Berlin Escape With Dummies Called a Hoax

A television network reported Tuesday that a man who said he escaped from Communist East Berlin by dressing himself and three mannequins in Soviet military uniforms has admitted to a hoax.

The ARD network’s public affairs program “Contrast” said that Heinz Braun, 48, made an “oral confession” during questioning by military authorities of the Western Allies last weekend.

It quoted Allied sources it did not identify as saying that Braun, 48, invented the story he told a news conference last Friday about driving through the Berlin Wall in a station wagon painted to resemble a Soviet patrol vehicle.

Thomas Homan, spokesman for the U.S. diplomatic mission in West Berlin, would not confirm or deny the television report. He said Tuesday night that the American, British and French authorities who oversee Berlin’s Western sector have agreed to make no statement on the Braun matter.

Questioned Over Weekend

He confirmed that Braun was questioned over the weekend, but he refused further comment.

Dieter Piete, spokesman for the West Berlin police, said officers did not register passage of a Soviet patrol car at the Invalidenstrasse crossing point on the night of July 30, when Braun said he passed through it.

Uniformed military patrols of the Soviet Union and the three Western Allies may pass freely between the divided city’s Eastern and Western zones under the terms of occupation agreements.

Piete said police were searching for Braun to question him about the alleged wearing of a Soviet uniform but had been unable to find him. It is illegal for Germans to wear Allied uniforms.

Lack of independent confirmation of Braun’s escape story, announced at a news conference arranged by a reputable West Berlin human rights group, had led some West German media to question the truth of the story.

East Germany has denounced Braun’s story as a “swindler’s tale, fabricated from A to Z.”