Berlin Squatters ‘Escape’ Over Wall to the East

West Berlin police Friday chased nearly 200 squatters from a disputed parcel of land near the Berlin Wall after a monthlong struggle that pitted environmentalists against city developers.

When the removal order came, the squatters found an unusual escape route--over the Berlin Wall into the city’s Communist side.

East German border guards helped them over the barrier, which divides the city of Berlin into Allied and Communist sectors.

Most of the estimated 186 environmentalists who fled to East Berlin had returned to West Berlin by noon. Nine protesters were arrested in the raid. Eight have since been released, police said.

The demonstrators were protesting plans to build a highway through a park nearby.

When more than 900 West Berlin police moved in to clear the area, nearly 200 protesters were already sitting on the 13-foot-high wall.

They had declared earlier that they would seek “political asylum” in East Berlin if West German police tried to rout them.

East German guards backed trucks up to the eastern side of the wall to make it easier for the environmentalists to jump down and escape the West Berlin police.

One smiling East German guard even helped one of the protesters by pulling his bicycle over the wall.

The action to clear the squatters from the 10-acre piece of property occurred after it formally came under West Berlin’s control one minute after midnight.

It was handed over under the terms of a deal worked out with East Berlin earlier this year.

The protesters had occupied the area since May 26.