Craziest Berlin Wall Escape Stories

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Yes, it was 20 years ago that David Hasselhoff toppled the Berlin Wall and sang his popular German hit, “Looking For Freedom.” Then (as history goes) Hasselhoff uttered those immortal words: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” (Or something like that.)

During it’s reign of terror 134 people were killed trying to get over (and under) the Berlin Wall into West Germany as guards were given shooting order for those attempting to escape. (The last person to be shot while trying to cross the border was Chris Gueffroy on February 6, 1989.) Like something straight out of a James Bond movie, here are a few daring escape attempts made during the height of the Berlin Wall:

-The East German families of Peter Strelzyk and Guenter Wetzel worked together to create a homemade hot-air balloon. Their wives stitched together curtains, bedsheets, and random scraps to construct a 65-foot-wide, 75-foot-high balloon. On the night of September 15, 1979, the group launched their contraption, which had just enough fuel to make it over the wall and into the land of Coca Cola and fancy Levi jeans. 

-Professional gangs built tunnels that would go under the Berlin Wall (and charged extortionate fees for refugees to use them). One tunnel began in an East Berlin graveyard, where “mourners” brought flowers to a grave and then disappeared underground. And they would have gotten away with it to until Communist officers discovered a baby carriage left by the “grave”. Sealing up the tunnel followed.

-Smuggling people in cars was also a popular means:

-Holger Bethke shot an arrow from an East German rooftop over the Berlin Wall and managed to rig a makeshift pulley system and swing himself to freedom. Years later he flew across the Wall in a microlight aircraft, that he decorated with Russian stars, to rescue his brother Egbert.

For our German-speaking readers, here is a video of the heroic rescue flight over East Berlin:

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