Joachim Neumann, one of the most famous escape helpers and one of the most successful tunnel builders of all time, speaks in his lecture and the subsequent discussion about his tunnel constructions — the most well-known being “Tunnel 29” and “Tunnel 57,” both located on Bernauer Straße, which went down in history. In total, 99 people gained their freedom through the tunnels in which Joachim Neumann was involved. It was through his last project, “Tunnel 57,” that his future wife Christa also escaped.
Joachim Neumann was born on March 17, 1939, in Berlin. In 1957, he graduated from high school in Berlin-Köpenick and subsequently began studying civil engineering in Cottbus. In December 1961, he escaped to West Berlin using a Swiss passport and continued his civil engineering studies at the Technical University of Berlin. From the spring of 1962 onward, he was involved in a total of six escape tunnels. His motivation was, above all, the desire to help others—just as he himself had been helped during his own escape—and to keep the promise he had made to his friends in East Berlin to find ways for them to flee.
In 1965, he married his girlfriend Christa, who had escaped through “Tunnel 57.” He graduated from the Technical University of Berlin in 1967 and then worked in the construction industry and in international consulting, living in Frankfurt am Main. Joachim Neumann has been retired since 2003. After the death of his wife in 2005, he returned to live in Berlin in 2006.
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Additional information
Dates
November 2025
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