1980
Between 1 March and 1 July 1980 engineer units of the border troops removed the ruined house fronts that still formed the Wall along Bernauer Straße and replaced them with the Grenzmauer 75, prefabricated segments 3.60 metres high.1 In the 1980s the GDR also planned "Grenze 90", an electronic upgrade with sensors, infrared barriers and automatic searchlights; it was never built.2 On 9 October the GDR raised the compulsory exchange for Western visitors to 25 DM a day, after which visits from the Federal Republic fell by more than 40 per cent.3
Among the 1980 records: a U-Bahn signal mechanic who led three relatives through a disused connecting tunnel to the U8 in March, the border soldier Egon B., who shot his patrol leader Ulrich Steinhauer and climbed into Spandau in November, and Marienetta Jirkowsky, 18, shot from a ladder at Hohen Neuendorf as her two friends got over.
Sources for this text
- Chronik 1980: MärzChronik der Mauer
- Building and development of the Berlin WallLandesdenkmalamt Berlin
- Chronik 1980: OktoberChronik 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: 4 successful escapes, 1 failed attempt and 2 fatal attempts. At least 11 people reached the West in these events.
February 1980
Two printers saw through a window and scale the Wall with grappling hooks
Two East German printers sawed through an iron-barred window in their newspaper building and climbed the Berlin Wall with grappling hooks and a rope, police said in February 1980.
8 March 1980
Hitch-hiking on the U8
An East Berlin U-Bahn signal mechanic led three relatives through a disused connecting tunnel to the West Berlin U8 line, stopped a western train with his signal lamp and asked for a lift.
25 April 1980
Martin M. reaches the watchtower at Ackerstraße
A day after quitting his job, Martin M. climbed the inner wall at Ackerstraße and got as far as the watchtower before he was arrested.
7 September 1980
Two East Germans escape over the Wall under fire, 7 September 1980
On 7 September 1980 two East Germans escaped over the Berlin Wall under fire from an East German border guard, the West Berlin police said.
4 November 1980
Egon B.'s desertion and the death of Ulrich Steinhauer
Border soldier Egon B. disconnected the border communication system, shot his patrol leader Ulrich Steinhauer and climbed the Wall from the saddle of his service bicycle into Spandau; a West Berlin court later convicted him of manslaughter.
22 November 1980
Marienetta Jirkowsky shot from a ladder at Hohen Neuendorf
18-year-old Marienetta Jirkowsky and two friends climbed the border barriers with a ladder; the two young men reached West Berlin, but she was shot as her hands reached the top of the Wall.
December 1980 – 9 February 1981
Peter Grohganz drowns in the winter Spree
On 9 February 1981 a GDR border boat found a body caught in a water barrier in the Spree east of the Oberbaumbrücke. It was Peter Grohganz, 32, from Premnitz, who had disappeared in December 1980; earlier that year he had asked to leave the GDR and then withdrawn the request.
