Berlin Wall Escapes1961–1989

28 June 1962 · Tunnels

The Betrayed Sebastianstraße Tunnel

Three West Berliners dug a tunnel to bring their wives and children out of East Berlin, but a Stasi informer had infiltrated the plan; Siegfried Noffke was shot dead when they broke through.

Wide blue outdoor information board with German text columns and many black-and-white photos of the tunnel and people involved, set among plants.
Information board 'Der verratene Fluchttunnel in der Sebastianstraße – 28. Juni 1962' at Sebastianstraße 82 in Kreuzberg, where the tunnel began (photographed 2022) Photo: OTFW, Berlin. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Siegfried Noffke, a 22-year-old bricklayer and driver living in Kreuzberg, had married his wife Hannelore in May 1961; she and their son lived in Prenzlauer Berg and were cut off from him by the Wall. He met Dieter Hötger, who was in the same situation, and joined a tunnel project already under way from a cellar at Sebastianstraße 82 to the cellar of Heinrich-Heine-Straße 48/49 in East Berlin.

The Stasi learned of the tunnel on 4 June 1962 by chance: a woman planning to escape confided in her brother, unaware that he was the informer 'IM Pankow'. The Stasi opened the operation 'Maulwürfe' (Moles), and the informer joined the group posing as a refugee.

Black-and-white photo of a street with a wall running along it, apartment buildings on both sides.
The Wall along Sebastianstraße in 1961: the street's northern side belonged to East Berlin, the southern side to West Berlin Photo: Willy Pragher. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0

Around midday on 28 June 1962 the diggers broke through into the cellar, where a Stasi arrest squad was waiting. Although the tunnel builders were unarmed, shots were fired as soon as Hötger and Noffke entered. Noffke was fatally wounded, interrogated on the spot and died on the way to hospital. Hötger was badly wounded and later sentenced to nine years in prison; the third digger escaped back to the West.

Noffke's wife and the other would-be refugees were arrested and sentenced to one to two years in prison. Investigations in the 1990s were closed for lack of evidence. Since 2009 an information panel on Sebastianstraße recalls Noffke and the failed tunnel.

Sources

  1. Noffke, SiegfriedChronik der Mauer
  2. Der verratene Fluchttunnel in der Sebastianstraße 28. Juni 1962Bezirksamt Mitte / berlin.de (Gedenktafel-Datenbank)
  3. Tunnel Sebastianstraße 82TF-Mapping (Institut für Europäische Ethnologie, Humboldt-Universität Berlin)

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