Glienicke/Nordbahn, Frohnau and Bergfelde
The northern edge of West Berlin, where the street Am Sandkrug ran between Hermsdorf and Frohnau as the 'Entenschnabel' and the border ran on through the Bergfelde woods.
The Glienicke street Am Sandkrug, with the Falkenweg, ran as a cul-de-sac between Hermsdorf and Frohnau; its shape on the map earned it the nickname "Entenschnabel" (duck's bill). Residents reached their homes only through a separate control point, visitors needed permits, and families whose houses had been used for escapes were moved out.1 Between Hohen Neuendorf and Bergfelde the line ran through the woods. This stretch was closed in 1952 and built up from 1961 with walls or fences, a lighting line and a patrol road, and by the 1980s watchtowers stood on average every 500 metres.2
In 1961 a man with a bicycle climbed the barrier and a doctor cut both fences and drove through. Then three tunnels in fourteen months: the Becker tunnel, through which 28 people crawled to Frohnau in one night in January 1962; the pensioners' tunnel of May 1962, dug mostly by pensioners and 1.75 metres high; and the Aagaard tunnel of March 1963, dug for five months from a living room. Against the finished Wall, a man got over unseen with one two-metre ladder in January 1986, and Michael Bittner was shot at the final wall that November. In the woods, Joachim Mehr was killed in 1964 and Rolf-Dieter Kabelitz in 1971; at Hohen Neuendorf, Marienetta Jirkowsky was shot from a ladder in 1980 as her two companions got over.
Two painted Wall segments have stood as a memorial at the Silvesterweg since 2013.1 At the memorial for Herbert Bauer and Michael Bittner on the corner of Oranienburger Chaussee and Edelhofdamm, representatives of Reinickendorf and Glienicke meet on each anniversary of the building of the Wall.2 The Bergfelde command tower is now a nature-conservation tower, with stelae nearby for Mehr, Willi Born and Kabelitz; Jirkowsky's stele stands at the end of the Florastraße.34
Sources for this text
- Mauergedenkstätte am SilvesterwegGemeinde Glienicke/Nordbahn
- Mauerweg: Von Hohen Neuendorf nach Hermsdorfberlin.de
- Mauerreste: BergfeldeChronik der Mauer
- Mauerreste: Hohen NeuendorfChronik der Mauer
Checked October 2026. Facts taken from an escape record on this site link to that record, which lists its own sources.
13 events: 6 successful escapes, 2 failed attempts and 5 fatal attempts. At least 60 people reached the West in these events.
23 August 1961
A man with a bicycle climbs the barrier at Glienicke/Nordbahn
On 23 August 1961 an unknown man approached the border at Glienicke/Nordbahn with a bicycle and was over the barrier before the guard could react.
18 October 1961
A doctor from Hohen Neuendorf cuts both fences and drives through
On 18 October 1961 a woman doctor who lived right at the border in Hohen Neuendorf cut through both barrier fences and the concertina wire and drove her car, with two other people, into West Berlin.
24 January 1962
The Becker Tunnel ("Tunnel 28")
Twin brothers dug a tunnel from the cellar of the family home on the border, and 28 people crawled through it to Frohnau in West Berlin in a single night.
5 May 1962
The Pensioners' Tunnel (Thomas Tunnel)
A group of mostly elderly men led by 81-year-old Max Thomas dug an unusually tall tunnel from a chicken coop so that they and their wives could walk upright to West Berlin.
10 March 1963
The Aagaard Tunnel
A family in Glienicke spent five months digging a 50-metre tunnel by hand from their living room, hiding the sand inside their house, before 13 people crawled to West Berlin.
3 December 1964
Joachim Mehr shot in the wire near Bergfelde
After a spontaneous decision in a pub, 19-year-old carpenter Joachim Mehr and Hans-Jürgen K. ran for the wire near Frohnau; both were wounded, and Mehr was killed by further shots after they had given up.
7 July 1970
Willi Born – a young soldier's flight ends in the Bergfelde woods
Nineteen-year-old conscript Willi Born left his unit and tried to reach West Berlin near Bergfelde; when border soldiers cornered him in a strip of woodland he took his own life.
7 January 1971
Rolf-Dieter Kabelitz – shot in the snow at Bergfelde
A 19-year-old from Potsdam set off a border alarm at Bergfelde on a snowy January night in 1971, turned back when tracking dogs were set on him, and was shot while hiding behind a tree. He died of his wounds 23 days later under Stasi guard in hospital.
22 November 1980
Marienetta Jirkowsky shot from a ladder at Hohen Neuendorf
18-year-old Marienetta Jirkowsky and two friends climbed the border barriers with a ladder; the two young men reached West Berlin, but she was shot as her hands reached the top of the Wall.
20 January 1986
"Ladder of success" at Glienicke/Nordbahn
Shortly after midnight a man used a two-metre ladder to climb the rear wall at Glienicke/Nordbahn, set off the signal fence, ran the last 17 metres and used the same ladder to get over the final wall — the guards never saw him.
24 November 1986
Michael Bittner shot at Glienicke/Nordbahn
The 25-year-old climbed the inner wall with a wooden ladder and was shot in the back as he reached the final wall; the Stasi then erased almost every trace of his death.
24 January 1989
Thomas Drescher and his friend caught at the Wall in Glienicke
On the night of 24 January 1989 the carpenter Thomas Drescher and his friend Dirk set a ladder against the Wall at Glienicke/Nordbahn and climbed, but a dog barked, a searchlight caught them and three armed border guards surrounded them. He was sentenced to 15 months and ransomed by West Germany in October 1989.
26 April 1989
Stolen truck stuck in the death strip at Glienicke
A 21-year-old steelworker broke through the inner wall with a stolen truck but got stuck in the sand of the death strip after hitting a lamp post.