Like two men the Iron curtain have been overcome: the history of a German-German friendship, which began at a campsite in Bulgaria, and in a swimming Marathon by the Danube culminated.
Corner hard, Walter at the Bank of the Danube river in Mohacs. 40 years ago, he swam from there, 40 miles to Yugoslavia
When the wall fell, made a clueless vacation in India and went walking on the beach. The others sat stunned before the television in his apartment in Munich. The one smiled in disbelief, the other wept for joy.
“The fact that the GDR collapsed, is the greatest in German history at all. It was the most beautiful experience in my life,” recalls Eckehard Walter to the fall of the Berlin wall on 9. November 1989. “Because, without the wall, the GDR could not exist.”
The East Germans from Quedlinburg, had overcome the wall earlier. In 1978, he swam 25 kilometres by the Danube – of Mohacs in Hungary to Batina in the former Yugoslavia.
Santana and Bulgarian beer
As he travels this fall to the historic site where once, his adventurous escape began to rise with tears in his eyes. “For me, it could have been the last day in my life. But it is a dream come true, I would do it again,” he says and looks at the wide river Danube.
In Mohacs corner hard, Walter dipped (rear) Easter Saturday night in 1978 in the Danube and overcame the Iron curtain. Eckhardt Selbach (front) organised the escape
Behind him, his friend Eckhardt Selbach from Cologne, who helped him escape is. The two men, meanwhile, in the ‘ 60s, marvel at your courage back then. “We were about 20, we felt immortal”, remember.
At the time, the forbidden friendship between a “citizen of the GDR” and a West German had started in 1977 at a campsite in Varna, at Golden Sands in Bulgaria. Eckehard Walter and Eckhardt Selbach veered not to the political divisions between the FRG and the GDR, but drank Bulgarian beer, and listened to Pink Floyd, Santana, and Frank Zappa.
At some point, the question was asked: “You don’t Want to get out of here?” A question that would have the confidence to corner hard, Walter never. You hit him in the marrow. After a week with the West Germans on the campsite, it was clear: Yes, he wanted to run away, and in any case, before he’d moved to the National people’s army!
Felt immortal: Eckehard Walter from the GDR (l) and Eckhardt Selbach (r) of West Germany
Eckhardt Selbach did not want to help his campsite-boyfriend, even though he did not know what they were getting into. But the thing will not let go of him. Like a man he started on his return to Cologne, to inform themselves about possible escape routes.
“You’ll have to swim down the Danube”
In the trunk, from East to West Berlin? Too dangerous! With a forged West German passport from Bulgaria to Turkey? Not went. At a Meeting a few months later in East Berlin, he said to Walter: “We have to do it on the hard Tour. You’ll have to swim down the Danube.”
The two men began to prepare. While Eckehard Walter trained in Quedlinburg on a daily basis to improve his condition, was planning Eckhardt Selbach of Cologne route from the trip. He was able to got ID and Pass for the corner hard, and considered how he smuggle the wetsuit for him into Hungary.
On good Friday, 1978 Eckhardt Selbach drove off at five in the morning in Cologne, Germany. 22 hours later he was sitting in the 1,600 kilometres away, a restaurant at the train station in Pecs in Hungary and was waiting for his mate. At one o’clock in the morning, as the landlord wanted to close the pub, entered the corner hard, Walter at last to the room.
The Iron curtain separated in the Cold war in Hungary from the former Yugoslavia
Aid to “flee the Republic”
“I was always sure that he is yet to come!”, Eckhardt Selbach, who learned only later of the difficult Tour of his friend from Quedlinburg says. On Easter Saturday to 20 clock, it was finally ready: In a wetsuit, with flippers, snorkel, diving goggles and blackened face Walter in Mohacs in the ice-cold Danube water. And once only, he had not the fear of death, but also his buddy.
Eckhardt Selbach remembers: “Had asked me now, someone, what are you doing I think actually, I had it all canceled. I was suddenly afraid for our friend, made just with my help people escape the life-threatening, the highest criminal offence of fleeing the Republic.”
While Walter drove in the icy water of the Danube, drove Selbach comfortable with his car over the bridge back to Yugoslavia. He had worried in advance a visa for Hungary passport and so was able to the country as a West German in the Eastern Bloc and leave the country.
Then the nagging began to Wait. Waiting for his friend to corner hard, Walter. Was just in another world. Far away and yet very close. His heart was racing. Every time he heard a motor-boat, or dogs were barking, he thought: “Now it’s over, you are out to get You.”
At once it was as bright as day. The Flood lights on the border of the surface of the water lit. Walter dove, but suddenly the water ran into his snorkel. “I couldn’t blow out the water of course, so I pulled the snorkel out and all the broth down and swallowed,” he recalls.
From Hungary to block free Yugoslavia: With corner hardware Walter made it back to the bridge in Batina
On the Yugoslav side
He was driving and avoided any movement, and gradually he moved away from the light cone. It was again dark. Walter knew that Now he was on the Yugoslavian side.
“I became at once quite calm, swam to the shore, and I sat down and briefly rested.” He had done it! To the bridge in Batina, where his friend was waiting, there were still ten kilometers. With the last forces he coped with the track. As his friend pulled him from the water, were frozen to death, his limbs stiff and the lips.
In the middle of the night, they drove to the E 662 in the direction of Osijek. You just wanted to get out of the border area. Slowly, the adrenaline level dropped. Then continue on to the “AutoPut”, the most famous road of the Balkans. On Easter Sunday, against 15 a.m., they reached the Austrian border on the Loibl pass.
They had incredible luck. The tax collector, you waved. They had loaned to the West German ID card, the Selbach from a friend, Walter looked similar, nothing to complain about. The East German passport had burned Selbach previously, the suspected escape help out.
Gateway to the West: the border on The Loibl pass between Austria and Slovenia, formerly of Yugoslavia
“You’re, You’re in the West!”
After a Moment of silence, cheers broke the rail. “You’re good, You’re good! You’re in the West!!!” In the Tunnel, they began to honk the horn and could not believe their luck of relief hardly. You drove through to Munich and drank in the Hofbräuhaus on the successful escape.
30 years after the fall of the Berlin wall and more than 40 years after the spectacular escape corner hard, Walter has completed “with the GDR”. “I feel neither Ossi nor as a Westerner, but as a German,” he says. For Ostalgiker he has no understanding. “I am glad that there is the Trabbi, he was a Stinker and ugly to boot.”
Up to the fall of the Berlin wall, the two men kept their escape story. They didn’t want a yet unknown escape route is blocked. It is your personal contribution to the German reunification.