The story of how one family ziplined their way to West Berlin
Harnesses, rope, handmade pulleys, and a hammer: that’s all it takes to escape from East Berlin, as the Holzapfel family discovered. During the 1950’s, thousands of East Berliners escaped to West Berlin from their communist government in what was known as the “Brain Drain.” Many people fleeing East Berlin were some of the society's most skilled and important workers. In attempts to stop these people from fleeing, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), or East Berlin, built the Berlin wall in 1961.
It became evident very quickly how serious East Berlin was about keeping its civilians in. Measuring 96 miles long and 13 feet tall, the Berlin wall was impossible to get over as it had a cement cylindrical upper structure to prevent people from grappling over the top. Even if one was lucky enough to make it to the other side, they would have to make it past the lethal “death strip.” This area consisted of gravel to show fugitives’ footprints, landmines, electrical fences, guard dogs, bright lamp posts, and hundreds of watch towers armed with GDR soldiers, equipped with machine guns and given orders to “open fire.” Desperate East Berliners had to become creative in their methods of escape.
Heinz Holzapfel, an engineer, economist and world war II veteran, worked as an industrial economist in Leipzig and was invited to work in the House of ministries in East Berlin. The House of Ministries building sat directly in front of the wall. Holzapfel would use his spare time to explore the building with intentions of finding an escape route. Holzapfel had decided that his escape to freedom would be to usher himself and his family off the ministries roof and zipline into West Berlin. The day July 28th 1965 had finally arrived, and Holzapfel was determined to get his wife Jutta, his son Günter and him over the wall.
Holzapfel had waited all evening for the employees of the ministry to go home, meanwhile, he hid his family in a bathroom with an "out of order sign." Along with a briefcase of documents to start their new life in the West, the Holzapfel's had brought all of the tools necessary for their escape. One of these tools being a harness Holzapfel made out of bicycle tires. At 9:45 pm, the family quickly made their way up to the roof. It was a still and windy night, not the best conditions for an escape. Once the family realized they had a mere 50 feet to clear past the death strip, they started to reconsider their plan. Holzapfel took a rope, and tied it to the hammer wrapped in foam. He threw with all his might. The hammer landed safely in the West Berlin grass and didn’t make a sound.
The order went as follows: Günter, Jutta, then Heinz. Günter and Jutta made it across safely to their relatives waiting for them in West Berlin. All that was left, was Holzapfel, who held the briefcase containing all of their most important documents. Holzapfel was almost to the other side, when the strap of his briefcase snapped and fell into the street of East Berlin, just shy of the wall. The documents were scattered, but Holzapfel himself made it to the other side. The escape was successful and all three family members made it to West Berlin. Little did the Holzapfel family know, their plan had almost been busted. A Soviet officer had witnessed the entire escape from a watch tower.
It was later discovered that the guard did not sound the alarm due to the belief that the family were members of the Stasi, or “secret police” of East Germany, trying to enter West Berlin undetected.The guard was in such disbelief, claiming that it was too obvious to be a real escape. The Holzapfel family started their new life in West Berlin and ultimately settled in Munich.
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