Themes · Means and ruses
Diplomats' cars and passports
Escapes using diplomatic cars, diplomatic passports or the immunity of foreign officials.
7 events: 3 successful escapes, 1 partly successful escape and 3 failed attempts. At least 15 people reached the West in these events. The records span 1962–1981. Methods: hidden in vehicles 4, false papers and disguises 3.
Often together with: Escape helpers (4), Borrowed and forged passports (2), US Mission telegrams (2)
May 1962
Reinhard Spiller drives his parents out on a forged diplomatic pass
In 1962 the engineering student Reinhard Spiller, who had got to West Berlin himself two days after the Wall went up, drove his parents out through Checkpoint Charlie using a fellow student's Austrian passport and a forged diplomatic pass, then helped about 50 more people out the same way.
7 May 1963
Fake UN diplomats: the taxi driver's 'CD' car caught on Karl-Marx-Allee
A West Berlin taxi owner carrying a UN diplomatic passport in a Swiss man's name said he had already driven 16 people through Checkpoint Charlie in cars with 'CD' plates on six trips since April 1963. On 7 May 1963 he was arrested on Karl-Marx-Allee.
1 February 1975
The Swiss embassy cook's Mini: caught at Bornholmer Straße
A young Swiss cook at the Swiss embassy in East Berlin had already taken his East Berlin girlfriend to the Kurfürstendamm and back in the boot of his Mini. On 1 February 1975, after two Stasi informers had reported on him, the boot was opened at Bornholmer Straße.
10 April 1976
Refugees in the boot of an embassy car: the Zaire attaché and the ARAMCO network
An administrative attaché of Zaire's embassy in East Berlin used his diplomatic car to drive at least eight East Germans to West Berlin in the boot. The operation ended when his courier was arrested at the Friedrichstraße crossing.
June 1978
Two East Germans escape in a Belgian diplomat's car
In June 1978 two East Germans who had befriended a Belgian diplomat in East Berlin knocked him out, altered his identity papers and drove his diplomatic car into West Berlin.
25 August 1979
The US ambassador's chauffeur smuggles his family out in the official car
Joerg Habermann, an East German driver assigned to the US ambassador in East Berlin, hid his wife and six-year-old daughter in the boot of the ambassador's car, drove them through Checkpoint Charlie, went back to work – and walked across to the West himself that evening.
26 May 1981
A Costa Rican diplomat's Ford Escort at Checkpoint Charlie
A urologist from San José who had studied medicine in Halle tried to use his diplomatic passport to drive an East German woman out in his boot – for a promised 10,000 Deutschmarks.
