2 October 1961 – 3 October 1961 · Tunnels
Helgard Bromberger and four others through a rainwater sewer from Spittelmarkt
In the night of 2 to 3 October 1961 Helgard Bromberger, her friend Helga and three young men climbed into a rainwater sewer near Spittelmarkt, went through a hole in a grating that blocked the pipe and came up near Moritzplatz in West Berlin.
Helgard Bromberger lived with her family in Prenzlauer Berg and worked as a shorthand typist for an East Berlin publisher. After 13 August 1961 she and her friend Helga, whose fiancé already lived in West Berlin, looked for help to get out. Through a theology student who had obtained plans of the city's sewers, an escape was arranged.
On the evening of 2 October 1961 a young Austrian escape helper in motorcycle gear came to the door and gave them a meeting point: a ruin 'Unter den Linden'. Seven people came to it. An older couple stayed behind because the husband had trouble walking, so five set off: Helgard Bromberger, Helga and three young men.
At about 1 a.m. they climbed into a rainwater sewer near Spittelmarkt U-Bahn station. The pipe was about one metre high, so they had to move forward crouching; the floor was dry. According to her the route was a good two kilometres long, with guards above them on the Kochstraße. At a rusty grating that blocked the pipe there was a hole in the middle just large enough for one person; she went through feet first and someone on the other side pulled her through.
The group came up near Moritzplatz in West Berlin. Helpers took them to a VW bus parked near the fire station, and from there Helgard Bromberger was driven to a friend's flat in Wilmersdorf. She told her story to the Abendzeitung in 2019.
Sources
- Helgard Bromberger: Ihre Flucht 1961 durch den Abwasser-Kanal (2 October 2019)Abendzeitung München
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Related escapes
13 September 1961 – 14 October 1961
'Glockengasse 4711': the sewer route under the Alte Jakobstraße
In the weeks after the Wall went up, student escape helpers led East Berliners through a sewer from Mitte to Kreuzberg. A memorial plaque puts the number at about 500; other research counts about 150.
12 October 1961
Eleven try the sewer pipe at Wolfswerder 3 – three get through
On 12 October 1961 a group of eleven people tried to escape from the property at Wolfswerder 3 in Kleinmachnow through a sewer pipe that led into West Berlin. Three reached the West; eight were arrested.
24 October 1961
Through the sewer from the stadium yard to Chausseestraße
On 24 October 1961 three people sawed through the grate of a sewer shaft in the service yard of East Berlin's Walter-Ulbricht-Stadion, went down, and climbed out of a manhole in Chausseestraße on the West Berlin side.
4 October 1961
Three men try to escape through the sewer under Ackerstraße
Border policemen arrested three men who had already opened a manhole cover on Ackerstraße; two of them were already inside the sewer.
