Tour M – Berlin Freedom Week: Tunnel escapes

Ever since the SED regime erected the Berlin Wall in August 1961, there have been repeated attempts to cross the deadly barriers through the urban sewer system or self-dug tunnels, thus gaining access to freedom. The first tunnel project “ran” in October 1961, the last failed in 1982. In total, more than 70 tunnels were started, of which, however, only 19 were successful. Through them, over 300 citizens of the GDR managed to make it from East to West Berlin to freedom. There were spectacular successes, betrayals and bitter failures. Soon, a veritable “cat and mouse game” developed between the tunnel builders and the GDR State Security, with increasingly difficult conditions for the escape helpers and refugees.
On this two-hour tour, we tell stories of the escape tunnels and we are focussing on ‘Tunnel 57’. After visiting Blochplatz civil defence facility, we will take the U8 underground line to Bernauer Strasse, a hotspot during the building of the Wall and a focal point in escape tunnel construction. After visiting the authentic sites of ‘Tunnel 57’ there, we go underground again. In the historic vaults of the former Oswald-Berliner brewery, we report on other successful as well as betrayed and failed tunnel projects from the time of the Berlin Wall using full-scale tunnel replicas.
As a highlight an original escape tunnel from 1970/71 can be seen – eight metres below the surface. This is accessed via a visitors’ tunnel approximately 30 metres in length, which was built by Berlin Underworlds over a period of a year and a half. It is the only real escape tunnel which can still be visited today.

As part of this special tour, we will also be presenting the exhibition ‘Tunnel 57: An Escape Story as a Comic’ by Susanne Buddenberg and Thomas Henseler.

In addition to this tour, we are offering a corresponding program of events as part of Berlin Freedom Week.