Berlin Wall Escape Sites — Inner City

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 […]

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.

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 […]