1967
From the middle of the 1960s, the Landesdenkmalamt says, the older wall was gradually replaced by a new generation: concrete slabs laid between H-shaped supports, capped with a round concrete tube meant to make climbing harder.1 The Chronik der Mauer dates this third generation of the Wall to the second half of the decade, and says that by the end of the 1960s or the start of the 1970s wall, patrol roads, lighting, electric fences, dog runs, vehicle barriers and alarm systems had become a system that was almost impossible to cross.2 On 1 May a new version of service regulation 30/10 on border security in the border companies came into force; its sections on firearms were essentially those of 1964.3
Among the 1967 records: Max Sahmland set off the signal-fence alarm in January, was wounded and sank in the Teltow Canal under fire; the Polish waterways worker Franciszek Piesik drowned in the Nieder Neuendorfer See in October; and in the night of 25 to 26 December guards fired on a woman climbing a rope over the Wall at Korsörer Straße, which by the Stasi's account two West Berlin policemen were helping to hold.
Sources for this text
- Building and development of the Berlin WallLandesdenkmalamt Berlin
- Das GrenzsystemChronik der Mauer
- Chronik 1967: MaiChronik der Mauer
Checked October 2026. Facts taken from an escape record on this site link to that record, which lists its own sources.
4 events: 2 failed attempts and 2 fatal attempts.
1967
Two transport workers plan to stop a West Berlin U-Bahn train under Alexanderplatz
In summer 1967 two 20-year-old East Berlin transport workers planned to climb from a workshop at Alexanderplatz station into the tunnel of the West Berlin line (today's U8) and stop a westbound train. A colleague informed the Stasi.
27 January 1967
Max Sahmland – shot while swimming the Teltow Canal
Wounded after setting off the alarm at the signal fence, Max Sahmland reached the Teltow Canal and swam for the western bank, but guards kept firing and he sank only metres from safety.
17 October 1967
Franciszek Piesik – from the Oder to the Nieder Neuendorfer See
Polish inland-waterways worker Franciszek Piesik crossed the Oder into the GDR, stole a motorboat at Hennigsdorf and, when spotted, tried to swim the cold Nieder Neuendorfer See to West Berlin; he drowned.
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.
