Berlin: 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."