate wall data), approximate; the Schützenhaus was not located. Round 11: the West Berlin Schutzpolizei report for October 1961 (Chronik der Mauer node 180441) gives the time (about 05.06) and the spot, 'an der Zonengrenze Machnower Str., Nähe Schützenhaus', where the lorry stuck in the first of two barbed-wire fences. It says the nine reached West Berlin on foot with minor injuries but no gunshot wounds, and that the Vopo fired about 200 to 250 rounds from submachine guns and rapid-fire rifles towards West Berlin, as far as could be seen into the treetops (the Chronik der Mauer: 'Dauerbeschuss'). The street is taken to be the Machnower Straße in Zehlendorf, which runs to the Kleinmachnow border named in the Stasi report; Berlin's other Machnower Straße, in Kohlhasenbrück, faces Potsdam (inference). The 'Schützenhaus' was not located. The New York Times of 14 October 1961 (front page, David Binder; first paragraphs free, read in a browser, Oct 2026) reports from Berlin that early on 13 October nine youths crashed a heavy truck into the border barriers and leaped to safety, and that East German guards fired about 250 shots into West Berlin with submachine guns and carbines for more than half an hour; no one was injured, according to the West Berlin police, and most shots appeared to be aimed high, though a few grazed trees near head height. US soldiers who had driven to the scene had to take cover, and the US commandant, Maj. Gen. Albert Watson, protested to the Soviet commandant. The report does not name the place. Round 13: the CIA's weekly Berlin chronology (entry 13 October 1961) and the President's Intelligence Checklist of 13 October 1961 report the same event: more than 250 rounds fired into West Berlin, nine East Berliners who crashed a barbed barricade adjacent to the American sector with a truck and fled on foot; the Checklist adds that West Berlin police did not return fire. Both probably rest on the same West Berlin police/US Mission reports.

Sources

Whose account is this? Drawn from a GDR record, Western official records, a press report and historical research.

Facts checked against the sources: November 2026

Spotted an error, or know more about this story? Email us a correction or addition

Cite this page

Berlin Experiences, “Nine refugees run on when their lorry sticks in the wire”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/zehlendorf-lorry-nine-refugees-1961/ (accessed [date]).

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Sources

GDR records

Western official records

Press

Historians and memorials

Cite this page

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