Hennigsdorf, Nieder Neuendorf and the Havel
The Havel and the Nieder Neuendorfer See, where the water divided Nieder Neuendorf and Hennigsdorf from Heiligensee and Spandau in West Berlin.
North-west of Berlin the border lay in the water. The Havel, widened here into the Nieder Neuendorfer See, divided the Hennigsdorf district of Nieder Neuendorf from Heiligensee. From 1949 to 1990 a water control point at the lake let barges pass to and from Poland or into the GDR; pleasure boats were banned and there was no transit to West Germany. To get its shipping round West Berlin the GDR dug the Havel Canal in 1951–53.1 On the GDR bank the tower at Nieder Neuendorf, built in 1987, was the command post of Border Regiment 38 for 18 further towers.2
Many records here are swims and boats. In August 1961 a border policeman deserted in patrol boat G-65 while its boatman was away from it. In January 1963 two trainees swam through the ice floes of the lake to Heiligensee; the same month Peter Kreitlow was shot by a Soviet patrol in the woods two kilometres from the border. The Pole Franciszek Piesik drowned in the lake in 1967 after stealing a motorboat at Hennigsdorf. In September 1988 two men and then a man and a woman swam the Havel with patrol boats behind them. Men on border duty also left from the Stolpe-Süd section: four riot-police pioneers walked off during their breakfast break in 1961, a deputy company commander climbed out with a painter's ladder in 1968, and an off-duty lieutenant brought his own ladder in 1971. At the Stolpe autobahn crossing, opened in 1982, a Citroën and a ZIL truck were wrecked on the barriers in 1989.3
The command tower at Nieder Neuendorf survives as Hennigsdorf's border-tower museum, open free of charge from Tuesday to Sunday between April and early October, with an exhibition rebuilt in 2014 and a memorial stone by Heike Becker since 2009.2 Stelae for Kreitlow and Piesik stand on the west bank of the Oder-Havel Canal.1
Sources for this text
- Mauerweg: Von Staaken nach Hennigsdorfberlin.de
- Grenzturm Nieder NeuendorfStadt Hennigsdorf
- Mauerweg: Von Hennigsdorf nach Hohen Neuendorfberlin.de
Checked October 2026. Facts taken from an escape record on this site link to that record, which lists its own sources.
13 events: 7 successful escapes, 1 partly successful escape, 3 failed attempts and 2 fatal attempts. At least 14 people reached the West in these events.
August 1961
A border policeman steals patrol boat G-65 on the Havel
When the boatman left the boat for a short time, a soldier of the Groß Glienicke border unit deserted in the patrol boat G-65, taking a carbine, a machine pistol and a flare pistol with him.
1 September 1961
Three teenagers from Legebruch run for the border – one gets through
Shortly after midnight on 1 September 1961 three young people from Legebruch tried to break through at Hennigsdorf; guards fired 27 shots, arrested a girl and a boy, and the third youth reached West Berlin.
10 September 1961
Four riot-police pioneers walk off during the breakfast break at Stolpe-Süd
On 10 September 1961 four men of the pioneer platoon of the Potsdam riot-police training unit, deployed on engineering work at Stolpe-Süd, crossed into West Berlin during their breakfast break; a fifth turned back and reported them.
24 January 1963
Peter Kreitlow – shot by Soviet soldiers near Nieder Neuendorf
Five young men decided on the spur of the moment to flee from Hennigsdorf to West Berlin; still about two kilometres from the border, a Soviet patrol opened fire and 20-year-old Peter Kreitlow was killed.
31 January 1963
Two trainees swim through the ice floes of the Nieder Neuendorfer See
On the night of 31 January 1963 an LEW apprentice and a 20-year-old student on a work placement got through the border fences at Nieder Neuendorf and swam through the ice floes of the lake to Heiligensee in West Berlin.
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.
29 October 1968
After a night of drinking, a deputy company commander climbs out with a painter's ladder
Facing a dressing-down for a drunken farewell party, the deputy commander and party secretary of a border company crawled through the compound fence, took a painter's ladder from a house and climbed into West Berlin in uniform with his pistol.
4 July 1971
An off-duty lieutenant climbs out at Stolpe-Süd
A platoon leader of the border troops, born in 1946, went home after a dance, then climbed the Wall in the Stolpe-Süd section, where he lived, with a wooden ladder while guards fired 20 shots.
1 August 1981
A walkie-talkie from West Berlin: the planned break-out at Stolpe-Süd
A 22-year-old East Berlin window cleaner was to cross at Stolpe-Süd on a radio command from West Berlin, through barriers that West Berliners had already damaged – and the crossing was to be filmed. The Stasi arrested him first.
2 September 1988
Two men swim the Havel with a patrol boat behind them
In the early hours of 2 September 1988 two men swam across the Havel in the north of Berlin and reached West Berlin unhurt, although a GDR border patrol boat chased them.
29 September 1988
A man and a woman swim the Havel to Heiligensee in the dark
Before dawn on 29 September 1988 a 34-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman swam about 450 yards across the Havel from near Nieder Neuendorf to Heiligensee, eluding a GDR patrol boat; a passer-by took them to the nearest police station.
9 May 1989
Citroën at the Stolpe crossing
A 27-year-old fitter drove a Citroën through the first barrier at Stolpe at 80 km/h, losing the car's roof, before crashing into the base of a second barrier.
15 August 1989
ZIL truck overturned at Stolpe
A 28-year-old man drove a ZIL-131 truck through several gates at the Stolpe crossing until it overturned against another barrier.
