9 June 1962 – 11 June 1962 · Tunnels · Treptow and Neukölln
The Whitsun Tunnel (Pfingsttunnel)
Over the Whitsun weekend of 1962, helpers around Harry Seidel dug from the cellar of a Neukölln corner pub under Heidelberger Straße and brought East Berliners out through a photographer's shop.
In June 1962 the group around Fritz Wagner and Harry Seidel began digging in the cellar of the Heidelberger Krug, a corner pub at Heidelberger Straße and Elsenstraße in Neukölln. The landlord let them use the cellar for 4,000 DM. Working in two shifts of three men, they finished the short tunnel under the narrow street in about three days.
On the Saturday of the Whitsun weekend the helpers broke into the cellar beneath a photo shop at Heidelberger Straße 81a on the East Berlin side, entering through the back of a cupboard. Refugees were brought through that evening and over the following days.
The shop owner discovered the tunnel on the Tuesday after Whitsun. A ground plaque unveiled by the Treptow-Köpenick district office in 2005 in front of Heidelberger Straße 81 commemorates the escape.
Sources
- Pfingsttunnel 1962, GedenktafelMuseen Treptow-Köpenick / berlin.de
- Tunnel Heidelberger Straße 28TF-Mapping (Institut für Europäische Ethnologie, Humboldt-Universität Berlin)
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