1982
On 25 March 1982 the Volkskammer passed the Border Law, which in the Chronik der Mauer's words gave fatal shooting at the border a legal facade for the first time: § 27 made firearms "the most extreme measure of force against persons", justified to prevent a crime and normally to be announced by a shout or a warning shot (translated).12 On 9 July the chief of the border troops, Klaus-Dieter Baumgarten, complained that some soldiers failed to shoot when they should and others fired "wildly" in bursts; his rule was "if necessary, then hit with the first shot" (translated).3
Among the 1982 records: an unknown person who used a bucket, the S-Bahn tracks and a railway bridge to walk into Wedding in January; two men who pulled an S-Bahn's emergency brake south of the Bösebrücke and crossed the barriers into Wedding with a ladder in March; and a train driver and his wife whose 17-metre tunnel at Sigridshorst never got near the border.
Sources for this text
- Chronik 1982: MärzChronik der Mauer
- "Grenzverletzer sind festzunehmen oder zu vernichten" (Hans-Hermann Hertle)Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung
- "Wenn notwendig, dann treffen mit dem ersten Schuß", Rede-Konspekt von DDR-Grenztruppen-Chef Klaus-Dieter Baumgarten, 9. Juli 1982Chronik der Mauer
Checked October 2026. Facts taken from an escape record on this site link to that record, which lists its own sources.
4 events: 2 successful escapes and 2 failed attempts. At least 3 people reached the West in these events.
19 January 1982
A bucket, the S-Bahn tracks and the bridge over the Gartenstraße
An unknown person stood a bucket against the rear wall in a Mitte back yard, climbed onto the tracks of the North-South S-Bahn and walked across the railway bridge into Wedding.
3 March 1982
Emergency brake and ladder south of the Bösebrücke
Two men pulled the emergency brake of an S-Bahn train on the curve at Bornholmer Straße, got out and climbed the border barriers into Wedding with a ladder.
22 April 1982
The Abandoned Sigridshorst Tunnel
A train driver and his wife dug 17 metres of tunnel from their cellar but gave up with the border still several hundred metres away; a later balloon plan was betrayed and both were imprisoned.
25 April 1982
Two dentists and their son in the boot of a US Army Volvo
Two American soldiers picked up a dentist couple from Cottbus and their four-year-old son at a transit car park and hid them in the boot. The GDR had noticed – and the Soviets held the car at Drewitz until the US military police opened the boot.
