Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

28 September 1961 · Over the wall

Joachim Rudolph through the Tegeler Fließ

On 28 September 1961 the student Joachim Rudolph and a friend crossed a green field from Schildow in the GDR and waded through the Tegeler Fließ, the border stream, into Lübars in West Berlin. A year later he helped dig Tunnel 29.

Joachim Rudolph, born in 1938, came to Berlin in 1945. When he fled he had completed four semesters at the Verkehrshochschule in Dresden. He and a friend chose a place outside the city centre for their escape: the Tegeler Fließ in the north of Berlin.

In a 2012 interview he dated the escape to 28 September 1961. He and his friend set out from Schildow, on the GDR side and not in East Berlin, crossed a green field and went through the Tegeler Fließ, the small river that formed the border there, into Lübars, a village inside West Berlin. The Zeitzeugenbüro and the ddr-zeitzeuge.de witness portal both say the two waded through the Fließ over the border barriers. A 2014 FAZ report, written while cycling the route with Rudolph, adds that the escape ended at the fire station in Lübars.

In West Berlin Rudolph continued his studies at the Technical University. In the student hostel two Italian students asked him and his friend to help bring a fellow student's family west through a tunnel. On 14 September 1962 the tunnel under Bernauer Straße broke through and 29 people escaped (Tunnel 29). He later helped with two more tunnels, and with Hasso Herschel made the break-through at Kiefholzstraße.

Sources

  1. Interview mit Joachim Rudolph (06.09.2012)TF Mapping – Fluchttunnel an der Berliner Mauer
  2. Zeitzeuge Joachim RudolphZeitzeugenbüro (Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung)
  3. DDR-Zeitzeuge Joachim RudolphDDR-Zeitzeuge (Koordinierendes Zeitzeugenbüro, Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen)
  4. Der Berliner Mauerstreifen 25 Jahre nach dem MauerfallFrankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
  5. Zeitzeuge Joachim Rudolph: Flucht in den Westen (2)Zeitzeugen-Portal (Haus der Geschichte)

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