Spektakuläre Flucht 1986: Grenzsoldat flieht aus der DDR!

Two dramatic escapes in 1986: A craftsman escapes from Checkpoint Charlie, a border guard crosses the Thuringian-Hessian border. Both reach the West, miraculously unharmed. This excerpt from Heribert Schwan's documentary "Along the Border" impressively demonstrates how even the GDR's almost seamless border regime could not prevent people from repeatedly escaping to freedom. First, Andreas Bratke, a then 21-year-old telecommunications technician from East Berlin, recounts his dramatic escape on January 17, 1986. While installing surveillance equipment at the Checkpoint Charlie border crossing, he takes advantage of an unobserved moment to run through the heavily guarded security area. An East German captain attempts to stop him two meters from the demarcation line, but Bratke reaches West Berlin unharmed. His motives: He rejects GDR military service, is active in the Protestant peace movement, and feels a strong desire for freedom. In the second part, a helicopter flight with the Federal Border Guard takes the film crew along the Werra border river to Hesse. The film crew depicts the sophisticated GDR border barrier system, the detonation of landmines, the dismantling of self-firing devices, and the massive environmental pollution caused by caustic potash. During filming, the unexpected happens: The film crew accidentally captures a GDR border guard from the air as he and his guard are walking in front of border fence 1 – the last barrier element. Just one day later, he outwits his guard, drives a truck right up to the last fence – and escapes to the Federal Republic. He, too, explains his escape with his dissatisfaction with the GDR, the search for a better life, his longing for freedom, and the desire "to see something of the world for once." At the end of the clip, writer Adolf Endler offers an ironic counterpoint to real-life socialism: Despite all its ideological precepts, the US series "Dallas," broadcast on ARD, was the GDR's most successful television program at the time—a symbol of the many contradictions in everyday life in the "other Germany"... 🎥 Source: Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). 📼 VHS recording, digitized, restored, and posted online to preserve contemporary historical documents. #GDR #Wall #Berlin #History #Escape #Borderbreak #CheckpointCharlie #ColdWar #Freedom #EastGermany #WestGermany #Werra #BorderSoldier #Border #Division