Tunnels
Dug by hand beneath the border strip, often from West Berlin cellars, and often betrayed before they were finished.
An essay in the US National Archives lists sewer lines and underground railway tunnels among the first routes under the border, and gratings in the sewers among the GDR's first countermeasures.1 Student helpers led people through a sewer under the Alte Jakobstraße, the "Glockengasse 4711" route, from 13 September 1961, and on 24 October three people sawed through a grate in the yard of the Walter-Ulbricht-Stadion and came up in Chausseestraße.
The essay dates the first known tunnel to October 1961. It counts 70 known tunnels, 19 of them believed successful, about half of them attempted in 1962, and most dug from West to East because starting on the safe side was thought less dangerous.1 Some of those dug from the East were family affairs on the outer ring: the Becker tunnel in Glienicke, through which 28 people went in one night in January 1962, and the Klein Glienicke tunnel of July 1973, dug with a child's shovel. The big helpers' tunnels ran from Bernauer Straße, where the Berlin Wall Foundation says the most famous and successful escape tunnels were dug:2 Tunnel 29 in September 1962 and Tunnel 57 in October 1964.
Most of the tunnels on this site date from 1961 to 1964, and the later records show how tunnels were found. An informer gave away Kiefholzstraße in 1962. In the mid-1960s the GDR tore down several buildings to make a uniform border strip with a clear field of fire.3 In May 1970 the Stasi located a tunnel from Bernauer Straße 80 with listening probes and cut a trench across it when it was 85 metres long, and Tunnel 71 was found about ten metres short of its goal. The last attempt recorded here, at Sigridshorst near Teltow, was abandoned in 1981 with the border still several hundred metres away.
Sources for this text
- Donald P. Steury, 'Tunneling to Freedom' (Berlin Wall 1962–1987 document collection)US National Archives (NARA)
- Bernauer Strasse (historical site)Stiftung Berliner Mauer
- The Berlin Wall (topics)Stiftung Berliner Mauer
Checked October 2026. Facts taken from an escape record on this site link to that record, which lists its own sources.
32 events: 15 successful escapes, 4 partly successful escapes, 12 failed attempts and 1 fatal attempt. At least 194 people reached the West in these events.
13 September 1961 – 14 October 1961
'Glockengasse 4711': the sewer route under the Alte Jakobstraße
In the weeks after the Wall went up, student escape helpers led East Berliners through a sewer from Mitte to Kreuzberg. A memorial plaque puts the number at about 500; other research counts about 150.
October 1961
Michael Synowzik through the sewer under Checkpoint Charlie
In October 1961 the schoolboy Michael Synowzik escaped from East Berlin with his father through the sewers under the Zimmerstraße at Checkpoint Charlie, a month after his older brother had fled through the sewers.
2 October 1961 – 3 October 1961
Helgard Bromberger and four others through a rainwater sewer from Spittelmarkt
In the night of 2 to 3 October 1961 Helgard Bromberger, her friend Helga and three young men climbed into a rainwater sewer near Spittelmarkt, went through a hole in a grating that blocked the pipe and came up near Moritzplatz in West Berlin.
4 October 1961
Three men try to escape through the sewer under Ackerstraße
Border policemen arrested three men who had already opened a manhole cover on Ackerstraße; two of them were already inside the sewer.
12 October 1961
Eleven try the sewer pipe at Wolfswerder 3 – three get through
On 12 October 1961 a group of eleven people tried to escape from the property at Wolfswerder 3 in Kleinmachnow through a sewer pipe that led into West Berlin. Three reached the West; eight were arrested.
24 October 1961
Through the sewer from the stadium yard to Chausseestraße
On 24 October 1961 three people sawed through the grate of a sewer shaft in the service yard of East Berlin's Walter-Ulbricht-Stadion, went down, and climbed out of a manhole in Chausseestraße on the West Berlin side.
19 December 1961
The Pankow Cemetery Tunnel
A young East Berlin bride, separated from her West Berlin husband by the Wall, crawled to freedom through a short tunnel whose entrance was hidden behind a gravestone.
6 January 1962
A West Berliner scouting the sewer at the Gleimtunnel is fired on
At 00.15 on 6 January 1962 a 20-year-old West Berliner went into the sewer at the Gleimtunnel to explore escape routes for relatives. He set off an alarm in the sewer on the East Berlin side; East Berlin police (Vopo) then climbed in and fired two submachine-gun shots at him, which missed.
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.
27 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.
22 February 1962
The Franzke brothers' first tunnel in the Heidelberger Straße is betrayed
Boris and Eduard Franzke dug a tunnel of more than 20 metres under the Heidelberger Straße to bring out their relatives. The plan was betrayed, and the family members waiting in the East were arrested.
21 March 1962 – 27 March 1962
Heidelberger Straße Tunnel and the Death of Heinz Jercha
Dozens of East Berliners escaped through a tunnel under Heidelberger Straße until a Stasi informer betrayed it; escape helper Heinz Jercha was shot in an ambush and died after crawling back to the West.
5 May 1962
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.
9 June 1962 – 11 June 1962
The Whitsun Tunnel (Pfingsttunnel)
In June 1962 helpers around Harry Seidel dug from the cellar of a Neukölln corner pub under Heidelberger Straße and, over the Whitsun weekend, brought East Berliners out through a photographer's shop.
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.
28 June 1962
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.
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.
14 September 1962 – 15 September 1962
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.
6 October 1962
The Second Heidelberger Krug Tunnel to Elsenstraße
A second tunnel from the Heidelberger Krug pub brought a tailor couple to the West in their pyjamas, but an informer tipped off the Stasi within hours and an escape helper was shot and captured.
14 November 1962
The Kleinmachnow Tunnel and the Arrest of Harry Seidel
The betrayal of a 70-metre tunnel into Kleinmachnow ended with the capture of the famous escape helper Harry Seidel, who was sentenced to life imprisonment in a show trial.
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.
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 the sand inside their house, before 13 people crawled to West Berlin.
8 April 1963
A second tunnel from Heidelberger Straße 35 – Boris Franzke's last
A year after Heinz Jercha was shot at the same spot, escape helpers dug a new tunnel from Heidelberger Straße 35 to no. 75. Up to 20 people escaped through it before a resident noticed the broken cellar door.
24 May 1963
The betrayed Kremmener Straße tunnel, dug from East to West
East Berliners dug a 45-metre tunnel from a disused bakery cellar at Kremmener Straße 15 almost to Bernauer Straße before it was discovered in May 1963; 19 people were jailed.
July 1963
Betrayed a few metres short: the tunnel to Eberswalder / Oderberger Straße
A tunnel from the former freight yard towards the corner house at Eberswalder and Oderberger Straße had to be abandoned a few metres short in July 1963 after the plan was betrayed and two diggers were arrested in East Berlin.
7 January 1964
The first Bernauer Straße 97 tunnel ends in a coal yard
The first tunnel from a bakery cellar at Bernauer Straße 97 surfaced in a coal yard in view of the guards; three young women got through before it was discovered.
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.
May 1970
The 85-metre tunnel from Bernauer Straße 80, dug out by the Stasi
Eight years after a 1962 tunnel attempt from Bernauer Straße 82, a new tunnel was begun at Bernauer Straße 80; after a tip-off and listening probes the Stasi exposed it by cross-trenching in May 1970, when it was already 85 metres long.
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.
9 January 1972
The heaters' tunnel under the Zimmerstraße
Two brothers and a friend dug a short tunnel from the sealed border cellars of an East Berlin electricity-company building near Checkpoint Charlie and came up just beyond the Wall.
26 July 1973
The Klein Glienicke Family Tunnel
Two brothers, their wives and five children escaped from the GDR exclave of Klein Glienicke through a 19-metre tunnel dug with a child's spade during a heatwave.
22 April 1982
The Abandoned Sigridshorst Tunnel
A train driver and his wife dug 17 metres of tunnel from their cellar but gave up with the border still several hundred metres away; a later balloon plan was betrayed and both were imprisoned.