The Great Escape beneath the Berlin wall (1964)

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officially called the federal republic of germany with its capital in the city of bonn and was part of the new nato military alliance the other was east germany which was now ironically called the german democratic republic and at its capital in the soviet-controlled sector of berlin it was also part of the russian-led warsaw pact the communist equivalent of nato the former nazi capital of berlin was now deep inside east german territory and was therefore completely cut off from the rest of the world what made this situation even more tense was that the city itself had now been divided up into four different sectors each one was controlled either by the americans british or french or the largest one by the russians the city was then hit by several major crises in 1948 when the russians had a major disagreement with the western powers the soviet union retaliated by blocking all access to the western held sectors of berlin they prevented access to all railway road and canal links to that part of the city this forced the western powers to come up with a solution to supply the city with fuel food and everyday essentials which they did by organizing a massive american-led daily airlift of goods into the city then in 1953 there was a major general strike across the russian sector protesting against poor working conditions in the end this had to be put down by the communist authorities by using force supported by soviet tanks and troops using live ammunition in order to do so over 160 east german civilians were killed before the unrest was finally brought under control by 1961 with so many east german berliners escaping to the west it was now seriously damaging the german democratic republic's economy as well as becoming a serious negative propaganda issue for the communist regime so without any warning the republic's authorities started to build a wall around the western held area of berlin this was rapidly completed in a matter of weeks cutting off family and friends from one another all across the city the wall was truly formidable large concrete blocks tall barbed wire fences minefields and watchtowers with powerful searchlights constantly patrolled by armed guards who had orders to shoot to kill anyone caught violating the rules but despite this people still kept trying to escape and one of the most daring of these happened on the night of october 3rd 1964 when 57 east german citizens escaped to freedom in a tunnel dug underground between the two sectors the excavation of this tunnel had taken about five months and was carried out by a group of between 20 and 25 west german college students to avoid suspicious looking trips in and out of the building the students took it in turns to live in the basement for weeks on end and by their own admission they began to stink to high heaven despite setting up makeshift washing facilities it had been an extremely hazardous endeavor as though the local sandy soil was very easy to dig through it was also prone to collapsing due to its unstable nature so it had to be shored up along the way with wooden boards first of all they had to dig a 30-foot vertical shaft before they could start on the horizontal tunnel but the further they dug the more difficult it became to breathe so they adapted a household vacuum cleaner to blow air along the tunnel the tunnel was a staggering 145 meters or 475 feet long and went directly underneath the berlin wall fortifications but it was only two feet high and three feet wide so there was just enough room for a person to crawl along and it took approximately 10 minutes to cover the whole distance it started on the western side of the city in the basement of a disused bakery and then went across in an easterly direction and ran beneath some shops then under the berlin wall itself before coming up vertically into an old disused outhouse or toilet block of the back of an apartment building instead of the cellar of a building that had originally been planned as the exit the escape was planned to happen on the weekend that coincided with a big celebration in the east of the city to mark the 15th anniversary of the founding of the east german democratic republic instructions were sent to friends and relatives in the east inviting them to escape and they were told that they had to whisper the password tokyo when they were near the tunnel entrance to distinguish themselves from any stasi secret police who might be nosing about in the area the password tokyo was a reference to the summer olympics that were to be held in tokyo japan only one week later among the college students helping to organize the escape to the west was reinhard ferrer who in later years became an astronaut and was a payload specialist on one of the challenger space shuttle missions a total of 54 adults and three children made their way across in groups of two to three that night in october aided by their west german helpers but just as the last group got across a truckload of east german security guards turned up at the entrance to the tunnel after a tip-off from somebody reporting suspicious activity in the area as the last of the west german helpers were about to cross back into west germany there was an exchange of gunfire between them and the east german security forces in a brief firefight a young east german border guard was hit several times and killed none of the escapees or west german helpers were ever captured and it ended up being a major embarrassment for the east german authorities who afterwards claimed that the guard had been shot and murdered by west german agents something that was denied by the west germans the guard who was killed was 21 year old sergeant egon schultz who became a national hero in the east and many streets buildings and schools were named after him the escape was the largest ever recorded from the east to the west and became known simply as the story of tunnel 57 due to the number of east germans who had managed to escape to freedom that night decades later after the unification of germany secret east german files revealed that sergeant schultz had indeed been hit in the crossfire with the students but the shot that had actually killed him had been from friendly fire his own men had accidentally shot him in all the confusion in the darkness and a bizarre twist that later came to light was that the popular german stern or star magazine had partially funded the building of the tunnel in return for exclusive rights to the story you

Channel: Simple History

Views: 762,047

Keywords: simple history, animated history, educational, education, tunnel 57, berlin wall, cold war, incredible escape, Grenztruppen, ddr, east germany, east berlin, west berlin, west germany, soviet union, Berlin wall Border troops, Escape from Tunnel 57, USA, Britain, sectors, france, Sergeant Egon Schultz, Summer Olympics, Stasi, West German College Students, German Democratic Republic, brain drain, berlin airlift, nato, warsaw pact, berlin blockade, Reinhard Furrer, Christian Zobel, GDR

Id: hBvcMMuBsHQ

Length: 9min 59sec (599 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 02 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/SnooPeripherals9691]

Why would they want to escape a communist utopia! /s

[u/justlucas999]

But east Germany was annexed without the consent of the people living there!!!

[u/patatasuper]

Oh sweetie the wall was built to keep nazis out, so those obvious Cia nazi agitators just wanted to get back to nazi land

[u/Hanz_says]

I haven’t seen ONE commie tackle Eastern European uprisings during the Cold War. Interesting…