1975
The fourth and last generation of the Wall, the Grenzmauer 75, was tried out in 1975, and building began on 1 April 1976.1 It was made of industrially produced concrete elements 3.60 metres high and 1.20 metres wide.2 The same year the Stasi set up the Zentrale Koordinierungsgruppe (ZKG) to coordinate its work against emigration and leaving the GDR and against so-called "anti-state trafficking in human beings" (translated).3 On 14 October the chief of the border troops ordered that firearms be used "resolutely and accurately" to prevent breakthroughs in the coming training year (translated).4
Cars with hidden passengers dominate the 1975 records: Hartmut Richter, caught at Drewitz on 4 March with his sister and her fiancé in the boot after bringing 33 people out, a family of three found in a boot there five days later, and two US sergeants' cars that carried a doctor's family and a pregnant woman and her husband through Checkpoint Charlie.
Sources for this text
- Chronik 1976: AprilChronik der Mauer
- Das GrenzsystemChronik der Mauer
- MfS-Lexikon: Zentrale Koordinierungsgruppe (ZKG)Bundesarchiv (Stasi-Unterlagen-Archiv)
- Chronik 1975: OktoberChronik der Mauer
Checked October 2026. Facts taken from an escape record on this site link to that record, which lists its own sources.
9 events: 3 successful escapes, 4 failed attempts and 2 fatal attempts. At least 6 people reached the West in these events.
1975
Peuker's brother hidden in the tank of a converted car at Drewitz
In the mid-1970s Detlef Hubert Peuker, who had himself escaped in 1969, helped smuggle his brother out of the GDR through the Drewitz–Dreilinden crossing, hidden in the tank of a converted car.
1 February 1975
The Swiss embassy cook's Mini: caught at Bornholmer Straße
A young Swiss cook at the Swiss embassy in East Berlin had already taken his East Berlin girlfriend to the Kurfürstendamm and back in the boot of his Mini. On 1 February 1975, after two Stasi informers had reported on him, the boot was opened at Bornholmer Straße.
4 March 1975
Escape helper Hartmut Richter caught at Drewitz with his sister in the boot
After smuggling 33 people out in the boot of his car, escape helper Hartmut Richter was stopped at the Drewitz crossing with his own sister and her fiancé hidden inside, and sentenced to 15 years.
9 March 1975
A family of three in the boot of a West Berlin car at Drewitz
Three members of one family lay hidden in the boot of a car with West Berlin plates. At the Drewitz crossing the Stasi found them, arrested them and then made them climb back in so the scene could be photographed.
3 April 1975
Herbert Halli shot while turning back at Zimmerstraße
After a drinking session on the Palast der Republik building site, 21-year-old Herbert Halli climbed into the border strip at Zimmerstraße. He had already turned back when a guard shot him in the back.
30 May 1975
A doctor's family in the boot of a US sergeant's Cadillac
On the evening of 30 May 1975 a US Army staff sergeant drove an East German doctor, his wife and son through Checkpoint Charlie in the boot of his 1969 Cadillac. The East German guards apparently noticed nothing; US military police found the family and took the sergeant into custody on the western side.
27 June 1975
Herbert Kiebler shot near Mahlow; death disguised as suicide
Shortly after midnight on 27 June 1975 Herbert Kiebler crossed the signal fence near Mahlow and was shot from about 100 metres as he left the vehicle trench. The Stasi told his family he had killed himself in a forest near Potsdam.
15 August 1975
A pregnant woman and her husband behind the back seat of a US sergeant's Chevrolet
Late on 15 August 1975 a US Army sergeant brought an East German couple, the wife pregnant, through Checkpoint Charlie in a hollowed-out space between the back seat and the boot of his Chevrolet. The East German guards looked closely but let him pass; US military police found the couple.
21 November 1975
Thirty rounds near the Waßmannsdorfer Chaussee
On the evening of 21 November 1975 two Kreuzberg residents saw an East German guard fire about 30 rounds from an automatic weapon at an unarmed man apparently trying to cross from the Schönefeld area into the American sector. He lay still for ten minutes before a military vehicle took him away.