The Ransomed

The escape plan was simple but to the point--Heinrich-Heine-Strasse Checkpoint, that is. Winfried Zippel, 20, an East Berlin mason and truck driver by profession, would steal a construction truck. Then he and his pal, Heinz Trochim, 21, a machinist, would crash the Wall to freedom. It being a warm summer night, the cocky pair tanked up on beer before setting out. The celebration was premature: before they had driven a single block, a pair of East German S.S.D. (State Security) cars squealed to a halt in front of them, and a clutch of cops jumped out. Beery protestations proved unavailing. Trochim drew a two-year sentence in the Bautzen II Labor Camp, Zippel got 20 months at Buetzow Prison, known to its inmates as "the Red Hell."

The Freedom Bus. That might have been the end of the story for the clumsy would-be escapees from Walter Ulbricht's barbed-wire paradise. But late last year, Trochim and Zippel were summarily ordered from their cells, carted to a crossing point on the West German border, and turned loose to find jobs in prosperous, worker-hungry West Germany.

Thus Zippel and Trochim joined a list of some 2,600 East German political prisoners who have been ransomed from Ulbricht's jails in the past two years (TIME, Oct. 16, 1964). The deals, arranged "privately" by West German lawyers but approved by Bonn's Minister of All-German Affairs Erich Mende, are financed by West German industrial firms (which then get a tax break), and the Bonn government. Total price to date: $24 million, or roughly $9,000 a head.

The Price of Fat Dogs. Deutschmarks never change hands in the ransom deals. Ulbricht & Co. prefer to tap the cornucopia of West German industry for trucks and spare parts, and coffee, butter and citrus fruit, which East Germany considers "luxury" consumer goods. With time, a pricing system has evolved. Young prisoners such as Zippel and Trochim can be sprung for 15,000 Deutschmarks ($3,750), while the dicke Huende (fat dogs) convicted of subversion and espionage pull down as much as $10,000 apiece.

Bonn has wrapped its border barters in tight secrecy. One reason is fear of adverse public opinion. West Germans were initially revulsed by the deals, in which Ulbricht's cynicism reminded them of Adolf Eichmann's offer during World War II to swap Jews for trucks. There is also clear reluctance to upset the East Germans, who might end the arrangement if it proved embarrassing. So deep is this reluctance, in fact, that Western authorities have been cracking down hard on Westerners seeking to assist in the escapes of East Berliners. Last week three West Germans who helped East Germans dressed in U.S. uniforms make it through the Wall to the West were rewarded with stiff jail sentences by West German courts, and two U.S. soldiers who were also involved drew demotions and hard labor sentences. Additional punishment: deductions of $83 a month from the new privates' paychecks.

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