Two E. Germans escape over wall under guards’ noses

Press, 20 February 1980, Page 8

Two E. Germans escape over wall under guards’ noses

NZPA-Reuter . West Berlin - Two ; East Germans crossed the Berlin Wall in a daring Escape to the West at the week-end, the West Berlin police have said. The two men, aged 2b and 27, made their escape early on Sunday morning from a building alongside the heavily-guarded Checkpoint Charlie. > . After sawing through bars across, a ‘window, they climbed down- a rope, ran across a-' 10m wide “death strip” to the wall and used two ladders to

scale it and reach the West, the police said. West Berlin police sources said the two men worked in the building, which housed an East German printing works producing the daily “Neue Zeit.” All the West-facing windows were barred. They escaped in full view of two East German watchtowers, but the police said one of them was unmanned and no shots were . fired at the meh. Fierce guard dogs which normally patrol the “death strip” were not around at the time.

According to the police 170 people escaped to West Berlin last year across the 165 km wall, which runs through the centre of the city, and also encircles the western half, separating it from surrounding East German territory. After the wall was built in 1961 there were hundreds of dramatic escapes. People leapt from tenement buildings forming the frontier,’ dug tunnels,; crashed through checkpoints, or even winched

themselves across to the West In the last few years East German authorities have gradually extended the “death strip” between the wall and East Berlin and refined the wall’s se- , curity devices, drastically cutting the number of escapes. Checkpoint Charlie, in the American sector of West Berlin and close, to the old city centre, is one of the most frequently used and carefully guarded official crossing points in the walk - 1