Themes · Means and ruses
Sewers
Escapes and attempts through the sewers and drains under the border.
7 events: 4 successful escapes, 1 partly successful escape and 2 failed attempts. At least 14 people reached the West in these events. All are from 1961. Methods: tunnels 6, false papers and disguises 1.
Often together with: Escape helpers (3), Group escapes (2), Stasi reports (2), Witness accounts (2)
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.
6 October 1961
Sewer escape helper Carl-August von Halle walks into a Stasi trap
A West Berlin architecture student who had helped East Germans escape through the sewers was lured into a trap by a Stasi informer and arrested at Friedrichstraße station.
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.
