Themes · Means and ruses
Homemade equipment
Escapes that relied on homemade gear: diving sets, hang-gliders, body armour, air mattresses.
15 events: 4 successful escapes, 1 partly successful escape, 4 failed attempts and 6 fatal attempts. At least 24 people reached the West in these events. The records span 1961–1989. Most used methods: swimming 7, aircraft and balloons 5, over the wall 2.
Often together with: Border houses (3), Shots fired (3), Stasi and secret services (3), Couples and sweethearts (2), Drowned (2), Escape helpers (2)
13 August 1961
About eighteen people cross the Teltow Canal on the first evening
On 13 August 1961 about eighteen people left East Berlin across the Teltow Canal between the Massante and Wrede bridges. The police saw young people swimming across, some using air mattresses, while about 400 West Berliners gathered on the far bank.
10 December 1961 – 11 December 1961
Ingo Krüger – a diver's attempt to reach his fiancée
Separated from his West Berlin fiancée by the Wall, a 21-year-old cook and sport diver entered the Spree in diving gear near Friedrichstraße station; he drowned, and she watched from the far bank as a body was pulled from the water.
4 November 1963
Klaus Schröter – homemade diving suit at the Reichstag
Engineer Klaus Schröter sold his television to build a weighted diving suit and tried to dive through the Spree to the Reichstag bank; guards shot him and he drowned.
20 November 1963 – 21 November 1963
Hubert Hohlbein – through the Jungfernsee in a diving suit
Wearing a diving suit and weight belt, 21-year-old Hubert Hohlbein swam low in the water from near Cecilienhof Palace in Potsdam to the West Berlin shore by the Glienicker Brücke.
28 July 1964
Norbert Wolscht and Rainer Gneiser – homemade diving gear in the Havel
Two 20-year-old friends from Freiberg in Saxony tried to reach West Berlin underwater through the Havel near Potsdam using self-built breathing equipment; both drowned in the night of 27–28 July 1964.
4 March 1965
Christian Buttkus – a snowstorm escape at Kleinmachnow
After abandoning plans to dive through the Teltow Canal, Christian Buttkus and his fiancée Ilse P. tried to cross at Kleinmachnow in a snowstorm; he was killed at the last fence and she was wounded and jailed.
27 April 1973
Manfred Gertzki's armoured escape attempt at the Reichstag
Wearing a home-made bulletproof vest and a steel-masked helmet, engineer Manfred Gertzki crept along the Spree bank by the Reichstag. He was shot two metres from the demarcation line and pushed into the river, where the armour dragged him down.
31 March 1983
Holger Bethke and Michael Becker slide over the Wall on a steel cable
Using a bow and arrow to shoot a line over the border strip, Holger Bethke and his friend Michael Becker rigged a steel cable and rode home-made pulleys over the Wall from Treptow.
24 October 1984
Two hang gliders on a tower-block roof in the Leipziger Straße
Two men carried two home-built hang gliders up to the roof of a Leipziger Straße tower block, changed the lock on the roof door and tried to launch towards West Berlin. The wind was wrong, they gave up and left, leaving the gliders behind.
27 October 1984
A window cleaner's hang glider, carried to night practice by public transport
A 26-year-old glass and building cleaner built two hang gliders, practised at night on the edge of Berlin and scouted the Leipziger Straße tower blocks as a launch site. A tip from the public about glider parts stored in an attic led to his arrest.
8 October 1986
A landscape architect dives through the Jungfernsee barrier
A 29-year-old landscape architect in a diving suit slipped through a corroded gap in the underwater barrier at Nedlitz and swam to West Berlin north of the Glienicker Brücke.
19 November 1986
Volkmar Kienöl and Klaus Kuschmierz try to glide to the Springer building
Two young men spent a night on the roof of a Leipziger Straße tower block beside two home-made hang gliders, planning to land in front of the Axel Springer building in West Berlin just 200 metres away. They came down short of the Wall.
20 December 1986
Failed motorised hang-glider escape near Potsdam
A 37-year-old toolmaker took off in a home-built motorised hang glider towards West Berlin, but poor visibility, disorientation and the cold forced him down in the GDR.
14 February 1989
Martin Notev is dragged back out of the Spree at the West Berlin bank
Martin Notev and two young neighbours smashed through the barriers with a truck and jumped into the Spree near the Reichstag. The neighbours escaped; Notev was pulled back by the hair from the West Berlin quay wall by a GDR patrol boat crew.
8 March 1989
Winfried Freudenberg's fatal gas balloon flight
The last refugee to die at the Berlin Wall, as the Chronik der Mauer counts it: Winfried Freudenberg crossed into West Berlin in a home-made natural-gas balloon but was killed when it came down in Zehlendorf.
