Tunnels under the Berlin Wall: A tourist attraction

A model of an escape tunnel from East

A model of an escape tunnel from East to West Berlin is part of the tours run by the Underworlds Association. (Credit: AP Photo)

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While some flew over the barrier in hot-air balloons, others sailed far around it across the Baltic Sea and still others sneaked across, hidden in secret compartments in cars.







Herschel regularly escorts groups through the hidden world below Berlin's streets, explaining how the subterranean escape routes worked. While some tunnels were less than 100 feet long, others were up to 557 feet in length. Some were like small tubes, barely big enough to crawl through, while others were tall enough to stand up in.



"Altogether we have counted 71 tunnel projects and 20 percent of those were successful," said Dietmar Arnold, the head of the Berlin Underworlds Association, which conducts the tours and works on opening more subterranean structures to the public.


The tours usually start at a labyrinthine Cold War bunker in the bustling immigrant neighborhood of Wedding. Here, the Underworlds Association has built a model tunnel equipped with buckets, shovels and a little wooden wagon that was used to carry out the excavated soil. The light in the bunker is dim, and fluorescent paint from the Cold War era glows on the walls, creating an eerie atmosphere.

Later on, the groups move to the Bernauer Strasse in the Mitte neighborhood, one of the most popular spots for tunnel diggers at the time, due to the high amount of clay in the soil.

"Today none of the original tunnels (on Bernauer Strasse) are still accessible, but sometimes, during street construction work, unknown ones get discovered," Arnold said.


Tours of Berlin's escape tunnels



Tour "M" offered in English on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. through the end of October. Tickets are $17.75 (12 euros); $13 youth (9 euros). Other tours offered daily year-round.

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