1977
On 11 January 1977 the Volkspolizei restricted access to the Federal Republic's Permanent Representation to keep would-be emigrants away, and on 16 February the SED Central Committee secretariat told state bodies that GDR law made no provision for a right to resettle in non-socialist states; citing the Helsinki Final Act was made punishable.12 On 7 October young people on Alexanderplatz clashed with the Volkspolizei, and the crowd chanted "Die Mauer muss weg!" ("The Wall must go!"); in October the GDR also created a merit medal for the border troops.3 The West Berlin police registered 159 successful escapes through the Berlin barriers in the year to 13 August 1977.4
The 1977 records here range from Dietmar Schwietzer, killed near Schönwalde in February, to a former border officer who helped another man over the Wall at Kremmener Straße and was arrested at its foot, and two brothers in the luggage hold of a French army tour bus in September.
Sources for this text
- Chronik 1977: JanuarChronik der Mauer
- Chronik 1977: FebruarChronik der Mauer
- Chronik 1977: OktoberChronik der Mauer
- Gelungene Fluchten aus der DDR und Ost-Berlin durch die Grenz-Sperranlagen, 1961-1989Chronik der Mauer
Checked October 2026. Facts taken from an escape record on this site link to that record, which lists its own sources.
7 events: 2 successful escapes, 1 partly successful escape, 2 failed attempts and 2 fatal attempts. At least 4 people reached the West in these events.
16 February 1977
Dietmar Schwietzer killed near Schönwalde
An 18-year-old from Magdeburg got through several border fences at Schönwalde but was killed by gunfire a few metres from the Wall; four guards fired 91 rounds.
May 1977
A former border officer helps Rainer P. over the Wall and is caught
Having reconnoitred the border, the pair crossed every barrier from a back yard on Kremmener Straße; Uwe W. boosted Rainer P. over the Wall and was then arrested at its foot.
May 1977 – 27 July 1977
Henri Weise found drowned in the Spree at the Marschallbrücke
A 22-year-old from Thuringia whose applications to leave the GDR had been refused left his father's East Berlin flat on 17 May 1977 and never came back. Two months later his body was found in the Spree water barrier at the Marschallbrücke; he had probably tried to swim to West Berlin.
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.
21 September 1977
Two brothers in the luggage hold of a French army tour bus
On 21 September 1977 two young East German brothers crawled into the unlocked luggage hold of a French military tour bus parked at the Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park, and rode in it to West Berlin.
2 October 1977
Two young women in a car boot at Staaken
A West Berliner working for an escape-helper group tried to take two women in their early twenties out in his boot through the Staaken crossing – one of them the daughter of an SED factory director, who wanted to marry her Turkish boyfriend in West Berlin.
15 November 1977
In a US Air Force uniform at Checkpoint Charlie
An East Berlin electrician who wanted to work as a musician in the West tried to leave through Checkpoint Charlie dressed as a US Air Force NCO, driven there by the American sergeant who had supplied the uniform, but was recognised and arrested by the Stasi.
