Berlin Wall Escape Sites

Site of two of the most daring escapes in Berlin Wall history. In 1983, Holger Bethke fired an arrow trailing a nylon line over the Wall near Treptow Park, pulled a steel cable across, and zipped over the death strip on a homemade wooden pulley. In 1989, his brothers flew two ultralight aircraft into Treptower […]

In March 1963, one of the most daring family escape tunnels was dug beneath a living room in Glienicke/Nordbahn, a small town on Berlin’s northern border. Eleven-year-old Detlef Aagard, his parents, and ten others crawled to freedom through the narrow passage.

Known as the “Straße der Tränen” (Street of Tears), Heidelberger Straße was split down the middle by the Berlin Wall, with the western pavement in Neukölln and the eastern side in Treptow. Multiple escape tunnels were dug here in 1962, helping over 100 people reach the West. Escape helper Heinz Jercha was shot and killed […]

In the early 1960s, several escape tunnels were dug along the Neukölln-Treptow border near Kiefholzstraße, where favourable soil conditions and the configuration of the border aided tunnel construction. An estimated 35 to 59 people escaped through one tunnel here before a Stasi informant betrayed the route, leading to the arrest of 89 people.

Site of some of the earliest successful escape tunnels beneath the Berlin Wall. On 24 January 1962, 28 people escaped through a tunnel dug by brothers Günter and Bruno Becker from their basement – an event that inspired the film “Tunnel 28.” In May 1962, twelve senior citizens dug a 32-metre tunnel from a chicken […]

In 1962, Siegfried Noffke and Dieter Hötger dug a tunnel approximately 30 metres long from Sebastianstraße 82 in West Kreuzberg under the Wall to Heinrich-Heine-Straße 45–49 in East Berlin. The Wall ran down the centre of the street at this point. An information board erected by Berliner Unterwelten at the site documents this escape route.

In September 1962, 29 people escaped through a 135-metre tunnel dug from a disused factory on Bernauer Straße to a building on Schönholzer Straße in the East. The escape was filmed by an NBC television crew, producing the Emmy-winning documentary “The Tunnel” that brought worldwide attention to the plight of those trapped behind the wall.

A memorial plaque at Brunnenstraße 141 marks the site of an escape tunnel through which 37 people reached freedom from East to West Berlin. The tunnel was one of at least seven dug within a 350-metre stretch near Bernauer Straße. Today, Berliner Unterwelten e.V. maintains an access point here, allowing visitors to see the only […]

On 3–4 October 1964, 57 people crawled through a 12-metre-deep tunnel from a disused bakery cellar on Bernauer Straße to Strelitzer Straße in the East – the largest single mass escape through a tunnel during the wall’s existence. The operation was discovered during the second night when an East German border guard was fatally shot, […]

In January 1962, a group of students led by brothers Boris and Eduard Franzke began digging a tunnel beneath the S-Bahnhof Wollankstraße, aiming to reach Schulzestraße in East Berlin. After three weeks and approximately 30 metres of digging, the tunnel collapsed under the station platform on 26 January 1962, revealing the escape attempt before anyone […]

Two escape tunnels were dug on Zimmerstraße, close to Checkpoint Charlie. In summer 1962, a tunnel enabled an East German family to escape, but 20-year-old border guard Reinhold Huhn was shot dead by an escape helper during the attempt. In January 1972, three young East Berliners dug their own tunnel at Nr. 8–9 and reached […]