By train
Rail lines that crossed the border before they were cut.
The best-known rail escape is the through-train of 5 December 1961: Harry Deterling drove passenger train 2192 past Albrechtshof, the last East German station before the border, and about 500 metres into West Berlin, and 25 people stayed there. The Chronik der Mauer says the line was cut the next day.
After that most of the rail records on this site are at places where the two networks still met. The US National Archives essay lists sealed or blocked underground railway tunnels among the GDR's first countermeasures.1 In November 1962 Otfried Reck and a friend tried to open a shaft into the North–South S-Bahn tunnel near the Nordbahnhof to stop a westbound train; discovered, he was shot in the back as he ran. In March 1980 a signal mechanic led three relatives through a connecting tunnel used only by occasional works trains to the West Berlin U8 and stopped a western train with his signal lamp.
Friedrichstraße station was divided inside: a wire-glass wall about three metres high separated the platforms, and in 1982 a soundproof steel wall the full height of the hall was put in.2 In January 1964 young East Berliners jumped onto the Moscow–Paris Express from a hiding place just behind the station, until one of them stumbled. In May 1983 a man with an air rifle tried to make an S-Bahn driver run on into West Berlin and was overpowered short of the buffer stop.
The rest are mostly jumps from trains near the border. An East Berlin youth pulled the emergency brake near the Bornholmer Straße crossing in 1977 and scrambled over the Wall; on 13 January 1989 Ingolf Diederichs climbed out of a moving S-Bahn train at the Bösebrücke with a folding ladder made from cot slats, was caught on the train and killed.
Sources for this text
- Donald P. Steury, 'Tunneling to Freedom' (Berlin Wall 1962–1987 document collection)US National Archives (NARA)
- Bahnhof Friedrichstraße: ein Museum der ErinnerungenChronik der Mauer
Checked October 2026. Facts taken from an escape record on this site link to that record, which lists its own sources.
17 events: 8 successful escapes, 1 partly successful escape, 4 failed attempts and 4 fatal attempts. At least 37 people reached the West in these events.
Related methods: driving through
14 August 1961
The works locomotive that stopped on the line
On 14 August 1961 the driver of a works locomotive at VEB Bergmann-Borsig drove out of the plant towards Wilhelmsruh, stopped on the line and got away to West Berlin.
23 August 1961
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.
5 December 1961
The last train to freedom
Locomotive driver Harry Deterling drove a passenger train at speed through the terminus at Albrechtshof and across the border into West Berlin.
27 November 1962
Otfried Reck – the S-Bahn tunnel plan
Two friends tried to open a ventilation shaft to the North–South S-Bahn tunnel near the Nordbahnhof and stop a westbound train; discovered, they ran away and 17-year-old Otfried Reck was shot in the back.
January 1964
Jumping onto the Moscow–Paris Express behind Friedrichstraße
In January 1964 a group of young East Berliners jumped, alone or in pairs, from a hiding place just behind Friedrichstraße station onto the westbound Moscow–Paris Express. The route was discovered when Karl-Heinz Richter stumbled, was badly hurt and was arrested.
14 March 1964
The wheelchair on the S-Bahn to Zoo
Two young men, one of them posing as a frail wheelchair user, cut the padlock off the lift to the westbound platform at Friedrichstraße and let the S-Bahn staff help them onto a train to Bahnhof Zoo.
January 1965
Through a cut grille between the S-Bahn platforms
A young West Berliner who had fled himself the year before cut a grille beneath the glass wall between the S-Bahn platforms at Friedrichstraße so that his girlfriend could slip through.
1967
Two transport workers plan to stop a West Berlin U-Bahn train under Alexanderplatz
In summer 1967 two 20-year-old East Berlin transport workers planned to climb from a workshop at Alexanderplatz station into the tunnel of the West Berlin line (today's U8) and stop a westbound train. A colleague informed the Stasi.
10 January 1969
A kick through the glass wall at Friedrichstraße
Shortly after midnight a man kicked in a glass panel of the partition at Friedrichstraße station and got into the hall where the trains to West Berlin left, but he was arrested on the next westbound train.
1 May 1969
May Day: a train driver and conductor take an empty train to the West
On 1 May 1969 an East German train driver and a woman conductor drove an empty train of Berlin's elevated railway to a West Berlin stop, got out and asked for political asylum.
1 March 1973 – 5 March 1973
Volker Frommann jumps from a moving S-Bahn near the border
Shortly after midnight on 1 March 1973 Volker Frommann, born in 1944 in Thuringia, jumped out of a moving S-Bahn train about 50 metres from the border strip in Pankow, probably meaning to get through to West Berlin there. He died of his injuries four days later.
30 June 1974
A jump from a moving S-Bahn at Bornholmer Straße
An East Berlin lorry driver tried to jump from a moving S-Bahn where the tracks ran through the border strip at Bornholmer Straße; he fractured the base of his skull and was arrested by border troops.
May 1977
Emergency brake by the Wall at Bornholmer Straße
An East Berlin youth pulled the emergency brake of a train passing near the Bornholmer Straße crossing point, jumped to the Wall and scrambled over it into West Berlin.
8 March 1980
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.
12 December 1981
Thomas Taubmann jumps from a freight train under the Bösebrücke
On the evening of 12 December 1981 Thomas Taubmann climbed onto a freight train leaving Pankow and jumped off beneath the Bösebrücke, right at the border. He was found dead on the tracks.
27 May 1983
The S-Bahn hijacking at Friedrichstraße
A 24-year-old forced his way into an S-Bahn driver's cab with an air rifle and tried to make the train run on into West Berlin; it stopped short of a buffer stop and he was overpowered by officers of the passport control unit.
13 January 1989
Ingolf Diederichs dies jumping from an S-Bahn at Bösebrücke
The 24-year-old climbed out of a moving S-Bahn train with a home-made folding ladder near the Bornholmer Straße crossing, got caught on the train and was killed.
