The Spree between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain
Here the river itself was the border, from the Oberbaumbrücke along today's East Side Gallery.
Between the Oberbaumbrücke and the Schillingbrücke the river was the border: the line with West Berlin ran along the far, Kreuzberg bank from 1945 to 1990, so the Wall on Mühlenstraße was the rear wall of the strip.12 After August 1961 people swam the Spree here; the half-empty houses and ruins on Mühlenstraße gave cover on the way to the water, until the GDR had them demolished by 1977 and put up the "Grenzmauer 75" with elements 3.6 metres high. At least seven men died trying to cross the Spree here.3
The records are mostly swims and boats. In October 1961 the railway worker Udo Düllick drowned under fire just short of the Kreuzberg bank; in November a swimmer at the Schillingbrücke was injured when 27 rounds were fired at him from a water-police boat, yet reached the western bank. In June 1962 young East Berliners commandeered the excursion steamer Friedrich Wolf and steered it under fire into the Landwehrkanal; the GDR then built a control jetty nearly 500 metres long for shipping below today's Molecule Men.1 In August 1965 a 31-year-old miner went through the ruins on Mühlenstraße to the river and got across, and in December 1971 two border guards took their patrol boat from Mühlenstraße 74/77 to Kreuzberg at midday. On the Flutgraben, a workshop building was itself the border: eight people crossed from the works in September 1961, and in 1962 a man climbed along its brick courses and jumped.
Today 1.3 km of that rear wall survive as the East Side Gallery, painted after the fall of the Wall by 118 artists from 21 countries.4 The Flutgraben building, now the Kunstfabrik am Flutgraben, keeps the roof walkways of 1988 and the marks of the knocked-off brick courses.5 The command tower at the Schlesischer Busch survives as an exhibition space.1
Sources for this text
- Mauerweg: Von Warschauer Straße nach Schöneweideberlin.de
- Mauerweg: Vom Potsdamer Platz zur Warschauer Straßeberlin.de
- Flucht im Bereich Mühlenstraße: Raus aus der DDRStiftung Berliner Mauer (East Side Gallery online exhibition)
- East Side Gallery: map and informationStiftung Berliner Mauer
- Am FlutgrabenLandesdenkmalamt Berlin
Checked October 2026. Facts taken from an escape record on this site link to that record, which lists its own sources.
28 events: 16 successful escapes, 3 partly successful escapes, 3 failed attempts and 6 fatal attempts. At least 51 people reached the West in these events.
13 August 1961
A young girl undresses and swims the Flutgraben
At about 10 a.m. on 13 August 1961 a young girl undressed to her underwear at the Flutgraben near Lohmühlenstraße, jumped in and swam to West Berlin, where the crowd there 'received' her.
16 August 1961
The flower-box lorry at Köpenicker Straße
At 6.30 on 16 August 1961 a driver loaded flower boxes in front of a florist's in Köpenicker Straße and drove back and forth, faking delivery trips. Then he drove straight over the crossing into West Berlin.
16 August 1961
Three jump from the works yard into the Flutgraben
At 11.05 a.m. on 16 August 1961 three people jumped from the grounds of the OLW works in Treptow into the Flutgraben and reached West Berlin.
17 August 1961
Overboard from an excursion boat at the Schillingbrücke
On the morning of 17 August 1961 a man jumped from an East Berlin passenger boat near the Schillingbrücke and swam to the West Berlin bank.
23 August 1961
A bricklayer painting the wall's coping stones jumps down on the other side
At 9 a.m. on 23 August 1961 a bricklayer born in 1942, who had been sent to paint the coping stones of the wall at control point 51, was standing on top of it – and jumped down into West Berlin.
23 August 1961
Horst P. and Wolfgang R. are caught swimming at the Treptower Brücke
Before 4.20 a.m. on 23 August 1961 two men born in 1940 were found swimming in the water at the Treptower Brücke, trying to get to West Berlin, and were arrested.
25 August 1961
A young man mingles with the builders at the Oberbaumbrücke
On 25 August 1961 a young man of 18 to 20 slipped in among the construction workers at the Oberbaumbrücke control point and got away to West Berlin while the guards were not paying attention.
September 1961
Eight people escape over the Flutgraben from the VEB OLW works
According to a Stasi report of 14 September 1961, eight people had fled 'in recent days' from the grounds of VEB OLW in Treptow across the Flutgraben to West Berlin, and two more were arrested trying. The works' building on the channel was itself part of the border.
6 September 1961
Two guards let a woman with a baby through at the Puschkinallee
A woman whose husband was waiting on the other side asked a guard to let her through. He told her to come back after dark – and at 8.30 p.m. she crossed with a four-month-old child and a boy.
5 October 1961
Udo Düllick – drowned under fire in the Spree
Railway worker Udo Düllick tried to swim the Spree at the Oberbaumbrücke around midnight; chased by gunfire, he drowned just short of the western bank.
10 October 1961
Three teenagers take a Red Cross speedboat down the Spree
In the early hours of 10 October 1961 two boys of 16 and 17 and a 16-year-old girl took a Red Cross rescue speedboat from Wildau, raced it past the border on the Spree at Treptow under fire from patrol boats, and landed in Kreuzberg near the Oberbaumbrücke.
14 October 1961
Werner Probst – shot at the West Berlin ladder
Truck driver Werner Probst swam the Spree at night near the Schillingbrücke and was hit by gunfire as he climbed the ladder on the West Berlin quay wall.
20 November 1961
Swimmers under fire at the Schillingbrücke reach the West Berlin bank
Shortly before 1 a.m. on 20 November 1961 the Spree was swum under fire at the Schillingbrücke. A Stasi report speaks of one man, injured by shots from the water police boat 'Toni 132'; the West Berlin police recorded three men who reached West Berlin, one of them wounded, and the fire brigade took them to hospital.
1962
A man works his way along the Flutgraben border building and jumps to the West
In 1962 a man worked his way along the ornamental brickwork of the VEB OLW workshop building on the Flutgraben and jumped across the border into West Berlin. The protruding brick courses were then knocked off.
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.
8 October 1962
Anton Walzer – shot swimming from a barge
Sixty-year-old Anton Walzer climbed onto a moored barge and jumped into the Spree; a border guard shot him in the back of the head.
15 December 1962
Pulled out of the Spree 15 metres from the line
Before dawn on 15 December 1962 border guards on a patrol boat fired about 25 shots at a man of about 45 who was swimming the Spree. They pulled him into the boat 15 metres short of the sector border, and he shouted to West Berlin police that he was wounded.
1 January 1963
Hans Räwel – New Year's morning in the icy Spree
After a New Year's Eve party, baker Hans Räwel, born 1941, swam into the freezing Spree and was shot at close range from a border boat about 35 metres from the western bank.
February 1963 – 1 April 1963
Wolf-Olaf Muszynski drowns in the Spree, presumably while trying to escape
A 16-year-old from Friedrichshain went missing in February 1963; on 1 April his body was found in the Spree on the West Berlin bank near the Oberbaumbrücke. Historians conclude he most likely drowned trying to escape, unseen by the border guards.
25 December 1963
Paul Schultz – shot on the Wall on Christmas Day
Two 18-year-old friends from Neubrandenburg climbed the Wall at dusk on Christmas Day 1963; Hartmut D. got across unhurt, while Paul Schultz was shot on the Wall and died that evening in a West Berlin hospital.
9 June 1965
Shot five times, a swimmer still reaches the West Berlin bank of the Spree
Border guards hit a young East German five times as he swam the Spree, but he reached the western bank; West Berlin police followed a trail of blood and found him, unconscious, behind a wall in the American sector.
27 August 1965 – 28 August 1965
A miner escapes through the Spree at Mühlenstraße
In the night of 27 to 28 August 1965 a 31-year-old miner made his way through ruined buildings in the border strip at Mühlenstraße, entered the Spree and escaped to West Berlin.
22 April 1966
Two guards climb the barrier at the Puschkinallee with a bench
Two soldiers of Border Regiment 37 on duty at the Puschkinallee in Treptow climbed the barrier into West Berlin with a bench from the grounds of the VEB OLW Treptow, taking their submachine guns; the line of their post's speaking set was found cut.
1 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.
14 February 1972
Manfred Weylandt – shot in the Spree
Stoker Manfred Weylandt crossed the border installations and entered the Spree near the Schillingbrücke late at night; two guards shot him in the head and he drowned.
6 October 1972
Over the waterworks wall and onto the Schillingbrücke – 46 shots
A circus worker climbed the wall of the waterworks on Holzmarktstraße and the fence at the Schillingbrücke, and tried to cross the bridge. Guards fired 46 rounds; he collapsed about 30 metres past the bridge with life-threatening internal injuries.
August 1986
A teenage couple climbs the Wall with fence boards and swims the Spree
In August 1986 an East Berlin apprentice bricklayer and his 17-year-old girlfriend used parts of a wooden fence to climb the Wall on the eastern bank of the Spree and swam the short distance to West Berlin. The escape was kept secret until September so the route could stay open.
28 September 1988
Two get over the Wall at Bethaniendamm under fire; their companion is caught
At about 12.30 p.m. on 28 September 1988 two East Berliners aged 20 and 21 climbed the Wall at Bethaniendamm into Kreuzberg despite shots; a 20-year-old woman who wanted to go with them was arrested.
