Themes · Means and ruses
Plans abandoned or discovered
Escape plans, many of them tunnels, that were abandoned, collapsed or were discovered.
6 events: 1 successful escape, 1 partly successful escape and 4 failed attempts. At least 5 people reached the West in these events. The records span 1961–1982. Methods: tunnels 4, by train 1, over the wall 1.
Often together with: Betrayed by informers (3), Escape helpers (3), Couples and sweethearts (2)
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.
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.
1967
Two transport workers plan to stop a West Berlin U-Bahn train under Alexanderplatz
In summer 1967 two 20-year-old East Berlin transport workers planned to climb from a workshop at Alexanderplatz station into the tunnel of the West Berlin line (today's U8) and stop a westbound train. A colleague informed the Stasi.
20 October 1968
110 bottles of hydrogen and a plastic balloon – then two families climb the fence at Groß Glienicke
Two families from Premnitz ordered 110 bottles of hydrogen to fill home-made plastic balloons. When the balloons would not inflate, they crossed the fences in thick fog: five made it, and the father of one family was shot and caught at the last fence.
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.
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.