<P> Those working on or near the border were occasionally able to use their privileged access and knowledge to escape . For the border guards, this presented special dangers, as their colleagues were under orders to shoot without warning if an escape attempt was made . The dilemmas they faced were highlighted in the May 1969 defection of a soldier and a non-commissioned officer (NCO) of the Grenztruppen . When the NCO made his escape, the soldier, Jürgen Lange, decided not to shoot him . As this exposed Lange to severe punishment by his superiors for disobeying the order to shoot, Lange made his own escape ten minutes later . When he reached the West German side, Lange found that his rifle had been sabotaged by his NCO to prevent him firing in the first place . Soviet soldiers also sometimes escaped across the border, though this was very rare . Only eight such defections succeeded between 1953 and 1984 . </P> <P> The traffic was not one - way; thousands of people a year migrated from West Germany to East Germany . The East German press described such individuals as "west zone refugees" who were fleeing "political pressure", "growing unlawfulness" or "worsening economic conditions". Research carried out by the West German government found more prosaic reasons, such as marital problems, family estrangement and the homesickness of those who had lived in East Germany in the past . A number of Allied military personnel, including British, French, German and United States troops, also defected . By the end of the Cold War, as many as 300 United States citizens were thought to have defected across the Iron Curtain for a variety of reasons--whether to escape criminal charges, for political reasons or because (as the St. Petersburg Times put it) "girl - hungry GI's (were tempted) with seductive sirens, who usually desert the love - lorn soldier once he is across the border ." The fate of such defectors varied considerably . Some were sent straight to labour camps on charges of espionage . Others committed suicide, while a few were able to find wives and work on the eastern side of the border . </P> <P> From 1945 onwards, unauthorised crossers of the inner German border risked being shot by Soviet or East German border guards . The use of deadly force was termed the Schießbefehl ("order to fire" or "command to shoot"). It was formally in force as early as 1948, when regulations concerning the use of firearms on the border were promulgated . A regulation issued to East German police 27 May 1952 stipulated that "failure to obey the orders of the Border Patrol will be met by the use of arms ." From the 1960s through to the end of the 1980s, the border guards were given daily verbal orders (Vergatterung) to "track down, arrest or annihilate border violators ." The GDR formally codified its regulations on the use of deadly force in March 1982, when the State Border Law mandated that firearms were to be used as the "maximum measure in the use of force" against individuals who "publicly attempt to break through the state border". The GDR's leadership explicitly endorsed the use of deadly force . General Heinz Hoffmann, the GDR Minister of Defence, declared in August 1966 that "anyone who does not respect our border will feel the bullet ." In 1974, Erich Honecker, as Chairman of the National Defense Council of East Germany, ordered: "Firearms are to be ruthlessly used in the event of attempts to break through the border, and the comrades who have successfully used their firearms are to be commended ." </P> <P> East German border guards had a standard procedure to follow if they detected unauthorised individuals in the border zone . (Though the West Germans referred to the control strip as a "death strip", deadly force could be used at any location along the border--it did not depend on an individual's being in, or crossing, the control strip .) If the individual was less than 100 metres (330 ft) away, the border guard would first order: "Stop! Border sentry! Hands up!" ("Halt! Grenzposten! Hände hoch!") or "Stop, stand still, or I will shoot!" ("Halt! Stehenbleiben, oder ich schieße!"). If the individual was further away or on the Western side of the border fence the guard was authorised to shoot without warning . If the escapee was a fellow border guard, he could be shot immediately from any distance without prior warning . Border guards were instructed not to shoot if innocent bystanders might be hit or if the escapee had made it into West German territory, or if the line of fire was into West Germany . In practice, though, shots fired from East Germany often landed in West German territory . </P>

How did the soviets first attempt to stem the flow of refugees leaving east germany for west berlin