By boat
Stolen boats, excursion ships, canoes and inflatable dinghies.
Related methods: swimming
5 June 1962
Axel Hannemann – from a cargo barge into the Spree
A 17-year-old apprentice from Cottbus jumped from the Marschallbrücke onto a westbound cargo barge; when the skipper stopped, he jumped into the Spree and was shot a few metres from the West Berlin bank.
8 June 1962
The excursion ship "Friedrich Wolf"
Young East Berliners commandeered the passenger steamer "Friedrich Wolf", locked up its crew and swerved under heavy fire into West Berlin's Landwehrkanal.
17 October 1967
Franciszek Piesik – from the Oder to the Nieder Neuendorfer See
Polish inland-waterways worker Franciszek Piesik crossed the Oder into the GDR, stole a motorboat at Hennigsdorf and, when spotted, tried to swim the cold Nieder Neuendorfer See to West Berlin; he drowned.
December 1971
Two border guards take a patrol boat across the Spree
In December 1971 two 20-year-old GDR border guards disarmed a comrade, took the patrol boat moored at Mühlenstraße and crossed the Spree to Kreuzberg in broad daylight.
September 1985
A water police officer sails his patrol boat to the West
In September 1985 a GDR water police officer slipped away from his colleagues, boarded his service boat, faked a routine patrol and motored across the water border to West Berlin.
