Escaping the East
In September 1961, after weeks of planning, Joachim Rudolph and his friend made the dangerous choice to escape East Berlin and seek a new life in the West. Using the dark night as cover, they waded through a river, crawled across a field and passed a watchtower containing border guards who would shoot on sight.
© IWM TR 30283-21. The Berlin Wall and the Death Strip seen from the Bernauerstrasse viewing platform in the French sector.
Unlike many others, the two young men were successful in their attempt. For Joachim, escaping the GDR was the only way he could continue his university studies without the threat of military enlistment. Soon after arriving in the West, he was approached by fellow students at the Free University. They wanted to use Joachim’s engineering skills to dig a tunnel into East Berlin and help their friends and families escape.
This was a long and risky task, which almost failed several times. The tunnel was barely a metre high and flooding from burst water pipes was often a problem. Despite this, the tunnellers finished their work on 14th September 1962. Once the tunnel was opened in East Berlin, Joachim Rudolph and his friends helped 29 people escape, including several young children. As a result, the escape route became known as Tunnel 29.
For more information on Joachim and Tunnel 29 listen to the BBC Podcast, and for more about victims at the Berlin wall please visit the Berlin Wall Memorial website.
