Themes · Along the border
Allotments and gardens
Escapes through allotments, gardens and parks along the border.
14 events: 9 successful escapes, 1 partly successful escape and 4 fatal attempts. At least 17 people reached the West in these events. The records span 1961–1988. Methods: over the wall 11, guards who fled 3.
Often together with: Shots fired (5), Stasi reports (4), Barbed wire and fences (3), Children and families (2), East Berlin police reports (2), Trials after reunification (2)
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.
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.
22 August 1961
Two pioneers go through the fence they were building at Grüneck
On 22 August 1961 two riot-police pioneers who were putting up fences at the Grüneck allotments in Altglienicke went through the wire into West Berlin; the superior present could not stop them.
23 August 1961
A breakthrough from a garden on Am Waldrand, Klein Glienicke
On 23 August 1961 the border was broken through from the property Am Waldrand 2–3 in Klein Glienicke, a garden that directly adjoined West Berlin.
26 August 1961
A family of five leaves through an allotment at Klemkestraße
On 26 August 1961 a family of five got past the Klemkestraße control point in Pankow by pottering about on an allotment plot until the guards stopped paying attention to them.
30 August 1961
A pioneer crawler driver uses his job in the Tanneberg allotments
At about 9.30 a.m. on 30 August 1961 the driver of a pioneer crawler tractor who was working in the 'Tanneberg' allotment colony in Johannisthal, on the Britzer Zweigkanal, used the job to cross into West Berlin.
29 April 1962
Horst Frank – caught in the last wire at Schönholz
Two friends from Saxony crawled for four hours across the border strip at the Schönholz allotments; Detlev W. reached West Berlin, while 19-year-old Horst Frank was spotted in the last barbed-wire fence and shot.
15 January 1963
Horst Kutscher – shot 25 metres from West Berlin
On the night before the SED party congress, coal worker Horst Kutscher and a colleague crawled towards the border in Johannisthal; about 25 metres from West Berlin shots were fired and he was killed.
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.
18 August 1964 – 20 August 1964
Wernhard Mispelhorn shot at the Schönholz allotments
Eighteen-year-old Wernhard Mispelhorn, whose girlfriend had just moved to West Berlin, suddenly ran for the fence at the Schönholz allotments and was shot in the head.
15 November 1968
Deserting policeman and border soldier die near Klein Glienicke
A 21-year-old Volkspolizist deserting towards West Berlin opened fire on a border patrol vehicle in Babelsberg Park, killing driver Rolf Henniger, and was himself shot dead by the patrol leader.
11 June 1978 – 17 June 1978
Two guards in one week dart through the Fichtewiese gate
West Berlin allotment holders reached their gardens in the Fichtewiese exclave through a gate in the Wall, with GDR guards checking their passes. On 11 and 17 June 1978 two of those guards simply ran through the door into the British sector.
5 September 1988
Two young metalworkers set off the alarm lights and still get through at Buckow
At 3.20 a.m. on 5 September 1988 two metalworkers aged 18 and 21 climbed the barriers between the Groß Ziethen allotment colony and Buckow; they triggered the alarm lights but the guards did not stop them.