1983
On 15 September 1983 the GDR for the first time published a regulation allowing applications to move abroad, limited to spouses and first-degree relatives and with no right to approval.1 On 3 October Order 101/83 raised the border troops' combat readiness; two days later Erich Honecker announced the removal of the roughly 60,000 SM-70 self-firing devices on the inner-German border by the end of 1984.2
The 1983 records here include two of the rarer methods: Holger Bethke and Michael Becker, who rode a steel cable over the Wall from a Treptow attic on 31 March, and a 24-year-old who tried to hijack an S-Bahn at Friedrichstraße with an air rifle in May. On 23 December two guards paired to watch each other swam the Teltow Canal together; two days later Silvio Proksch was shot at Pankow cemetery and bled to death, and the shooter was decorated.3
Sources for this text
- Chronik 1983: SeptemberChronik der Mauer
- Chronik 1983: OktoberChronik der Mauer
- Chronik 1983: DezemberChronik 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: 3 successful escapes, 3 failed attempts and 1 fatal attempt. At least 6 people reached the West in these events.
31 March 1983
Holger Bethke and Michael Becker slide over the Wall on a steel cable
Using a bow and arrow to shoot a line over the border strip, Holger Bethke and his friend Michael Becker rigged a steel cable and rode home-made pulleys over the Wall from Treptow.
27 May 1983
The S-Bahn hijacking at Friedrichstraße
A 24-year-old forced his way into an S-Bahn driver's cab with an air rifle and tried to make the train run on into West Berlin; it stopped short of a buffer stop and he was overpowered by officers of the passport control unit.
28 July 1983
Stolen tipper truck at Heinrich-Heine-Straße
A 21-year-old postal driver stole a KrAZ tipper truck and smashed through the gates of the Heinrich-Heine-Straße crossing, but was stopped by the roll barrier.
2 September 1983
Two young men from Prenzlauer Berg cross the Wall with a window-cleaner's ladder
After an evening in a Prenzlauer Berg pub, two young men went onto the grounds of the Volkspolizei hospital, where one of them worked as a cleaner, and climbed the border barriers with his cleaning ladder while guards opened fire.
10 November 1983
Ronni S. and the painter's ladder
Ronni S. tried to get over the Wall with a painter's stepladder and was arrested in the border strip.
23 December 1983
Two border guards meant to watch each other swim the Teltow Canal together
At about 1 a.m. on 23 December 1983 two East German border guards, paired so that each could watch the other, swam the Teltow Canal in uniform to a suburb in the American sector. They flagged down a car and were driven to a café, from where they called the police.
25 December 1983
Silvio Proksch shot on Christmas Day at Pankow cemetery
On Christmas evening 1983 the 21-year-old bricklayer climbed the cemetery fence into the border strip without any plan and was shot; he bled to death before he received treatment.
