The chances of anyone actually getting over the Wall were dismally poor, but those who wanted to be free continued to try.

Jumping to Freedom
One of the first escape methods that Berliners used was to jump out of windows in apartment houses that were directly beside the Wall, landing in the western zone. When East German police boarded up the first-
floor windows in the buildings, people used the second-floor windows. When the second-floor windows were sealed,
escape attempts were made from third- and fourth-floor windows. West Berlin firemen held nets and tried to catch the people as they leaped or
swung with ropes. Some people managed successful jumps, others fell to their deaths.

Climbing the Wall
One of the most dangerous methods to escape was to climb the Wall. At first, people could escape by throwing the rope over the top and hoping it would either catch on something or be caught by a helpful West Berliner. Then the East banned the sale of rope and twine that was strong enough to hold a human being. But attempts to climb the Wall continued. One ingenious butcher strapped bacon, sausage, and veal roasts around his body and hurled himself over the barbed wire the barbed wire. His wares acted wares acted as a protective shield, absorbing bullets

One of the most well known people who tried to get over was Peter Fetcher, age 18, who tried to climb over the wall on August 17, 1962. A border guard saw him and started to shoot. He reached the top, but he was unable to lift his body over the barbed wire, and for a minute, he remained crouched on the Wall, unable to go farther. Then he toppled back on the wrong side and lay there bleeding. West Berliners who had seen Peter on the top of the Wall rushed to the area, but they could do nothing to save him. The West Berlin police and the U.S. guards at Checkpoint Charlie nearby could not help because they were forbidden to set foot in the East. Newspaper reporters and photographers joined the crowd, some people even tried to climb the Wall, but the guards threw tear gas into the crowd. Tension was mounting. People shouted at the East German and American guards to do something. One U.S. lieutenant said to the crowd, “Sorry, but this isn’t our problem.”
After Peter’s death, riots broke out in West Berlin. Stones, bottles, and bits of scrap metal were thrown at the East German border guards, but the incident also negatively influenced the attitudes that many Berliners had about the Americans.

Under the Wall
The first underground escape route was the sewers of Berlin. During 1961, a number of people fled by groping through a network of sewer lines that ran under the border. However, the East German police located all the sewer manholes and cemented them shut.