[Spridgets] 52 years ago
Tim Collins
thcollin at mtu.edu
Tue May 5 11:09:22 MDT 2015
52 years ago today. . .
TIME Magazine
Friday, May. 17, 1963
Two Inches to Safety
Since the hated Wall went up in 1961, escapees
have ingeniously gotten past it by tunneling,
climbing, jumping, or by just knocking it down.
Last week a young Austrian outdid them all,
smuggling out his pretty fiancée and her mother
through the simple expedient of keeping his head
down. Heinz Meixner, 20, had moved to West Berlin
two years ago to take a job as a lathe worker. As
a foreigner, he was able to cross the line freely
into East Berlin, where, at a students' dance
last September, he fell in love with tiny,
attractive Margarete Thurau. When Margarete
applied for permission to emigrate to Austria,
Communist police told her that she should marry
her young man in East Berlin and settle down
there. "As soon as I heard that," says Meixner,
"I made up my mind to get her out." Last Exit. He
laid his plans with meticulous care. To get a
good look at the Communist side of the
Friedrichstrasse crossing point for foreigners,
Meixner stalled his motor scooter near the
peppermint-striped steel beam that closes the
last exit in the Wall. Pretending to have engine
trouble, he measured the height of the barrier,
found that it was only 37½ in. from the ground.
His next step was to search the car rental
agencies in West Berlin for a sports car small
enough to slip under the beam. He finally decided
on an Austin Healey Sprite, which, without its
windshield, measured 35½ in. high. Meixner
confided in another young Austrian, gave him an
exact timetable of his plans and asked him to
prevent any cars on the Western side from
starting into the barrier area at the critical
moment. At last, when his plans were complete.
Meixner drove his little sports car back into
East Berlin to Margarete's house. Margarete
crouched in the narrow space behind the driver's
seat; her mother was wedged into the luggage
compartment. "Luckily," says petite Margarete,
"Mother is just like me." Leaving nothing to
chance, Meixner also let air out of his tires to
lower the car. Shortly after midnight, Meixner
drove to the entrance of the frontier area,
showed his Austrian passport to a guard, who
waved him on to the customs officer. Bricks for
Mamma. It was the time for action. Instead of
pulling up at the customs shed, Meixner gunned
his motor, skidded around the slalom barriers,
and shot past the startled guard. Looming before
him was that last bar. For one terrifying moment,
it seemed too low to clear. But he had measured
well. Jamming his foot on the accelerator,
Meixner ducked his head and whizzed into West
Berlin. By the time he got there, he was going so
fast that he left a 96-ft. skid mark when he
jammed on the brakes. Safe with his passengers,
Meixner explained his escape plan to startled
West Berlin police: "I figured it would take the
Vopos three seconds to draw their weapons once
they realized what I was doing. But I thought I
could make it in those three seconds. Besides, we
had 30 bricks behind Mrs. Thurau to protect her if firing started."
and It is incredible that one man took his bride
to safety in an Austin Healey Sprite, but TWO - with the SAME Sprite!!! WOW
I like the line about the defective exhaust. LOL
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The House At Checkpoint Charlie
A Little West Berlin Museum Celebrates The
Ingenuity Of Those Who Conquered The Wall
December 07, 1986|By Article by Paul Martin, a
freelance writer based in Riverside.
The exploit, and the Sprite, received
international publicity. Several months later
Norbert Konrad tried the same stunt. Although
born in Germany, Konrad had an Argentine
passport. He had fallen in love with an East
German woman, Helga Werner, but the authorities
refused permission for her to emigrate. Although
concerned that the guards at Checkpoint Charlie
might be particularly suspicious of sports cars,
Konrad rented an Austin-Healey Sprite at a West Berlin agency.
As Helga huddled in the trunk, Konrad drove
toward the East Berlin checkpoint. En route, an
East Berlin policeman stopped him; Konrad was
certain he had been discovered. He relaxed when
the policeman pointed to a loose fitting on the
exhaust pipe and told him to have it repaired.
Konrad gladly fixed it, then resumed his drive.
At the checkpoint Konrad showed his passport, and
the guard directed him to the customs office.
Instead, Konrad stepped on the gas, raced for the
barrier, ducked his head under the 37
1/2-inch-high horizontal pole and skidded into
West Berlin. Konrad later returned the car to the
rental agency and was incredulous when he learned
it was the same vehicle Heinz Meixner had used.
Several weeks later Konrad and Werner were married.
The trick worked twice, but no more. To prevent a
third Sprite escape, the East Germans embedded
steel bars in the concrete beneath the barrier.
<the article continues>
<http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-12-07/features/8604010562_1_rainer-hildebrandt-west-berlin-east-berlin/3>http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-12-07/features/8604010562_1_rainer-hildebrandt-west-berlin-east-berlin/3
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