Sebastianstraße Tunnel

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.

Sebastianstraße was another of Berlin’s divided streets, with the Wall running down its centre. The western side lay in Kreuzberg, the eastern side in Mitte – and the distance between the two was agonisingly short. In 1962, Siegfried Noffke and Dieter Hötger exploited this proximity, digging a tunnel roughly 30 metres long from the basement of Sebastianstraße 82 to Heinrich-Heine-Straße 45–49 on the eastern side.

The tunnel construction was a dangerous undertaking. Diggers worked in near-total silence to avoid detection by border guards patrolling above. The soil had to be quietly removed and stored without arousing suspicion. An information board at the site, erected by Berliner Unterwelten, tells the story of this escape and the risks that both the builders and the escapees faced crossing beneath one of the most heavily guarded borders in history.

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