Wolfgang Engels (refugee)

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Type of getaway vehicle

Wolfgang Engels (* 1943 in Dusseldorf ) is a former, employee as a car mechanic and driver civilian employee of the National People's Army , in 1963 through his escape from East Germany was known when he with a stolen armored personnel carriers of the type BTR-152 , the Berlin Wall broke through.

Childhood and youth

Wolfgang Engels' mother, a West German member of the KPD , moved with her son to East Berlin on behalf of the party in 1952 , and later to Dresden, and married a major in the National People's Army. His mother was then a senior in State Security , and his stepfather was a major in the Ministry of the Interior , Air Defense Department. Engels learned there after high school the profession of locksmith . In 1960 he became a soldier , initially stationed on Rügen , later to secure the border in East Berlin. The decision to flee arose after Engels and friends were arrested near the wall for allegedly attempting to “illegally cross the border”, although the group had only unintentionally got into the restricted area at the Reichstag building.

Escape

On April 17, 1963, Engels went to the NVA Magerviehhof Friedrichsfelde , where the 8th motorized rifle division was stationed. There he first had conversations with the armored car drivers present and, in exchange for a ride in his service limousine, had the technology of the vehicles explained to him. When the soldiers left the premises for dinner, Engels stole one of the parked armored personnel carriers with which he wanted to break through the wall. To do this, he chose a position in Treptow on the corner of Elsenstrasse and Heidelberger Strasse that was easily accessible for vehicles of this type. Engels stopped a few hundred meters from the border fortifications and asked a few passers-by if they would like to join his escape. Since no one got on, Engels drove on alone. At 7.44 p.m. the vehicle hit the border fortification, injuring his head. The front of the armored car broke through the barrier, but since Engels stalled the engine, the car got stuck and the exit was still on the East German side. Engels got out of the car and tried to climb over the hood over the wall.

A member of the GDR border troops opened fire, a West Berlin police officer shot back and gave Engels fire protection. He was shot through the lung and injured in his left hand. With the help of members of a savings association who celebrated in a nearby inn and pulled him to the West German side and looked after him, he finally managed to escape. Despite his training as a locksmith in the GDR, Engels had to study again for nine months and do the journeyman's certificate. Wolfgang Engels later taught history and biology as a teacher at the secondary school in Soltau .

Persecution by the State Security in the Federal Republic of Germany

The Stasi had drawn up a plan for his kidnapping to the GDR. For this purpose, the Ministry for State Security in Düsseldorf, where he initially lived after his escape, appointed an unofficial employee to scout him. The plan was not implemented.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Detailed interview by Hans-Hermann Hertle with Wolfgang Engels at www.chronik-der-mauer.de
  2. ↑ 40 years ago today: 19-year-old escapes with a stolen tank . Berliner Morgenpost, April 17, 2003 (link for a fee)
personal data
SURNAME Engels, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German GDR soldier and GDR refugee
DATE OF BIRTH 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf