Articles
Long reads built from the escape records on this site and the archives behind them. Every name, date and number is footnoted to its source.
The numbers
How Many People Escaped the Berlin Wall?
The figure of 5,075 comes from a West Berlin police count. Here is where it comes from, how it fell year by year, and what several hundred documented escapes add to it.
Tunnels
The Tunnels Under the Berlin Wall: Who Dug Them, Who Got Out
Students dug in from the West, families dug out from the East, and the Stasi waited at the far end of many. How the tunnels worked, why most failed, and where you can still see one.
How they did it
The Most Ingenious Berlin Wall Escapes, and How They Worked
A cable from a ministry roof, a train that didn't stop, a bubble car with a person behind the seat. Eleven escapes that were engineered rather than lucky, with the measurements and the places the sources disagree.
Walking tour
Walking the Berlin Wall Escape Routes: A Self-Guided Tour
Two walks and two short add-ons, built from the dated escapes on this site. Each stop says what happened within a few hundred metres, what you can still see there, and how far it is to the next one.
Defectors in uniform
The Guards Who Ran: Border Soldiers Who Fled Over the Wall
Everyone knows the photograph of Conrad Schumann leaping the wire. He was one of hundreds of East German guards, soldiers and policemen who fled, and the regime rebuilt its whole border watch around stopping them.
Escape helpers
Berlin Wall Escape Helpers: Students, Smugglers and Stasi Spies
Student volunteers in 1961, paid tunnel crews in 1962, transit-route smugglers in the 1970s: how escape help changed over 28 years, what it cost, and what happened to the helpers who were caught.