Under the Berlin Wall with Eyewitness Eveline Rudolph

As a result, many people attempted to slip beneath the deadly barriers through tunnels they had dug themselves, in order to reach freedom.

In the immediate vicinity of Bernauer Straße – the epicentre of tunnel-building activity – the history of Berlin’s escape tunnels is recounted, and visitors are offered a glimpse into the only original escape tunnel from 1970–71 – nine metres below the surface. This is accessed via a tunnel approximately 30 metres long, constructed by Berliner Unterwelten e.V.

Eyewitness Eveline Rudolph will recount her escape through the famous ‘Tunnel 29’, through which she reached freedom on 14 September 1962 at the age of 21, together with her then-husband Horst Schmidt, her one-year-old daughter Annett and 26 other people.

The tunnel, in the planning and construction of which the escape organiser Hasso Herschel and Eveline Rudolph’s future husband, Joachim Rudolph, played a key role, ran for around 130 metres from the basement of 78 Bernauer Straße (West Berlin) to the basement of 7 Schönholzer Straße (East Berlin).

IN GERMAN