Themes · People
Teenagers and young people
Escapes and attempts by teenagers, apprentices, students and other young people.
32 events: 15 successful escapes, 4 partly successful escapes, 7 failed attempts and 6 fatal attempts. At least 30 people reached the West in these events. The records span 1961–1987. Most used methods: over the wall 18, false papers and disguises 4, swimming 4.
Often together with: Shots fired (9), Escape helpers (8), Barbed wire and fences (5), Wounded and injured (4), Cover-ups (3), East Berlin police reports (3)
13 August 1961
An inflatable dinghy across the Britzer Zweigkanal
On the afternoon of 13 August 1961 two young people crossed the Britzer Zweigkanal in Johannisthal in an inflatable dinghy. About twenty minutes later a third youth swam across at the same spot.
15 August 1961
Erika Schallert walks across Bernauer Straße with her wedding-dress fabric
Two days after the border was closed, a student whose fiancé lived in West Berlin talked her way past men outside a house on Bernauer Straße by pointing to the fabric for her wedding dress, then walked across the street into West Berlin while helpers distracted them.
16 August 1961
Four men are caught on the timber yard in Wildenbruchstraße
On 16 August 1961 riot police caught four men born in 1943 and 1944, from Oberschöneweide, Kaulsdorf and Mahlsdorf, as they tried to get into West Berlin over the timber yard in Wildenbruchstraße, Treptow.
18 August 1961
Three wires cut at the Heidekampgraben
On 18 August 1961 a youth cut three strands of barbed wire at the Heidekampgraben near the Sonnenallee crossing and escaped. A family of three who tried to follow him through the gap was arrested.
31 August 1961
Two youths leave the Volkshaus Staaken through the cloakroom window
At 3.45 p.m. on 31 August 1961 two youths climbed out of the cloakroom window of the Volkshaus in Staaken, made for the border fence and were over it before the guard alerted by a signal device arrived.
31 August 1961
A former FU student cuts the fence at the Nibelungenweg
At about 6.50 p.m. on 31 August 1961 a man born in 1939 who had been a student at the Free University in West Berlin cut through the wire fence at the Nibelungenweg in Altglienicke; the guards noticed only when he was already in the West.
1 September 1961
Three teenagers from Legebruch run for the border – one gets through
Shortly after midnight on 1 September 1961 three young people from Legebruch tried to break through at Hennigsdorf; guards fired 27 shots, arrested a girl and a boy, and the third youth reached West Berlin.
28 September 1961
Joachim Rudolph through the Tegeler Fließ
On 28 September 1961 the student Joachim Rudolph and a friend crossed a green field from Schildow in the GDR and waded through the Tegeler Fließ, the border stream, into Lübars in West Berlin. A year later he helped dig Tunnel 29.
4 October 1961
Bernd Lünser's fatal rooftop jump
Chased across the rooftops by border guards, 22-year-old student Bernd Lünser jumped from the roof of Bernauer Straße 44 and missed the fire brigade net by a few metres.
1962
A 17-year-old is caught trying to cross through the grounds of the Villa Kampffmeyer
In 1962 the 17-year-old brother of a Potsdam resident tried to reach West Berlin across the grounds of the Villa Kampffmeyer near the Berliner Straße; he was caught and held in the Stasi remand prison in the Lindenstraße.
1 June 1962
Two girls try to help a friend escape at Lichterfelde-Süd
On 1 June 1962 a 16-year-old West Berlin girl was shot in the pelvis at the border in Lichterfelde-Süd while she and a 17-year-old friend were trying to help an acquaintance escape. The border guards arrested the friend.
31 January 1963
Two trainees swim through the ice floes of the Nieder Neuendorfer See
On the night of 31 January 1963 an LEW apprentice and a 20-year-old student on a work placement got through the border fences at Nieder Neuendorf and swam through the ice floes of the lake to Heiligensee in West Berlin.
February 1963 – 1 April 1963
Wolf-Olaf Muszynski drowns in the Spree, presumably while trying to escape
A 16-year-old from Friedrichshain went missing in February 1963; on 1 April his body was found in the Spree on the West Berlin bank near the Oberbaumbrücke. Historians conclude he most likely drowned trying to escape, unseen by the border guards.
January 1964
Jumping onto the Moscow–Paris Express behind Friedrichstraße
In January 1964 a group of young East Berliners jumped, alone or in pairs, from a hiding place just behind Friedrichstraße station onto the westbound Moscow–Paris Express. The route was discovered when Karl-Heinz Richter slipped, was badly hurt and was arrested.
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.
26 November 1964
Hans-Joachim Wolf shot in the Britzer Zweigkanal
Seventeen-year-old apprentice Hans-Joachim Wolf jumped into the ice-cold Britzer Zweigkanal; guards fired 61 shots without warning and ignored his calls to stop.
18 March 1965
An apprentice cuts through three fences at Schönefeld and is shot at the last one
Late at night a car-panel-beater apprentice from Berlin cut through three wire fences on the Schönefeld border. The guards heard him and fired 39 rounds just as he reached the last fence.
9 June 1965 – 11 January 1966
Dieter Brandes – shot at the Nordbahnhof, died months later
Eighteen-year-old Dieter Brandes was shot a few metres from the last barrier at the Nordbahnhof; paralysed, he died in hospital on 11 January 1966.
19 September 1965
A Teltow schoolgirl behind the dashboard of a Peugeot
A teenage girl from Teltow, whose parents had already fled, was hidden behind the dashboard of a Peugeot by two Americans living in West Berlin. She was found at Checkpoint Charlie.
16 December 1966
Karl-Heinz Kube shot near the Teltow harbour
Seventeen-year-old Karl-Heinz Kube and his friend Detlev S. were one fence from West Berlin when they were fired on; Kube was killed in the ditch where they sought cover.
November 1969
Detlef Hubert Peuker over the Wall from a Bernauer Straße yard
In November 1969 the 16-year-old Detlef Hubert Peuker, who had scouted a building on Bernauer Straße during a visit to Berlin, got over the border installations from its yard into West Berlin.
4 April 1971
Two youths climb the Wall
On 4 April 1971 two East German youths climbed the Berlin Wall and fled to the West, West Berlin police reported.
24 July 1971
A Danish tour guide, a doctored passport and a 16-year-old from Rostock
A Copenhagen tour guide tried to take a 16-year-old from Rostock through the Friedrichstraße crossing on a doctored Danish passport and was caught in the act.
22 August 1971
Three Leipzig youths over the fence at Kleinmachnow
Four friends from Leipzig cut their way through the signal fence at Kleinmachnow; three climbed the expanded-metal fence in their socks and reached West Berlin, the fourth was caught.
9 June 1972 – 10 June 1972
A 15-year-old crosses the Wall into Neukölln
In the night of 9 to 10 June 1972 a 15-year-old East German boy crossed the Wall into Neukölln, apparently unseen by the guards, and was reunited with relatives in the West.
11 June 1972
An 18-year-old flees through automatic fire unhurt
On 11 June 1972 an 18-year-old East German fled through automatic-weapon fire from the border guards and reached West Berlin unhurt.
8 October 1972 – 9 October 1972
Two cars stopped in one night at Heinrich-Heine-Straße
Within three hours GDR controllers at the Heinrich-Heine-Straße crossing stopped two cars. In one was a schoolgirl from Lichtenberg, born in 1956, with four West German helpers; the other carried a lathe operator born in 1949 and a couple from Hamburg.
May 1977
Emergency brake by the Wall at Bornholmer Straße
An East Berlin youth pulled the emergency brake of a train passing near the Bornholmer Straße crossing point, jumped to the Wall and scrambled over it into West Berlin.
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.
19 December 1979 – 20 December 1979
Two young men climb the Wall
In the night of 19 to 20 December 1979 two young men climbed over the Berlin Wall from the East, West Berlin police reported.
August 1986
A teenage couple climbs the Wall with fence boards and swims the Spree
In August 1986 an East Berlin apprentice bricklayer and his 17-year-old girlfriend used parts of a wooden fence to climb the Wall on the eastern bank of the Spree and swam the short distance to West Berlin. The escape was kept secret until September so the route could stay open.
May 1987
Thomas Mahler gives his passport to an East Berlin youth
In May 1987 Thomas Mahler, a law student from Wiesbaden visiting East Berlin with his scout group, gave his passport to a young East Berliner who looked like him. The youth got out; Mahler was arrested at the border when he tried to report his passport missing.