An East German teen hides in tall grass, far left, awaiting a chance to jump over the Berlin Wall in October 1961. (84/115)

Crouching in a tangle of grass in East Berlin,” wrote LIFE when this escape sequence originally ran in the magazine, “and hidden except for his face [barely visible on the left side of the pic], a boy waits to make a break over the wall he must surmount to reach the West. Nearby is a patrol of East German Vopos who will shoot to kill if they see him.”