Der Tunnel

A reaction to the erection of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961 was the provision of secret routes for East Berliners to escape into freedom in West Berlin. One such was a tunnel that begun construction in early 1962 masterminded by four West Berlin students: civil engineering student Ulrich Pfeifer (called Uli) who was responsible for structural concerns, political science student Hasso Herschel who oversaw construction details and communication with the refugees, steel expert and Italian national Domenico Sesta (called Memo) who was the planner, and art student and fellow Italian national Luigi Spina (called Gigi) who was the leader of the operation. The idea was borne out of a want to help Gigi and Memo s friend Peter Schmidt-Vogel who was despondent about his fate living in East Berlin. Uli and Hasso joined the plan soon after they met Memo and Gigi. Hasso was earlier imprisoned for four years by the East German regime, and joined as an act of revenge against his former captors and to get his younger sister out of East Berlin. Uli earlier escaped from East to West Berlin through the city s sewer system, and like Hasso joined the tunnel group as revenge against the East German regime who imprisoned his girlfriend for seven years for also trying to escape. Initial planning problems included finding a route that was above the consistently high ground water table under the city and in an area of the city where they could build without being suspected of doing so. After locating the section of the city to construct the tunnel, they had to find buildings under which they could start and end the tunnel either without detection or with the assistance of the building owner. Beyond the known concerns for what was now planned as the 165 meter long tunnel, such concerns as providing structural supports, providing air ventilation, disposing of the excavated materials, recruiting laborers sympathetic to the cause, and financing (the latter which was solved in an unconventional manner), they ran into unforeseen problems, such as two burst water pipes flooding the tunnel, and other people they initially did not know finding out about the project. After all was said and done, life, in all its good and bad, went on for those involved.