One night he sees a friend, Günther Jurgens, who works at the garage where Kurt has the Major's car maintained, drive his tow-truck through a gate and get killed trying to escape to the west.

She then goes to Kurt's house, where he lives with his mother, Uncle Albrecht (a musician), sister Ingeborg and kid brother Helmut within sight of the wall.

Erika then attempts to escape over the wall but Kurt catches her as she tries to crawl under the barbed wire, and they pretend to be lovers to hide her intentions from suspicious guards.

Kurt is waiting to drive the Eckhardt's and learns from Heidi that the authorities are after him and he takes the car and hurries home ahead of the East German troops.

When he arrives home, Kurt learns that his family have invited Uncle Albrecht's band members to join the escape, bringing the number of escapees to 28.

As the police besiege their house, the Schröders, their friends and Erika make their escape, with Kurt bringing up the rear.

MGM decided to take advantage of the public interest with a feature film inspired by real events.