Just past five o’clock in the morning on September 19, 1961, four men and a woman slid down a rope that they had attached to the chimney on the roof of the building at Bernauer Straße 43. They had reached the building by crossing over rooftops from Rheinsberger Straße. The woman lost her footing as she passed by the third floor. She crashed to the sidewalk and injured herself badly. Another fugitive suffered rope burns on both hands during the descent. The other fugitives survived the escape unharmed. Another woman who was also planning to escape was arrested by border soldiers in the same attic a short time later.