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.
Max Thomas and his wife had hoped to escape through the neighbouring Becker tunnel in January 1962, but were not taken along. They decided to dig their own tunnel from their property at Oranienburger Chaussee 22 in Glienicke/Nordbahn, a few houses from the Beckers.
Digging began in April 1962 from a chicken coop, where the soil was sandier. Over 16 days a group of men, most of them pensioners, dug a tunnel 32 metres long and 1.75 metres high – far roomier than most escape tunnels. Asked about the height, one participant said they wanted to walk into freedom with their wives comfortably and upright. The youngest digger, Detlef Schauer, was 18.
On the evening of 5 May 1962 the tunnel was completed and all twelve members of the group reached West Berlin in Frohnau. 'I would not even want to be buried over there,' the 81-year-old leader said afterwards. The house was demolished in 1963 when the border fortifications were extended.
Sources
- Der „Senioren-Tunnel“: Gelungene Tunnelflucht von Glienicke/Nordbahn nach Berlin-Frohnau, 5. Mai 1962Chronik der Mauer
- Der Thomas-TunnelFluchttunnel Glienicke (Archäologiebüro ABD-Dressler)
- Tunnel Oranienburger Damm 22 (Thomas-Tunnel)TF-Mapping (Institut für Europäische Ethnologie, Humboldt-Universität Berlin)
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Related escapes
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.
10 March 1963
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.
18 June 1962
Rudolf Müller's Tunnel and the Death of Reinhold Huhn
Rudolf Müller brought his wife, two children and sister-in-law through a self-dug tunnel to West Berlin, shooting dead the young border guard Reinhold Huhn when he tried to check their papers.
26 January 1962
The Collapsed Tunnel under Wollankstraße Station
Students tried to dig from the bricked-up arches beneath Wollankstraße S-Bahn station into East Berlin, but the tunnel collapsed under the platform and was discovered before anyone could escape.
