Themes · Along the border
West Berlin police
Records in which West Berlin police took part, from catching jumpers to returning fire.
15 events: 13 successful escapes and 2 failed attempts. At least 35 people reached the West in these events. The records span 1961–1972. Most used methods: window jumps 5, over the wall 3, guards who fled 2.
Often together with: Shots fired (7), Border houses (4), Children and families (3), Wounded and injured (3), Cemeteries (2), Ropes and grappling hooks (2)
24 August 1961
Max W.'s rope breaks at Bernauer Straße 24
Max W. let himself down from his first-floor flat; the rope snapped and he fell to the pavement, where West Berlin police picked him up.
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.
12 October 1961
A policeman who fled in the night is searched for in a railway keeper’s house at Wilhelmsruh
At about 3 a.m. on 12 October 1961 ten East German Vopo men crossed into West Berlin at Wilhelmsruh S-Bahn station to search an inhabited railway keeper's house for a Vopo who had fled during the night; West Berlin police sent them back.
17 October 1961
Removal worker jumps onto a waiting truck
A removal worker clearing flats under police guard slipped into a front room, called West Berlin police over, who directed a truck under the window, and jumped onto it.
20 November 1961
Swimmers under fire at the Schillingbrücke reach the West Berlin bank
Shortly before 1 a.m. on 20 November 1961 the Spree was swum under fire at the Schillingbrücke. A Stasi report speaks of one man, injured by shots from the water police boat 'Toni 132'; the West Berlin police recorded three men who reached West Berlin, one of them wounded, and the fire brigade took them to hospital.
29 December 1961
The boot left in the barbed wire
A border guard climbed the Sophien cemetery wall into West Berlin; when he got stuck in the barbed wire, two West Berlin policemen pulled him over, leaving one of his boots behind.
16 February 1962
A mother and her five-year-old jump from a balcony at Klein Glienicke
On 16 February 1962 a 25-year-old woman and her 5-year-old son jumped from the balcony of a house near the Böttcherberg cemetery into West Berlin. West Berlin police forced the border guards who were firing at them to take cover.
23 May 1962
Wilfried Tews swims the canal – border guard Peter Göring killed
A 14-year-old schoolboy from Erfurt swam the Berlin-Spandau Ship Canal under heavy fire and reached West Berlin badly wounded; in the exchange of fire with West Berlin police, 21-year-old border guard Peter Göring was killed by a ricochet.
8 June 1962
The excursion ship "Friedrich Wolf"
Young East Berliners commandeered the passenger steamer "Friedrich Wolf", locked up its crew and swerved under heavy fire into West Berlin's Landwehrkanal.
17 September 1962
West Berlin police open a cellar window for three young men
While a West Berlin officer held the guards' observation post at gunpoint, police broke open a walled-up cellar window and three young men climbed out.
19 January 1964
Wounded teenager pulled over the Wall at the Brandenburg Gate
A youth ran for the Wall south of the Brandenburg Gate, was shot in the leg, limped along the Wall and was pulled over by West Berlin police officers.
20 April 1964
Concrete lorry to the canal bank, then a swim
Two lorry drivers drove a loaded Škoda truck from a Teltow concrete works through the border fences down to the canal bank and swam across to West Berlin.
13 September 1964
Michael Meyer pulled over the Wall under fire
Badly wounded by border guards' bullets, 21-year-old Michael Meyer was hauled over the Wall on a rope by a US military police sergeant while West Berlin police and US soldiers returned fire.
26 December 1967
A rope over the Wall at Korsörer Straße – held by West Berlin policemen
An East Berlin woman's West German boyfriend threw a rope over the Wall in the night of 25/26 December while two West Berlin policemen held it; she was trying to pull herself up when the guards opened fire.
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.
