14 September 1962 – 15 September 1962 · Tunnels · Bernauer Straße
Tunnel 29
Around 30 helpers, mostly students, dug a tunnel from a factory on Bernauer Straße to a cellar in East Berlin; 29 people escaped through it over two days while an American TV crew filmed.
In the spring of 1962 a group of helpers, largely students, dug a tunnel from a factory building at Bernauer Straße 78/79 in West Berlin under the border to the cellar of Schönholzer Straße 7 in East Berlin. Among the organisers were the Italian students Luigi Spina and Domenico Sesta and Hasso Herschel.
To finance the work, Spina and Sesta sold the rights to film the digging and the arrival of refugees in the West to the American broadcaster NBC. Some of the diggers distanced themselves from what they saw as turning escape help into a business.
On 14 and 15 September 1962, 29 East Germans went through the tunnel (about 120 metres long according to the Chronik der Mauer) to West Berlin, among them Hasso Herschel's sister; according to NARA, at the end they were up to their faces in water. The number of refugees gave the tunnel its name. Work had been interrupted earlier by water ingress, and late on 15 September a final flood closed the tunnel.
Sources
Whose account is this? Drawn from a Western official record, a press report, witness accounts and historical research.
Western official records
- Tunneling to Freedom (Donald P. Steury)U.S. National Archives (NARA), Berlin Wall 1962–1987 document collection
Press
- Drei kassierten (DER SPIEGEL 43/1962)Der Spiegel
Witness accounts
- Unterirdisch in die Freiheit mit Zeitzeugin Anita MoellerBerliner Unterwelten e.V.
- Unterirdisch in die Freiheit mit Zeitzeugin Eveline RudolphBerliner Unterwelten e.V.
- Zeitzeuge Joachim RudolphZeitzeugenbüro (Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung)
- Zeitzeugin Eveline Rudolph: Auf zur Schönholzer Straße 7Zeitzeugen-Portal (Haus der Geschichte)
- Berlin Wall: Voices of the revolution (interviews by Kate Connolly)The Guardian
Historians and memorials
- Gelungene Flucht durch den „Tunnel 29“, 14./15. September 1962Chronik der Mauer
- Info Panel about “Tunnel 29” on Schönholzer StraßeStiftung Berliner Mauer
- Tunnel 29 plaque text (Schönholzer Straße 7)Bezirksamt Mitte, Gedenktafel-Datenbank (plaque by Berliner Unterwelten, 14 Sep 2009)
Facts checked against the sources: September 2026
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Cite this page
Berlin Experiences, “Tunnel 29”, Berlin Wall Escapes, 2026, https://berlinwallescapes.com/escapes/tunnel-29/ (accessed [date]).
Related escapes
7 August 1962
The Betrayed Kiefholzstraße Tunnel
Several escape-helper groups joined forces on a tunnel to a small house on Kiefholzstraße for a planned mass escape, but a Stasi informer among the couriers betrayed it and dozens of would-be refugees were arrested.
February 1963
The betrayed second tunnel from Bernauer Straße 78
Tunnel 29's builders dug again from the same cellars; on breakthrough day Stasi officers lay in wait at Brunnenstraße 45. The diggers noticed in time, but 14 would-be escapees and three couriers were arrested.
3 October 1964 – 5 October 1964
Tunnel 57
57 East Berliners crawled through a 145-metre tunnel dug by West Berlin students under Bernauer Straße. The escape ended in a shoot-out in which border guard Egon Schultz was killed; records opened after 1990 showed the fatal shots came from a fellow GDR soldier.
February 1971
Tunnel 71 – The Last Tunnel under Bernauer Straße
Hasso Herschel's team lived underground for nine weeks digging a tunnel beneath Bernauer Straße, but came within ten metres of their goal before GDR border troops dug it up.
