1973
On 1 January 1973 the SED detached the border troops from the National People's Army, to widen its room for manoeuvre in the troop-reduction talks due in Vienna.1 The Basic Treaty came into force on 21 June,2 and from 28 July to 5 August East Berlin hosted the World Festival of Youth and Students.3 While security for the festival was being prepared, Erich Mielke told his inner circle that the order to shoot "will of course not be lifted" (translated).4 On 10 August Neues Deutschland attacked escape help on the transit routes, and on 15 November the GDR doubled the minimum exchange for Western visitors.56
Among the 1973 records: the Klein Glienicke family tunnel, 19 metres dug with a spade and a child's shovel, through which nine people escaped on 26 July;3 Manfred Gertzki, shot at the Reichstag in April in home-made armour; and four East Berliners driven through Checkpoint Charlie in a US soldiers' VW bus in December.
Sources for this text
- Chronik 1973: JanuarChronik der Mauer
- Chronik 1973: JuniChronik der Mauer
- Chronik 1973: JuliChronik der Mauer
- "Grenzverletzer sind festzunehmen oder zu vernichten" (Hans-Hermann Hertle)Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung
- Chronik 1973: AugustChronik der Mauer
- Chronik 1973: NovemberChronik der Mauer
Checked October 2026. Facts taken from an escape record on this site link to that record, which lists its own sources.
12 events: 2 successful escapes, 1 partly successful escape, 6 failed attempts and 3 fatal attempts. At least 15 people reached the West in these events.
22 January 1973
15-month-old Holger H. suffocates during his parents' escape
A young couple hid with their baby son in crates on a West Berlin acquaintance's truck. They passed the Drewitz checkpoint undetected, but when the crates were opened in the West, 15-month-old Holger was no longer breathing.
1 March 1973 – 5 March 1973
Volker Frommann jumps from a moving S-Bahn near the border
Shortly after midnight on 1 March 1973 Volker Frommann, born in 1944 in Thuringia, jumped out of a moving S-Bahn train about 50 metres from the border strip in Pankow, probably meaning to get through to West Berlin there. He died of his injuries four days later.
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 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.
8 July 1973
Three East Germans stopped by machine-pistol fire opposite the Märkisches Viertel
Just after détente had been celebrated in Helsinki, border guards stopped three East Germans at the Wall facing the Märkisches Viertel with several machine-pistol bursts and arrested them; angry West Berlin residents tore out a fence patching a hole in the Wall and set tyres on fire.
20 July 1973 – 21 July 1973
Klaus Gomert at the Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark – shot at, arrested, then expelled to the West
In the night of 19–20 July 1973 East Berlin border guards fired bursts at a person presumably trying to escape by the Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark. On 21 July East Berlin police released 18-year-old Klaus Gomert to West Berlin, and ADN claimed he was the would-be escaper – Gomert contradicted parts of the East German account.
26 July 1973
The Klein Glienicke Family Tunnel
Two brothers, their wives and five children escaped from the GDR exclave of Klein Glienicke through a 19-metre tunnel dug with a child's spade during a heatwave.
16 September 1973
Guards fire on two men at the Wall a day after another arrest
Early on 16 September 1973 East German guards foiled an attempt by two men to cross the Wall, firing at least four shots; the day before, guards had arrested another man trying to escape.
25 September 1973
Thirty rounds at four escapers opposite Kohlhasenbrück
On the evening of 25 September 1973 East German border guards fired about thirty rounds at four people apparently trying to cross into the American sector opposite Kohlhasenbrück. The four were led away; several bullets hit apartments on the West Berlin side.
31 October 1973
Juergen Vicari tries to walk through Checkpoint Charlie in a US Army uniform
On 31 October 1973 East German guards at Checkpoint Charlie detained a man seen in US uniform with sergeant's stripes. According to his fiancée he was Juergen Vicari, an East Berlin actor who had planned to walk out through the checkpoint that day.
14 December 1973
Klaus-Peter K. is caught on the patrol road
Klaus-Peter K. got over the inner wall and the signal fence at Brunnenstraße but was arrested at the patrol road.
15 December 1973
Four East Berliners in the cabinets of a US soldiers' VW bus
On 15 December 1973 a doctor, his wife, their small child and another woman crossed Checkpoint Charlie hidden in cabinets inside a Volkswagen bus with US Army number plates. The East German guards missed them; US military police found them on the western side.
