Treptow and Neukölln
Allotments, canals and back gardens along Kiefholzstraße, the Heidekampgraben and Sonnenallee.
According to the district, Treptow had the longest stretch of Wall and death strip across the divided city, 17 km facing Neukölln and Kreuzberg in the American sector; the Wall Trail guide gives 13 km for the GDR border in the district.12 The barriers ran along the western edge of Baumschulenweg, Plänterwald and Alt-Treptow to the Flutgraben.1 Between Treptow and Neukölln the line twisted through a dense residential quarter and is marked today by a double row of paving stones; the Heidekampgraben green strip was laid out on the former Wall strip.2
On the morning of 13 August 1961 a family walked out over the Heidekampweg before the barrier there had been put up, and several early records are riot policemen deserting on patrol, like two men on Kiefholzstraße. Then came the tunnels. Heidelberger Straße, Treptow on one side and Neukölln on the other, was the most tunnelled street in Berlin, and more than 100 people escaped from Treptow to Neukölln through tunnels.3 By November 1962 the Stasi knew of nine tunnels around Elsenstraße and Heidelberger Straße alone.1 The records include the Jercha tunnel of March 1962, in which the helper Heinz Jercha was shot, the Whitsun tunnel from a Neukölln pub cellar, and a second tunnel from no. 35 in 1963. In April 1963 Wolfgang Engels drove a stolen armoured personnel carrier into the Wall at Heidelberger Straße. Later records are climbs and vehicles at a finished wall: a building cleaner's ladder in 1988, and a lifting-platform truck at Karpfenteichstraße in 1986, whose two occupants were killed.
Plaques mark the tunnels at Heidelberger Straße 35, from 2012, and in front of no. 81, from 2005.34 At Kiefholzstraße near the Dammweg a memorial of 1999 by Rüdiger Roehl and Jan Skuin stands for Jörg Hartmann and Lothar Schleusener, two children shot in the strip in March 1966; at least 15 people died on Treptow's western border.1 The former Sonnenallee crossing is marked by a panel, a ground relief and an installation.2
Sources for this text
- Mauergedenken und Erinnerung an Fluchttunnel am 13. August 2022 (press release)Bezirksamt Treptow-Köpenick / berlin.de
- Mauerweg: Von Warschauer Straße nach Schöneweideberlin.de
- Gedenktafel für Heinz Jercha, Opfer der Berliner MauerMuseen Treptow-Köpenick / berlin.de
- Pfingsttunnel 1962Museen Treptow-Köpenick / berlin.de
Checked October 2026. Facts taken from an escape record on this site link to that record, which lists its own sources.
44 events: 25 successful escapes, 6 partly successful escapes, 8 failed attempts and 5 fatal attempts. At least 61 people reached the West in these events.
August 1961
A hairdresser cuts the wire at the Kiefholzstraße allotments for his daughter
When the border closed, a hairdresser who had fled in 1958 cut the new wire at his allotment so that his married daughter could crawl across, and then kept cutting holes for others.
13 August 1961
Manfred Roseneit leaves his scooter at the Kiefholzstraße fence
Turned back at the Dammweg after going home for his papers, and filmed by the Abendschau behind the wire, a 22-year-old radio mechanic found a gap in the mesh fence between the Kiefholzstraße allotments the same day.
13 August 1961
A family walks out at the Heidekampweg before the fence goes up
At 10.30 a.m. on 13 August 1961 a man, a woman and a child left East Berlin over the Heidekampweg, where no barrier had yet been built.
15 August 1961
Renate Reich crosses at Harzer Straße on a forged identity card
Her West Berlin father came for her with a forged identity card. Finding the checks at Heinrich-Heine-Straße too thorough, they found a lone guard in the Harzer Straße who looked at their papers under a street lamp and let them through.
16 August 1961
Two men leave through the allotments at the Dammweg
At 6.10 p.m. on 16 August 1961 the guards at control point 64 on the Dammweg watched two men go to West Berlin, probably through the allotment gardens.
16 August 1961
Four men are caught on the timber yard in Wildenbruchstraße
On 16 August 1961 riot police caught four men born in 1943 and 1944, from Oberschöneweide, Kaulsdorf and Mahlsdorf, as they tried to get into West Berlin over the timber yard in Wildenbruchstraße, Treptow.
17 August 1961
Out of No. 79, over the fence and into the soap shop opposite
In a report logged at 11.30 a.m. on 17 August 1961 the Treptow police recorded that a man had run out of Heidelberger Straße 79, jumped the barrier fence and gone into a soap shop on the opposite, West Berlin side of the street.
18 August 1961
Three wires cut at the Heidekampgraben
On 18 August 1961 a youth cut three strands of barbed wire at the Heidekampgraben near the Sonnenallee crossing and escaped. A family of three who tried to follow him through the gap was arrested.
22 August 1961
A patrolman excuses himself at Kiefholzstraße and does not come back
Shortly after midnight on 22 August 1961 an Unterwachtmeister on patrol at the corner of Kiefholzstraße and Dammweg left his unit, saying he needed to relieve himself, and deserted.
25 August 1961
Two unsworn policemen leave with their carbines between Dammweg and Karpfenteichstraße
Between 7.57 and 8 a.m. on 25 August 1961 two riot policemen who had not yet been sworn in deserted together from their post between Dammweg and Karpfenteichstraße, taking their carbines and ammunition.
26 August 1961
Round the guards at Heidelberger Straße
At about 6.15 p.m. on 26 August 1961 a man and a woman got into West Berlin in Heidelberger Straße by going round the posts; at the same time another woman broke through the barrier there.
28 August 1961
A policeman sends his partner to watch the West Berlin police car, then climbs the fence
At 1.25 a.m. on 28 August 1961 a riot policeman on double patrol in Heidelberger Straße told his partner to go and see what a West Berlin police car was doing, climbed the fence while he was gone and was driven away by the West Berlin police. He was probably Burghardt A., born in 1943.
28 August 1961
A night patrol at Kiefholzstraße does not come back
At about 3 a.m. on 28 August 1961 two riot policemen patrolling Kiefholzstraße in Treptow deserted together, half an hour after their last check.
30 August 1961
Standing 150 metres from his partner, a policeman crosses at the Köllnische Heide
At about 1 p.m. on 30 August 1961 a riot policeman who, against orders, was standing about 150 metres from his partner in broken ground at the Köllnische Heide deserted to West Berlin.
30 August 1961
Two patrolmen at Kiefholzstraße had told their comrades the day before
At about 8.35 a.m. on 30 August 1961 two riot policemen deserted during a patrol on Kiefholzstraße. They had told two comrades of their plan the day before; the two had kept quiet and were arrested afterwards.
3 September 1961
A policeman crawls through the fence at Treptower Straße
At 11.20 p.m. on 3 September 1961 a riot-police Unterwachtmeister crawled through the barrier fence at Treptower Straße onto West Berlin ground.
24 September 1961
West Berlin youths cut the fence at the Dammweg for a woman and her child
On 24 September 1961 young West Berliners cut through the border fence at the Dammweg control point from the western side, allowing a woman and her child to escape.
25 September 1961
Out in American uniform jackets on a US sightseeing bus
On 25 September 1961 several young people boarded American buses at the Soviet War Memorial in Treptow, put on American uniform jackets inside and were taken into West Berlin unhindered.
22 February 1962
The Franzke brothers' first tunnel in the Heidelberger Straße is betrayed
Boris and Eduard Franzke dug a tunnel of more than 20 metres under the Heidelberger Straße to bring out their relatives. The plan was betrayed, and the family members waiting in the East were arrested.
21 March 1962 – 27 March 1962
Heidelberger Straße Tunnel and the Death of Heinz Jercha
Dozens of East Berliners escaped through a tunnel under Heidelberger Straße until a Stasi informer betrayed it; escape helper Heinz Jercha was shot in an ambush and died after crawling back to the West.
9 June 1962 – 11 June 1962
The Whitsun Tunnel (Pfingsttunnel)
In June 1962 helpers around Harry Seidel dug from the cellar of a Neukölln corner pub under Heidelberger Straße and, over the Whitsun weekend, brought East Berliners out through a photographer's shop.
25 July 1962
One of three gets through at Karpfenteichstraße
According to a man who reached West Berlin in the early hours of 25 July 1962, he and two others had been spotted and fired on by border guards near Karpfenteichstraße in Treptow; the other two, one of them wounded, were arrested.
7 August 1962
The Betrayed Kiefholzstraße Tunnel
Several escape-helper groups joined forces on a tunnel to a small house on Kiefholzstraße for a planned mass escape, but a Stasi informer among the couriers betrayed it and dozens of would-be refugees were arrested.
6 October 1962
The Second Heidelberger Krug Tunnel to Elsenstraße
A second tunnel from the Heidelberger Krug pub brought a tailor couple to the West in their pyjamas, but an informer tipped off the Stasi within hours and an escape helper was shot and captured.
19 November 1962
He gets through, she is shot in the arm
At 3.40 on 19 November 1962 border guards at Baumschulenweg fired about 30 shots at two people trying to escape. The man reached West Berlin unhurt. The woman, probably hit in the arm, was arrested.
8 April 1963
A second tunnel from Heidelberger Straße 35 – Boris Franzke's last
A year after Heinz Jercha was shot at the same spot, escape helpers dug a new tunnel from Heidelberger Straße 35 to no. 75. Up to 20 people escaped through it before a resident noticed the broken cellar door.
17 April 1963
Wolfgang Engels' armoured personnel carrier
A 19-year-old civilian army employee drove a stolen Soviet-built armoured personnel carrier into the Wall and was shot while climbing over, but reached the West.
27 February 1964
Walter Hayn shot beside the 'Sorgenfrei' allotments
Former People's Police officer Walter Hayn was shot just short of the fence to West Berlin's allotments; his family was told he had drowned.
4 July 1964
Four East Berliners crash a stolen army lorry through the wire at Köllnische Heide
In the night to 4 July 1964 four young East Berliners drove a stolen army lorry through the barbed wire near Köllnische Heide station; when it stuck they waded the Heidekampgraben and reached West Berlin under fire.
3 March 1965
Clothesline rope escape from a Treptow border house
A 26-year-old engineer tied a knotted 50-metre clothesline to a fourth-floor window, lowered himself down, swung over the Wall and dropped into Neukölln.
26 November 1965 – 3 December 1965
Erich Kühn shot 'blindly into the bushes' at Kiefholzstraße
Sixty-two-year-old Erich Kühn was wounded when a guard, ordered to act, fired blindly at a noise on the railway embankment at Kiefholzstraße; he died eight days later.
12 February 1966
A soldier rides a freight train into West Berlin and is marched back
A border soldier escorting a freight train through the Treptower Weichengestell stayed on board and was 80 to 100 metres inside West Berlin when the train stopped; his post leader followed him on foot and marched him back at gunpoint.
14 March 1966
Children Jörg Hartmann and Lothar Schleusener shot in Treptow
Ten-year-old Jörg Hartmann and 13-year-old Lothar Schleusener slipped into the border strip in Treptow after dark and were shot by border guards; the regime told their families false stories about how they had died.
25 December 1970
Christian Peter Friese shot on Christmas night at Köllnische Heide
On Christmas Eve 1970 a 22-year-old mechanic from Naumburg travelled to East Berlin and, around midnight, entered the border strip at Johannisthal. Five guards fired 98 shots; he died a few metres short of the last fence.
9 September 1971
A circus hand runs for the Wall near the Sonnenallee crossing
After an evening in the pubs of Baumschulenweg, a circus worker climbed the hinterland fence off the Heidekampweg; guards fired 43 rounds and wounded him in the hip and knees.
9 June 1972 – 10 June 1972
A 15-year-old crosses the Wall into Neukölln
In the night of 9 to 10 June 1972 a 15-year-old East German boy crossed the Wall into Neukölln, apparently unseen by the guards, and was reunited with relatives in the West.
5 October 1972
A West Berlin police sergeant with a woman under his back seat
Shortly after midnight a West Berliner tried to drive a mother of four from Oberschöneweide out under the back seat of his car. Only when he was identified did the Stasi realise he was a serving West Berlin police officer.
21 September 1977
Two brothers in the luggage hold of a French army tour bus
On 21 September 1977 two young East German brothers crawled into the unlocked luggage hold of a French military tour bus parked at the Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park, and rode in it to West Berlin.
8 April 1984
Watchtower fire at Neukölln: one of two climbers gets over
Late on Sunday 8 April 1984 East German guards fired on two men scrambling over the Wall at Neukölln; a 20-year-old reached the West, but his companion, caught with him on top of the Wall, did not.
21 November 1986
Manfred Mäder and René Gross – lifting-platform truck at Karpfenteichstraße
Two East Berliners who had applied to leave the GDR drove a stolen truck with a lifting platform through a gate in the rear border wall in Treptow. Border guards opened continuous fire and both men were killed.
18 August 1987
Dogs, three shots and an arrest at the Sonnenallee crossing
Early on 18 August 1987 West Berlin police and customs officers at the Sonnenallee crossing heard dogs barking and three shots on the East Berlin side, then saw border guards lead away a man who had tried to escape. The three Western commandants protested the use of force.
28 August 1987
Steffen Telschow says he crossed the inner wall in Treptow with a ladder
By his own account, which a West Berlin parliamentary committee reported in 1989 without checking it, Steffen Telschow, born 1964 in Potsdam, tried to escape in the Treptow district of East Berlin on 28 August 1987. He said he crossed the inner wall with a ladder and was arrested by GDR border troops in front of the outer wall, without noticing any alarm and without shots being fired.
19 April 1988
Building cleaner's window-ladder escape
A 31-year-old building cleaner used a window-cleaning ladder to cross every barrier from Treptow into Neukölln while two guards fired 18 shots at him without a hit.
26 May 1989
Ultralight flight from Treptower Park to the Reichstag
Two brothers who had already fled flew ultralight aircraft from West Berlin to Treptower Park at dawn; one landed to pick up their brother Egbert, and both aircraft came down in front of the Reichstag.
