Themes · Means and ruses
Ladders
Escapes and attempts using ladders, from fire-brigade ladders to homemade ones.
37 events: 26 successful escapes, 1 partly successful escape, 3 failed attempts and 7 fatal attempts. At least 48 people reached the West in these events. The records span 1961–1989. Most used methods: over the wall 27, guards who fled 3, window jumps 3.
Often together with: Shots fired (18), Trials after reunification (4), Children and families (3), Cover-ups (3), Witness accounts (3), Workers at the Wall (3)
21 August 1961
A fitter climbs the Bergmann-Borsig factory wall with a ladder
On 21 August 1961 a fitter born in 1942, who was helping to put up a wire fence along the wall of VEB Bergmann-Borsig in Wilhelmsruh, left his brigade on a pretext and climbed over the wall with a ladder into West Berlin.
23 August 1961
Two guards use a piece of fence as a ladder
Just after midnight on 23 August 1961 two Bereitschaftspolizei men posted in the courtyard of Kremmener Straße 5 leaned a piece of fence against the wall and climbed over to West Berlin with their weapons.
23 August 1961
Over the wire with a ladder at Groß Ziethen
On 23 August 1961 an unknown man used a ladder to climb the border barrier at Groß Ziethen, south of Berlin, and got into West Berlin.
5 September 1961
Karl-Heinz S. climbs down a fire brigade ladder while police hold the guards at bay
At 3 a.m. West Berlin police drew pistols and dazzled the guards with mirrors while the fire brigade set a ladder against the corner house for four escapees.
6 September 1961
Günter Tr. climbs the Wall with a company ladder
An employee of the Murante firm in the border zone went to work as usual and then, with a woman smuggled in by a colleague, climbed the Wall on a company ladder; the colleague was arrested.
23 September 1961
Irma B. barricades her door and climbs down a fire brigade ladder
At 2 a.m. Irma B. barricaded her flat door, and the West Berlin fire brigade set a ladder against the house for her.
October 1961
Peter Hertel's forged BEWAG order and a gas worker's ladder
An East Berlin electricity worker talked his way into a border house with a forged order to remove meters, let himself down on a rope from the third floor and, when the rope ran out, climbed onto a ladder a gas-company worker propped against the wall.
4 January 1965
Rope-ladder escape at Ruppiner Straße
Equipped with wire cutters, a rope ladder and a throwing line, a man of about 25 got over the Wall near Ruppiner Straße despite gunfire; stray bullets hit a West Berlin bedroom.
7 May 1965
Roofers escape from the Klein Glienicke chapel
Two roofers repairing the chapel roof in the GDR exclave of Klein Glienicke disarmed one of their guards and crossed the Wall with a ladder into Zehlendorf.
27 October 1968
The guards couldn't open their window: folding-ladder escape at Schönholzer Straße
At 1 a.m. a man with a folding ladder crossed every barrier; by the time the Ruppiner Straße tower crew had smashed the window they could not open and fired, he was in the West.
29 October 1968
After a night of drinking, a deputy company commander climbs out with a painter's ladder
Facing a dressing-down for a drunken farewell party, the deputy commander and party secretary of a border company crawled through the compound fence, took a painter's ladder from a house and climbed into West Berlin in uniform with his pistol.
15 June 1971
A councillor, his wife and two small sons climb the Wall at Klein Glienicke with a fruit ladder
On the night the SED's VIII Party Congress opened, an NDPD town councillor and trainee editor, his wife and their sons aged two and a half years and six months climbed the Klein Glienicke wall with a neighbour's fruit ladder in pouring rain.
4 July 1971
An off-duty lieutenant climbs out at Stolpe-Süd
A platoon leader of the border troops, born in 1946, went home after a dance, then climbed the Wall in the Stolpe-Süd section, where he lived, with a wooden ladder while guards fired 20 shots.
7 March 1972
Klaus Schulze killed, Dieter Krause escapes at Falkenhöh
Two young friends from Falkensee crossed the border strip at Falkenhöh with a ladder from a garden shed. Dieter Krause got over the last fence under fire; Klaus Schulze, who had tripped, was shot in the chest.
15 March 1973
Horst Einsiedel shot on a ladder at Pankow cemetery
Engineer Horst Einsiedel used two ladders from a cemetery tool shed to cross the fences at Pankow and was shot from a watchtower as he climbed the last wall. The Stasi hid his death from his wife for months.
27 August 1976
A home-made ladder from the garden at Am Böttcherberg
A painter, his wife and their four-year-old child cut through the rear fence opposite their garden in the Klein Glienicke enclave and climbed the 3.5 m Wall with a ladder they had built themselves.
July 1978
Three students disguised as a border patrol climb the Wall on folding ladders
Three East German students got into the death strip in a car with military markings; the two men, disguised as border guards, climbed the Wall on folding ladders they had brought, and the woman had come in hidden in the back of the car.
22 November 1980
Marienetta Jirkowsky shot from a ladder at Hohen Neuendorf
18-year-old Marienetta Jirkowsky and two friends climbed the border barriers with a ladder; the two young men reached West Berlin, but she was shot as her hands reached the top of the Wall.
14 April 1981
Hans-Jürgen Starrost shot during capture at Sigridshorst
Facing a return to prison, 25-year-old Hans-Jürgen Starrost tried to climb into the border area at Teltow with a ladder. Caught and held, he was shot in the abdomen at close range and died a month later.
3 March 1982
Emergency brake and ladder south of the Bösebrücke
Two men pulled the emergency brake of an S-Bahn train on the curve at Bornholmer Straße, got out and climbed the border barriers into Wedding with a ladder.
2 September 1983
Two young men from Prenzlauer Berg cross the Wall with a window-cleaner's ladder
After an evening in a Prenzlauer Berg pub, two young men went onto the grounds of the Volkspolizei hospital, where one of them worked as a cleaner, and climbed the border barriers with his cleaning ladder while guards opened fire.
10 November 1983
Ronni S. and the painter's ladder
Ronni S. tried to get over the Wall with a painter's stepladder and was arrested in the border strip.
24 July 1984
Ladder escape at Brunnenstraße despite an aimed shot
An unknown man climbed the inner wall with a ladder, set off the alarm cutting the signal fence, and got over the Wall after the Schönholzer Straße tower fired a warning shot and a missed aimed shot.
1 December 1984
Michael Schmidt shot at Schulzestraße
A 20-year-old carpenter used ladders from his worksite to climb into the border strip at Schulzestraße; shot in the back and knee, he waited almost an hour for an ambulance and died in hospital.
14 July 1985
Ladder escape from Kleinmachnow
An 18-year-old used a ladder at Erlenweg in Kleinmachnow to get into the death strip and crossed every barrier under fire; a Stasi report blamed a lamp that kept going dark for 30 seconds.
20 January 1986
"Ladder of success" at Glienicke/Nordbahn
Shortly after midnight a man used a two-metre ladder to climb the rear wall at Glienicke/Nordbahn, set off the signal fence, ran the last 17 metres and used the same ladder to get over the final wall — the guards never saw him.
2 September 1986
Over the rear wall and across the Bösebrücke
A janitor and an assistant bricklayer climbed into the Bornholmer Straße checkpoint area with a ladder, got into the diplomats' lane and simply walked across the Bösebrücke — guards who saw them assumed they had been cleared.
24 September 1986
Three young people swim the Teltow Canal
Shortly after 2 a.m. three young people used a wooden ladder to scale the barriers in Teltow and swam the 40-metre-wide Teltow Canal to Zehlendorf, helped by a guard's lost magazine.
19 November 1986
Dieter H.'s folding-ladder escape under fire
A toolmaker who had been refused permission to emigrate and jailed for two years built a small collapsible ladder, cut through the signal fence at Brunnenstraße and got over the 3.6-metre Wall while twelve shots were fired at him.
24 November 1986
Michael Bittner shot at Glienicke/Nordbahn
The 25-year-old climbed the inner wall with a wooden ladder and was shot in the back as he reached the final wall; the Stasi then erased almost every trace of his death.
12 February 1987
Lutz Schmidt shot helping his friend over the Wall
Truck drivers Lutz Schmidt and Peter Schulze drove to the border with ladders; Schmidt helped his colleague onto the Wall and was shot dead as he tried to follow.
3 December 1987
An 18-year-old climbs into Neukölln with a ladder and swims a canal
On the night of 3 December 1987 an 18-year-old East German dodged border patrols in the Treptow area, climbed the Wall with a ladder and swam a canal into Neukölln. He telephoned West Berlin police to report his escape.
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.
January 1989
A farmer climbs the Wall into Lichtenrade with a ladder under fire
In an escape reported on 6 January 1989, a 34-year-old farmer from the GDR used a ladder to get over the border installations at Tutzinger Straße in Lichtenrade; by his own account he was shot at three times.
13 January 1989
Ingolf Diederichs dies jumping from an S-Bahn at Bösebrücke
The 24-year-old climbed out of a moving S-Bahn train with a home-made folding ladder near the Bornholmer Straße crossing, got caught on the train and was killed.
24 January 1989
Thomas Drescher and his friend caught at the Wall in Glienicke
On the night of 24 January 1989 the carpenter Thomas Drescher and his friend Dirk set a ladder against the Wall at Glienicke/Nordbahn and climbed, but a dog barked, a searchlight caught them and three armed border guards surrounded them. He was sentenced to 15 months and ransomed by West Germany in October 1989.
10 March 1989
Tipper truck and ladder in Staaken
Three men tried to flatten the border fences in Staaken with a tipper truck and climb the Wall with a ladder, but the truck stuck in the second fence and one of them was shot.