The Aagaard Tunnel
A family in Glienicke spent five months digging a 50-metre tunnel by hand from their living room, hiding 25 cubic metres of sand inside their house, before 13 people crawled to West Berlin.
The Aagaard family lived at Ottostraße 7 in Glienicke/Nordbahn, with the border to Hermsdorf in West Berlin right at their garden fence. Fearing forced resettlement, they decided in summer 1962 to dig a tunnel together with friends from Dresden.
Digging began on 5 October 1962 beneath the terrace door of the living room. With no cellar, the family built false walls and ceilings and hid about 25 cubic metres of sand in them, as well as in drawers, gutters, cupboards and bathtubs. Lucie Aagaard even expanded her hairdressing salon to give the impression that the family meant to stay.
The breakthrough to Veltheimstraße came on 8 March 1963, after about 50 metres had been dug, mostly by hand. On the night of 9–10 March 1963, 13 people went through the tunnel; the 70-year-old grandmother was pulled along on an air mattress. They waited at the exit until West Berlin police arrived, and were out by 4 a.m. The escape was only noticed when customers queued outside the empty salon on Monday morning.
The tunnel was archaeologically excavated in 2011.
Sources
- Der Aagaard-TunnelFluchttunnel Glienicke (Archäologiebüro ABD-Dressler)
- Liste der Fluchttunnel in Berlin während der deutschen Teilung (after Marion Detjen)Wikipedia (de)
- Der versteckte Sandrbb – Geschichte der Berliner Mauer (berlin-mauer.de)
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Related escapes
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The Pensioners' Tunnel (Thomas Tunnel)
A group of mostly elderly men led by 81-year-old Max Thomas dug an unusually tall tunnel from a chicken coop so that they and their wives could walk upright to West Berlin.
24 January 1962
The Becker Tunnel ("Tunnel 28")
Twin brothers dug a tunnel from the cellar of the family home on the border, and 28 people crawled through it to Frohnau in West Berlin in a single night.
February 1963
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Tunnel 29's builders dug again from the same cellars; on breakthrough day Stasi officers lay in wait at Brunnenstraße 45. The diggers noticed in time, but 14 would-be escapees and three couriers were arrested.
8 April 1963
A second tunnel from Heidelberger Straße 35 – Boris Franzke's last
A year after Heinz Jercha was shot at the same spot, escape helpers dug a new tunnel from Heidelberger Straße 35 to no. 75. Up to 20 people escaped through it before a resident noticed the broken cellar door.
