{"id":85087,"date":"2019-02-22T13:57:12","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T17:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=85087"},"modified":"2019-02-18T08:51:41","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T12:51:41","slug":"weekend-open-thread-im-leaving-for-the-west-whos-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=85087","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Open Thread \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m getting out of here to the West, anyone want to come along?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wrote last week about Harry Deterling\u2019s escape from East Berlin by crashing through the Berlin Wall in a train<\/i><\/a>. Well, a bit over 16 months later another East German decided that crashing the wall was a good way to escape to the West. And he too made it \u2013 though only barely.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/b> <\/p>\n

Wolfgang Engels was an East German civilian working for the East German Nationale Volksarmee<\/i>, the NVA (English acronym and translation, NPA \u2013 National People\u2019s Army). He\u2019d had a thoroughly Socialist upbringing; unknown to him, his mother was an administrative worker for the Stasi. <\/p>\n

But in his late teens, Engels began to lose his faith in Socialism. And an incident in which two of his friends were falsely accused of Republikflucht<\/i> (attempting to escape to the West) \u2013 which carried a minimum 2 year prison sentence \u2013 sealed his disillusionement.<\/p>\n

The friends were detained one night, but later let go. The finally convinced the authorities that they were not trying to flee West. And in truth were not; they were trying to find a concert being held in a venue near the Wall. <\/p>\n

Engels mentioned the incident to his mother. His mother agreed with the shabby treatment given to his friends \u2013 because \u201dthe Party is always right\u201d. <\/p>\n

Engels decided then and there to leave East Germany at his first opportunity. <\/p>\n

His duties for the DPA were as a driver. And in mid-April, his duties brought him in contact with a group of soldiers who had new PSW 152 6-wheeled armored cars. <\/p>\n

On seeing them, Engels decided that one of these would likely breach the wall. So he befriended the soldiers, letting them take his staff car for a spin. In return, the soldiers showed Engels the PSW 152 and explained how it was driven.<\/p>\n

Engels was sure he could drive the PSW 152. So when the soldiers went to lunch, Engels impulsively acted.<\/p>\n

He got into one of the PSW 152s. He started it, then drove off.<\/p>\n

He had to stop to secure the rear hatch. While stopped, he offered passers-by a ride West. None accepted.<\/p>\n

This might have been for the best – because in acting impuslively, Engels damn near ended up dead. <\/p>\n

Although Engels gunned the PSW 152 and crashed partly through the wall, the PSW 152 didn\u2019t make it completely through. Additional reinforcements had been added to the lower portions of the Berlin Wall which prevented the vehicle from passing completely through the wall. <\/p>\n

Engels climbed out and attempted to cross over. He was shot twice at the wall: once in the chest, and a second time in the hand by fragments from a ricocheting bullet.<\/p>\n

The gunfire, however, attracted the attention of West Berlin police; stone fragments and stray rounds landed near them. So they fired back. <\/p>\n

Then a group of men drinking at a nearby West Berlin bar sprang into action. They heard the gunfire, and saw what was happening. While the East German border guards were taking cover due to gunfire from the West Berlin police, they formed a human chain and pulled Engels across the wall. They then took the badly-wounded Engels into the bar, where they laid him on a counter until medical personnel arrived.<\/p>\n

Engels survived, though he was hospitalized for three weeks while recovering from his wounds. He then started a new life in West Germany as a free man.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/b> <\/p>\n

Sources<\/u>:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.thelocal.de\/20141031\/wolfgang-engels-berlin-wall-25-years-daring-escape<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/listverse.com\/2017\/08\/12\/top-10-remarkable-escapes-across-the-berlin-wall\/<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

OK, enough Cold War history. Enjoy the WOT, everyone \u2013 and the weekend.<\/p>\n

 
\n <\/p>\n

Author\u2019s Note<\/u>: The subtitle of this article is the English translation of what Engels asked passers-by while stopped to secure the rear hatch of his stolen PSW 152.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wrote last week about Harry Deterling\u2019s escape from East Berlin by crashing through the Berlin … Weekend Open Thread \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m getting out of here to the West, anyone want to come along?\u201d<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical","category-open-thread"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}