The Berlin Wall necessitates a spectacular border crossing
Harry Deterling, a steam locomotive driver, refused to sign a document confirming his support for the “measures to secure the border”. When his boss threatened to dismiss him, Deterling decided to escape to the West. He and a friend, who worked on the railway as a fireman, discovered that Albrechtshof station, located on the border between Potsdam and Berlin-Spandau, had not yet been fitted with modern security technology. Deterling volunteered for extra shifts and was assigned to the Albrechtshof route. Upon hearing that the area around the station was to be cordoned off, he signed up for another extra shift and decided that it would be his last. On 5 December 1962, he took control of the train bound for Albrechtshof, arranged for his friend to take the shift with him and disabled the emergency brake. Two dozen more people wishing to flee boarded the train at various stations, as previously agreed.
As the train approached the border station, Deterling accelerated to maximum speed and steamed past the stop signal. Whilst the train guard, who was not in on the plan, unsuccessfully pulled the emergency brake, the passengers who knew what was going on lay down on the floor to avoid being hit by any shots fired by border guards. In the event, the guards were taken by surprise and let it pass. The locomotive broke through the gate in the border fence and was brought to a halt by Deterling a few hundred metres down the track. All the travellers who had been in on the plan, plus some who had not, remained in the West. Others ran back to the DDR together with the guard. The railway company fetched their locomotive and carriages and then pulled up the rails. The DDR propaganda portrayed the escape operation as the result of Western sabotage.
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