List of escape tunnels in Berlin during the division of Germany

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Overview map of the escape tunnels to Detjens, some of the tunnels in the list are not marked here.

The list below, compiled by Marion Detjen , of the escape tunnels in Berlin during the German division contains 39 tunnel projects. Another well-known list with 70 tunnel projects comes from Dietmar Arnold and Sven Felix Kellerhoff .

According to Detjen, at least 254 people were able to flee the GDR in this way . At least four deaths and over 200 arrests occurred during the tunnel escape. About half of the projects failed to make a successful escape.

statistics

The tunnels were dug under the border from both directions. There were nine tunnels from the east and 30 from the west. The tunnels dug from the east were more successful: only one of these nine tunnels failed to escape. On average, nine refugees fled per tunnel dug from the east, while the number of refugees per tunnel from the west was less than six. In tunnels from the east there were an average of at least 4.3 arrests and in tunnels west at least 4.9. The actual number of arrests will be higher because the State Security files are incomplete.

Several groups formed among the builders who dug tunnels several times. These included the groups around Hasso Herschel , Harry Seidel and Fritz Wagner , Wolfgang Fuchs and Detlef Girrmann . There was cooperation among the groups.

The area around Bernauer Strasse was chosen most frequently for the tunnels. Heidelberger Strasse was also a frequent starting point for the tunnel.

list

The date of the breakthrough or the task, the starting point, the direction east or west, the name of the initiators and builders and the number of successful escapes are given. Arrests and deaths are indicated in the Comments field.

number date place Starting point builder refugees Remarks
01 Sep 1961 Pankow cemetery West Berlin 2 young West Berliners 20th Presumably cemetery Pankow III . Created to bring the builders' friends from the GDR.
02 Oct 12, 1961 near Düppel train station Kleinmachnow (GDR) 14 teenagers 05 9 people who wanted to flee were arrested.
03 Dec. 7, 1961 exact location unknown West Berlin unknown 05
04th Dec. 19, 1961 Pankow cemetery West Berlin unknown 04th Presumably cemetery Pankow III . Newly married West Berlin husband commissioned escape helpers to enable his East Berlin wife to escape. A couple of friends took the opportunity to escape as well. Shortly afterwards the tunnel entrance in the cemetery was discovered and observed by border guards. Two other people who wanted to flee were arrested there a few days later.
05 Jan. 24, 1962 From Glienicke / Nordbahn to Berlin-Frohnau Glienicke / Northern Railway (GDR) Becker family 28 “Becker Tunnel”, starting from Oranienburger Chaussee 13
06th Jan. 1962 Wollankstrasse S-Bahn station West Berlin Students of the TU Berlin , Franzke brothers -

The tunnel collapsed while the work was being carried out, causing the platform above it to sink.

07th Jan. 1962 Kiefholzstrasse West Berlin Harry Seidel -
08th Feb 22, 1962 Heidelberger Strasse  28/29 West Berlin Franzke brothers - Three couriers and one refugee were arrested.
09 March 1962 Heidelberger Strasse 75 West Berlin Harry Seidel, Fritz Wagner , a. a. 35 to 57 The tunnel was betrayed by IM “Naumann” (resident: Heidelberger Straße 75). Heinz Jercha was fatally wounded when an MfS task force tried to arrest the tunnel organizers .
10 May 5th 1962 From Glienicke / Nordbahn to Berlin-Frohnau Glienicke / Northern Railway (GDR) Thomas family 12 "Thomas Tunnel" or "Pensioner Tunnel", starting from Oranienburger Chaussee 22
11 May 1962 Heidelberger Strasse 28/29 West Berlin Harry Seidel, Fritz Wagner a. a. -
12 June 1962 Heidelberger Strasse 75 West Berlin Harry Seidel et al. a. 18 to 55
13 June 18, 1962 Springer publishing house construction site, Zimmerstrasse 56 West Berlin Rudolf Müller u. a. 04th A courier was arrested and the border soldier Reinhold Huhn was shot by Rudolf Müller.
14th June 28, 1962 Heinrich-Heine-Strasse West Berlin Siegfried Noffke u. a. - The tunnel was discovered and Siegfried Noffke shot while accessing it. Another escape helper was seriously injured and arrested.
15th July 13, 1962 Schwedter Strasse East Berlin A family 07th
16 Aug 7, 1962 Kiefholzstrasse 388 West Berlin Harry Seidel, Fritz Wagner, later Hasso Herschel , the Girrmann Group a . a. - The tunnel was betrayed by IM “Hardy” (Siegfried Uhse), and over 50 people who wanted to flee and five couriers were arrested.
17th Sep 1962 Neukölln West Berlin unknown -
18th Sep 14 1962 Bernauer Strasse 79 West Berlin Domenico Sesta, Luigi Spina, Hasso Herschel 29

The tunnel was the template for the 2001 television film The Tunnel . There was no arrest.

20th Fall 1962 Bernauer Street West Berlin Girrmann Group -
21st Fall 1962 Bethaniendamm 57 West Berlin Wolfgang Fuchs et al. a. - The State Security discovered the tunnel after GM "Uschi" gave it a hint. Premature abandonment.
22nd Oct 1962 Heidelberger Strasse West Berlin Harry Seidel et al. a., later also the Girrmann Group 02 The tunnel was betrayed by IM "Hardy" (Siegfried Uhse). Several people who wanted to flee and an escape helper who was shot and seriously injured by the Stasi were arrested.
23 Nov. 1962 Kleinmachnow West Berlin Harry Seidel, Gebrüder Franzke u. a. - 13 refugees were arrested before the breakthrough (tunnel was betrayed prematurely), Harry Seidel during the breakthrough and later more than 25 people (including 2 couriers).
24 Nov. 1962 unknown West Berlin Bodo Posorski - After the discovery by the State Security, several escapees and couriers were arrested.
25th Feb. 1963 Bernauer Strasse 79 West Berlin Hasso Herschel et al. a. - At least 20 escapees and three couriers were arrested after the discovery by the State Security.
26th March 10, 1963 From Glienicke / Nordbahn to Hermsdorf Glienicke / Northern Railway (GDR) Family Aagard u. a. 13 “Aagard Tunnel”, starting from Ottostraße 7. The tunnel was archaeologically reconstructed in spring 2011.
27 March 1963 Schwedter Strasse / Copenhagener Str. 36/37 West Berlin Wolfgang Fuchs et al. a. - The tunnel was betrayed shortly before the breakthrough (IM "Jürgen"); several people who wanted to flee were arrested.
19th May 2, 1963 Boyenstrasse West Berlin Wolfgang Fuchs et al. a. - Excavation canceled at an early stage after threats from West Berlin citizens.
28 May 23, 1963 Kremmener Strasse 15 East Berlin Teenagers - About 30 people were arrested by the State Security.
29 July 1963 Bernauer Street West Berlin Helmut Karger -
30th Jan. 1964 Bernauer Strasse 97 West Berlin Wolfgang Fuchs et al. a. 03 to 4 After three girls fled through the tunnel, the border troops discovered the tunnel and made it unusable by hand grenades .
31 Feb. 1964 Treptow West Berlin unknown - After the discovery by the State Security, several escapees and a courier were arrested.
32 Sep 1964 unknown West Berlin unknown -
33 Oct 3, 1964 Bernauer Strasse 97 West Berlin Wolfgang Fuchs, Reinhard Furrer u. a. 57

The deepest and most expensive known escape tunnel was discovered by the State Security after a day of successful use. In a firefight, the border guard Egon Schultz was accidentally shot by a comrade.

34 Dec 1964 unknown West Berlin unknown -
35 May 1, 1965 Bernauer Street West Berlin unknown -
36 1970 Bernauer Strasse 78 West Berlin unknown -
37 Feb 25, 1971 Bernauer Street West Berlin Hasso Herschel - At least 40 people were arrested.
38 Jan. 9, 1972 checkpoint Charlie East Berlin 3 refugees 03
39 July 26, 1973 From Potsdam-Klein Glienicke to Berlin-Wannsee Potsdam-Klein Glienicke (GDR) 2 families 09 Starting from Waldmüllerstraße. In an area with actually very high groundwater levels , a period of heat was used to dig.

Web links

Commons : Escape tunnels in Berlin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Marion Detjen: A Hole in the Wall - The History of Escape Aid in Divided Germany 1961–1989. Siedler, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-88680-834-3 , pp. 442–448.
  2. ^ Dietmar Arnold, Sven Felix Kellerhoff: The escape tunnel from Berlin. Propylaea, 2008, ISBN 978-3-549-07341-4 .
  3. ↑ Successful tunnel escape under a cemetery wall from Pankow to Schönholz, December 19, 1961. In: Chronicle of the Wall. Retrieved November 10, 2015 .
  4. ↑ The Becker Tunnel : "In January 1962, the Glienicke twins Bruno and Günther Becker dig one of the first tunnels on Oranienburger Chaussee."
  5. ↑ a b c Information about the tunnels in Glienicke / Nordbahn: Glienicke escape tunnel. Retrieved November 3, 2015 .
  6. ↑ a b map with Becker and Thomas tunnels. In: Glienicke escape tunnel. Retrieved November 3, 2015 .
  7. ↑ Burkhart Veigel : Paths through the Wall , 4th edition, p. 248
  8. ↑ The Thomas Tunnel "Only about a hundred meters from the Beckers' first escape point, another spectacular tunnel escape by the Thomas Glienicke family in May 1962."
  9. ↑ The “Senioren Tunnel”: Successful tunnel escape from Glienicke / Nordbahn to Berlin-Frohnau, May 5, 1962. In: Chronicle of the Wall. Retrieved November 10, 2015 .
  10. ↑ Burkhart Veigel : Paths through the Wall , 4th edition, pp. 265–268
  11. ↑ a b c d e Klaus-M. v. Keussler, Peter Schulenburg: Escape helpers - The group around Wolfgang Fuchs. Berlin Story Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86368-001-5 , pp. 72–98.
  12. ↑ Burkhart Veigel : Paths through the Wall , 4th edition, p. 278
  13. ↑ Burkhart Veigel : Paths through the Wall , 4th edition, p. 279 f.
  14. ↑ Burkhart Veigel : Paths through the Wall , 4th edition, p. 476
  15. ↑ see Maria Nooke: The betrayed tunnel: history of a prevented escape in divided Berlin. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2002, ISBN 3-86108-370-1 , own book about this tunnel
  16. ↑ The Aagaard tunnel "The spiral of harassment [the residents in the duckbill] ends [...] with the renewed escape of 13 people through the Aagaard tunnel in Ottostraße in March 1963."
  17. ↑ Aagaard Tunnel. In: Glienicke escape tunnel. Retrieved November 3, 2015 . See also the map under Archeology , also accessed on November 3, 2015.
  18. ↑ Bodo Müller 2000: Fascination Freedom: The Most Spectacular Escape Stories , Ch. Links Verlag, p. 211.
  19. ↑ Escape through "Tunnel 57", 3rd / 4th century. October 1964. In: Chronicle of the Wall. Retrieved November 10, 2015 .
  20. ↑ Successful tunnel escape from Klein Glienicke to Berlin-Zehlendorf, July 26, 1973. In: Chronicle of the Wall. Retrieved November 10, 2015 .
  21. ↑ Uwe Rada: Berlin Wall: The East in the Middle of the West. The daily newspaper , November 9, 2007, accessed on November 10, 2015 .
  22. ↑ Review ( Memento of the original from June 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.horch-und-guck.info