22 October 2009

Unlikely new tourist attraction: escape tunnels

Local tourists and international visitors are flocking to an unlikely attraction in Germany: escape tunnels.

Hundreds of captives under the East German government after World War II took advantage of the soft soil beneath Berlin to tunnel their way beneath the wall.

Estimates are that 150,000 visitors explored the bunkers and tunnels of Berlin last year.
At least one tour group leader, Hasso Herschel, has personal experience because he dug a tunnel with his own hands in the 1970s.

"This was the best thing I ever did in my whole life," said the 74-year-old retiree.

Herschel regularly escorts groups through the hidden world below Berlin's streets, explaining how the subterranean escape routes worked.

Herschel, who escaped to West Germany with a forged passport in 1961, dug several illegal tunnels underneath the wall.

Some of the tunnels were like small tubes, barely big enough to crawl through, while others were tall enough to stand up in. It took between three days and six months to dig the various constructions between October 1961 and April 1982. Altogether, about 300 people managed to escape through the tunnels.

But fleeing East Germany was dangerous.

Border guards had orders to shoot any escapees on the spot.

Researchers estimate that 136 people died trying to cross the wall and about 700-800 perished along the entire 856-mile length of the border separating East and West Germany.

By David Wilkening