Sunny view, to Bernauer Strasse, metal markers Escape Tunnel 1964 crossing border strip grass, Berlin Wall at Strelitzer Strasse
In 1963 and 1964 two escape tunnels were dug, about 5 metres apart, from Bernauer Strasse (in West Berlin) to Strelitzer Strasse (in East Berlin, behind the camera). Each was about 145 metres in length, at a depth of 10 m below the Berlin Wall border zone. Wolfgang Fuchs, who had fled from the East German city of Jena to West Berlin in 1957, rented an old bakery in Bernauer Strasse and dug the two tunnels into the East with the help of 15 students. On the night of 7/8 January 1964, three women escaped through the first tunnel, the marker line of which is seen here, looking from the border strip towards Bernauer Strasse. This first tunnel was discovered by the East German border guards and made impassable with grenades. Between the 3rd and 5th of October 1964 the second tunnel (its marker line visible to the right of this tunnel) arrived in a courtyard outhouse in Strelitzer Strasse and a total of 57 people, men, women and children, escaped to the West, making 'Tunnel 57' the most successful escape tunnel in Berlin. In response to the tunnel escapes at this location, the border guards built counter tunnels and installed listening equipment. The steel poles mark the line of the border wall.
Size: 3648px × 5471px
Location: Escape Tunnel 1964, Berlin Wall border strip, Bernauer Strasse at Strelitzer Strasse, Germany
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1964, berlin, bernauer, border, cold, division, escape, fluchttunel, german, germany, grass, green, history, markers, metal, political, portrait, strasse, strelitzer, strip, sunny, tunnel, wall, war
