Escaping East Berlin – Personal Decision Sheet
Directions: For this exercise, one must assume the following conditions are actual.
The Dilemma: The date is 15 May 1980. As a citizen of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). However, there is nothing “democratic” about the oppressive, communist government. Since the country’s birth in 1948 under Russian occupation, the government has become increasingly paranoid about its citizens leaving for the West. The Berlin Wall has significantly reduced fellow East Germans from traveling to West Berlin. The East German secret police (Stasi) are ruthless in spying on the citizens of East Germany and how they “obtain” information. Stasi infiltration into every aspect of East German life is guaranteed.
The communist city is marginal compared to fellow Germans living in West Berlin. Often, when walking beside the wall separating the two cities, one can hear and occasionally see the fast-paced lifestyles of West Berlin. This sense of freedom, along with the recent arrests of several friends by the secret police, has only fueled the desire to escape to a better life. With this passion also comes fear. The secret police have infiltrated social and political groups to gather information on all citizens. Since the wall’s initial construction in 1961, over one hundred East Germans have died trying to escape. Rumors suggest that some have survived, while others caught disappeared. Successfully escaping comes with consequences. After escape to West Berlin, the secret police and other government officials will act swiftly when one fails to report to assigned jobs the following day and arrest all family and remaining friends.
Later that evening, you sit in your apartment to examine possible escape scenarios.
Option A: Ultralight Escape. With the help of relatives living in West Berlin, you receive a coded message to be picked up early on a weekend morning. To confuse East German border guards, relatives glue the red star symbol of the Soviet Union on each wing. A relative also wears an army coat with red stars on the helmet. The hope is to confuse East German border guards into not firing upon the ultralight. In the early morning, you are positioned in a large group of bushes near a long open stretch in an East German park. The goal is for relatives to fly the small twin-engine ultralight at 300 ft. using the city glow and pre-dawn light to navigate. Once the plane lands, you dash from the hiding place and jump in the empty seat.
Option B: Homebuilt Hot Air Balloon. Buying all materials from various local stores, purchased goods over months. If confronted by government officials, suggest indicating purchases of fabric are to make sails for the local boat club. Construction of the balloon takes two weeks to sew a balloon-shaped leg 15 meters (49 feet) wide by 20 meters (66 feet) long on a 40-year-old manually operated sewing machine. Basket assembly is made from an iron frame wood floor with a clothesline around the perimeter for the sides. The burner uses two bottles of liquid propane household gas. The balloon is estimated to carry up to three small adults. No testing has occurred.
Option C: Escape by Train. A person who has a friend that works for the city train system indicates he knows of a small portion of track running from an East Berlin suburb into West Berlin. This track is rarely used to deliver official government goods and purchases to West Berlin. The object of escape is to take the train and ram lightly fortified barriers until on West Berlin soil.
Option D: Stolen Armored Vehicle. Using a military armored car, attempt to ram through a lightly defended section of the Wall. After several weeks of observation, the border guard schedules and shift changes. Before each shift change, specific armored military cars are rotated from the Wall for refueling. The goal is to distract guards from the car while refueling, drive the vehicle into the concrete wall, and climb the barbed wire fence before border guards react.
Option E: Scaling the Wall. A close friend has a house close to the Wall. Each night he records the shift changes and behaviors of border guards. You wait for heavy rainfall, hoping that border guards are less suspicious. Dressed in all white to blend into the wall, take a latter and scale the wall. Before reaching the smaller outer wall, one must avoid several tripwires and barbed wire fences without detection to use the latter and scale the lower partition to freedom.
Option F: By Zip Line: Recently, a cousin defected to West Berlin. He has indicated his willingness to help you and your friends escape using a homemade zip line through a letter. You and your friends train up in archery and find the tallest building overlooking West Berlin. The plan is to sneak into the attic while shooting a cable over the Wall using a bow and arrow. The cousin will wait on the other side and fasten the wire to his car. With a metal pully, ride to the Wall to freedom.
Option G: Digging a Tunnel: You are friends with a factory worker. The factory he employs is approximately 360 feet (one football field) from the border wall. While it might take time, begin to dig a small tunnel towards the wall. It would be best to avoid the secret police and sensitive listening devices designed to detect digging along the wall. The secret police often cave into suspected escape tunnels with construction equipment. With luck, tunnel to the other side.
Option H: Bulletproof Bulldozer: To maintain a clean area around the wall, border guards used bulldozers with protective armor to move grass, weeds, and unwanted trees. In the middle of the night, steal the bulldozer and drive it through a fenced area along the border. In doing so, hope to avoid being shot by border patrol guards and avoiding vehicle mines.
Option I: The Trojan Cow: A relative in West Berlin can smuggle one person out of East Berlin at a time using a life-size model of a cow with a hollowed belly. The relative moves back and forth from West to East Berlin, crossing at different checkpoints. The relative describes the cow as a decorative display item used in-store promotion if stopped by border guards. There is only room for one individual.
Directions: Rank the following possible escape methods from the most to least preferred. Place a ‘1’ in front of the preferable method, a ‘2’ in front of the following most preferred, and so on until you have placed a ‘9’ by the least desirable escape method.
In keeping with my beliefs, I rank the possible escape methods as follows:
______ Option A: Ultralight Escape
______ Option B: Hot Air Balloon
______ Option C: Escape by Train
______ Option D: Armored Vehicle
______ Option E: Scaling the Wall
______ Option F: Zip Line
______ Option G: Tunnel
______ Option H: Bulldozer
______ Option I: Trojan Horse
- I selected option ______ as the best escape plan because:
- I selected option ______ as the worst escape plan because:
- If asked by others to justify the rankings based on chances of escape, I would say:
- The consequences or negative results I most wanted to avoid as a direct result of my decision are:
Escaping East Berlin – Group Decision Sheet
Directions: For this exercise, one must assume the following conditions are actual.
The Dilemma: The date is 15 May 1980. As a citizen of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). However, there is nothing “democratic” about the oppressive, communist government. Since the country’s birth in 1948 under Russian occupation, the government has become increasingly paranoid about its citizens leaving for the West. The Berlin Wall has significantly reduced fellow East Germans from traveling to West Berlin. The East German secret police (Stasi) are ruthless in spying on the citizens of East Germany and how they “obtain” information. Stasi infiltration into every aspect of East German life is guaranteed.
The communist city is marginal compared to fellow Germans living in West Berlin. Often, when walking beside the wall separating the two cities, one can hear and occasionally see the fast-paced lifestyles of West Berlin. This sense of freedom, along with the recent arrests of several friends by the secret police, has only fueled the desire to escape to a better life. With this passion also comes fear. The secret police have infiltrated social and political groups to gather information on all citizens. Since the wall’s initial construction in 1961, over one hundred East Germans have died trying to escape. Rumors suggest that some have survived, while others caught disappeared. Successfully escaping comes with consequences. After escape to West Berlin, the secret police and other government officials will act swiftly when one fails to report to assigned jobs the following day and arrest all family and remaining friends.
Later that evening, you sit in your apartment to examine possible escape scenarios.
Option A: Ultralight Escape. With the help of relatives living in West Berlin, you receive a coded message to be picked up early on a weekend morning. To confuse East German border guards, relatives glue the red star symbol of the Soviet Union on each wing. A relative also wears an army coat with red stars on the helmet. The hope is to confuse East German border guards into not firing upon the ultralight. In the early morning, you are positioned in a large group of bushes near a long open stretch in an East German park. The goal is for relatives to fly the small twin-engine ultralight at 300 ft. using the city glow and pre-dawn light to navigate. Once the plane lands, you dash from the hiding place and jump in the empty seat.
Option B: Homebuilt Hot Air Balloon. Buying all materials from various local stores, purchased goods over months. If confronted by government officials, suggest indicating purchases of fabric are to make sails for the local boat club. Construction of the balloon takes two weeks to sew a balloon-shaped leg 15 meters (49 feet) wide by 20 meters (66 feet) long on a 40-year-old manually operated sewing machine. Basket assembly is made from an iron frame wood floor with a clothesline around the perimeter for the sides. The burner uses two bottles of liquid propane household gas. The balloon is estimated to carry up to three small adults. No testing has occurred.
Option C: Escape by Train. A person who has a friend that works for the city train system indicates he knows of a small portion of track running from an East Berlin suburb into West Berlin. This track is rarely used to deliver official government goods and purchases to West Berlin. The object of escape is to take the train and ram lightly fortified barriers until on West Berlin soil.
Option D: Stolen Armored Vehicle. Using a military armored car, attempt to ram through a lightly defended section of the Wall. After several weeks of observation, the border guard schedules and shift changes. Before each shift change, specific armored military cars are rotated from the Wall for refueling. The goal is to distract guards from the car while refueling, drive the vehicle into the concrete wall, and climb the barbed wire fence before border guards react.
Option E: Scaling the Wall. A close friend has a house close to the Wall. Each night he records the shift changes and behaviors of border guards. You wait for heavy rainfall, hoping that border guards are less suspicious. Dressed in all white to blend into the wall, take a latter and scale the wall. Before reaching the smaller outer wall, one must avoid several tripwires and barbed wire fences without detection to use the latter and scale the lower partition to freedom.
Option F: By Zip Line: Recently, a cousin defected to West Berlin. He has indicated his willingness to help you and your friends escape using a homemade zip line through a letter. You and your friends train up in archery and find the tallest building overlooking West Berlin. The plan is to sneak into the attic while shooting a cable over the Wall using a bow and arrow. The cousin will wait on the other side and fasten the wire to his car. With a metal pully, ride to the Wall to freedom.
Option G: Digging a Tunnel: You are friends with a factory worker. The factory he employs is approximately 360 feet (one football field) from the border wall. While it might take time, begin to dig a small tunnel towards the wall. It would be best to avoid the secret police and sensitive listening devices designed to detect digging along the wall. The secret police often cave into suspected escape tunnels with construction equipment. With luck, tunnel to the other side.
Option H: Bulletproof Bulldozer: To maintain a clean area around the wall, border guards used bulldozers with protective armor to move grass, weeds, and unwanted trees. In the middle of the night, steal the bulldozer and drive it through a fenced area along the border. In doing so, hope to avoid being shot by border patrol guards and avoiding vehicle mines.
Option I: The Trojan Cow: A relative in West Berlin can smuggle one person out of East Berlin at a time using a life-size model of a cow with a hollowed belly. The relative moves back and forth from West to East Berlin, crossing at different checkpoints. The relative describes the cow as a decorative display item used in-store promotion if stopped by border guards. There is only room for one individual.
Directions: Rank the following possible escape methods from the most to least preferred. Place a ‘1’ in front of the preferable method, a ‘2’ in front of the following most preferred, and so on until you have placed a ‘9’ by the least desirable escape method.
In keeping with our beliefs, we rank the possible escape methods as follows:
______ Option A: Ultralight Escape
______ Option B: Hot Air Balloon
______ Option C: Escape by Train
______ Option D: Armored Vehicle
______ Option E: Scaling the Wall
______ Option F: Zip Line
______ Option G: Tunnel
______ Option H: Bulldozer
______ Option I: Trojan Horse
- We selected option ______ as the best escape plan because:
- We selected option ______ as the worst escape plan because:
- If asked by others to justify the rankings based on chances of escape, we would say:
- The consequences or negative results we most wanted to avoid as a direct result of our decision are:
Questions for Review and Reflection
Suggested follow-up questions to focus and guide inquiry, reflection, and learning.
- In this situation, what is the group’s primary problem(s) to resolve or overcome?
- What is the significant difference between the group’s best plan and worst escape plan?
- Assuming the situation was actual, how would one feel knowing friends and family left behind would be arrested?