1981
On 13 August 1981 the GDR marked 20 years of the Wall with a military parade.1 On 20 November the Teltow Canal was reopened to barge traffic, as agreed in 1978.23 From 11 to 13 December Helmut Schmidt and Erich Honecker met at the Werbellinsee; around the visit the order to shoot at the border was suspended for a short time.45
The 1981 records here are mostly failures: the Ford Escort of a Costa Rican with a diplomatic passport at Checkpoint Charlie in May, a stand-off at Drewitz over an Erfurt dentist family hidden in a US Army Ford in June, and a planned break-out at Stolpe-Süd on a radio command from West Berlin that the Stasi stopped first. Hans-Jürgen Starrost was shot at close range at Sigridshorst in April while a soldier held him; Thomas Taubmann died after jumping from a freight train under the Bösebrücke on 12 December, during the Schmidt visit.
Sources for this text
- Chronik 1981: AugustChronik der Mauer
- Chronik 1981: NovemberChronik der Mauer
- Chronik 1978: NovemberChronik der Mauer
- "Grenzverletzer sind festzunehmen oder zu vernichten" (Hans-Hermann Hertle)Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung
- Chronik 1981: DezemberChronik der Mauer
Checked October 2026. Facts taken from an escape record on this site link to that record, which lists its own sources.
5 events: 3 failed attempts and 2 fatal attempts.
14 April 1981
Hans-Jürgen Starrost shot during capture at Sigridshorst
Facing a return to prison, 25-year-old Hans-Jürgen Starrost tried to climb into the border area at Teltow with a ladder. Caught and held, he was shot in the abdomen at close range and died a month later.
26 May 1981
A Costa Rican diplomat's Ford Escort at Checkpoint Charlie
A urologist from San José who had studied medicine in Halle tried to use his diplomatic passport to drive an East German woman out in his boot – for a promised 10,000 Deutschmarks.
28 June 1981 – 29 June 1981
An Erfurt dentist family in a US Army Ford – the six-hour stand-off at Drewitz
Two US soldiers picked up two dentists from Erfurt and their ten-year-old son on the transit motorway. At Drewitz the Soviet commander refused to let the car through; after more than four hours of negotiation the American commander agreed to a joint check of the car.
1 August 1981
A walkie-talkie from West Berlin: the planned break-out at Stolpe-Süd
A 22-year-old East Berlin window cleaner was to cross at Stolpe-Süd on a radio command from West Berlin, through barriers that West Berliners had already damaged – and the crossing was to be filmed. The Stasi arrested him first.
12 December 1981
Thomas Taubmann jumps from a freight train under the Bösebrücke
On the evening of 12 December 1981 Thomas Taubmann climbed onto a freight train leaving Pankow and jumped off beneath the Bösebrücke, right at the border. He was found dead on the tracks.
