In October, 1995 all of what was formerly East Germany was under construction. Busting the Berlin Wall explores the daring escape stories over the Wall that divided a nation. The Wall was largely effective, although many people still risked death or imprisonment trying to escape. Authorities denied their request to be married, so fuelled by love, he plotted a risky escape to take her, and his future mother-in-law, over to West Berlin. Lichy agreed, and the pair began to plan their escape. By the following summer, NBC and CBS were at work on two separate, secret documentaries on tunnels being dug under the Berlin Wall. Dobler also brought appetite suppressants, which had a similar effect as Ecstasy. It stood there for almost 30 years as a symbol of the physical and ideological barrier that separated Berlin. They considered giving up, but the government had become suspicious. Steering his passenger train, dubbed “the last train to freedom,” Deterling brought it up to full throttle and crashed it into the wall. After World War II, an estimated 2.5 million East Germans fled to West Germany. Bormann followed the subway tunnel that runs under this street north to the Friedrichstrasse station, a few hundred yards south of … In 1984, in the mountains of Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, a woman fled from East Germany. They closed the border between the countries and erected the Berlin Wall. Fortunately, their third attempt was successful. There, he met Margarete Thorau at a ball. They had no choice but to continue. [8] He demanded the plane fly into West Germany. It is amazing to see the results of Communism on the psyche of the unfortunate citizens of that former nation. As Deterling approached the train’s designated stop, he did not slow down. In 1976 he was caught by the East German authorities and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, however West German officials were able to secure his release after four years in prison. Checkpoint Charlie was not only an important Cold War site, but also witnessed numerous attempts to escape from East Berlin. Austrian Heinz Meixner worked in East Berlin. The Wall was especially popular in international espionage films because it clearly represented the Iron Curtain between the two sides of the Cold War. Hohlbein’s mother was among the group. He got stuck in barbed wire along the way and was shot by border guards, miraculously he was still able to make his great escape to Western soil when some West Germans came to his aid. [10] He snapped the pulley over the rope, grabbed the handles, and jumped. For more than 5,000 East Germans its imposing structure was too much to bear, spurring them to plot their great escapes. All over East Berlin, men, women - including Wolfdieter’s fiance, Renate - and children, started to make their way towards the cottage. When the Wall came up, in 1961, a sixth of the East German population had already moved West. Cast See All. They started walking and came across policemen, who confirmed that they had reached West Germany. He soon started to reject the teachings of his country and decided to take the first chance to escape. He was in reasonable health aside from his two broken arms. In 1979, after a first failed attempt, the two families made it safely to West Germany. The problem was that because East Germany did not recognize West Berlin as a part of West Germany, Jacobi, as a West Berliner, was not permitted to travel into East Germany. In March 1983, Holger fled with a friend ,they shot a rope with an arrow and bow a rope from an attic in Treptow(east berlin) to an attic in Neukölln(west Berlin). Ingrid Ruske fell in love with Horst Fischer. 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