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Tunnel 29: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall
He's just escaped from one of the world's most brutal regimes.
Now, he decides to tunnel back in.
It's summer, 1962, and Joachim Rudolph, a student, is digging a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Waiting on the other side in East Berlin - dozens of men, women and children; all willing to risk everything to escape.
From the award-winning creator of the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 podcast, Tunnel 29 is the true story of the most remarkable escape tunnel dug under the Berlin Wall. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with the survivors, and thousands of pages of Stasi documents, Helena Merriman brilliantly reveals the stranger-than-fiction story of the ingenious group of student-diggers, the glamorous red-haired messenger, the American News network which films the escape, and the Stasi spy who betrays it. For what Joachim doesn't know as he burrows closer to East Germany, is that the escape operation has been infiltrated. As the escapees prepare to crawl through the cold, wet darkness, above them, the Stasi are closing in.
Tunnel 29 is about what happens when people lose their freedom - and how some will do anything to win it back.
Acclaim for the TUNNEL 29 podcast:
'Combining the fun of a thriller that we know will end happily with grim perspective on history and tyranny... stunning' New Yorker
'Reminiscent of a savvy Netflix block buster series' Evening Standard
'A truly exciting yarn... creates a sense for the listener of being right there in the tunnel, experiencing the dangers.' Observer
Now, he decides to tunnel back in.
It's summer, 1962, and Joachim Rudolph, a student, is digging a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Waiting on the other side in East Berlin - dozens of men, women and children; all willing to risk everything to escape.
From the award-winning creator of the acclaimed BBC Radio 4 podcast, Tunnel 29 is the true story of the most remarkable escape tunnel dug under the Berlin Wall. Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews with the survivors, and thousands of pages of Stasi documents, Helena Merriman brilliantly reveals the stranger-than-fiction story of the ingenious group of student-diggers, the glamorous red-haired messenger, the American News network which films the escape, and the Stasi spy who betrays it. For what Joachim doesn't know as he burrows closer to East Germany, is that the escape operation has been infiltrated. As the escapees prepare to crawl through the cold, wet darkness, above them, the Stasi are closing in.
Tunnel 29 is about what happens when people lose their freedom - and how some will do anything to win it back.
Acclaim for the TUNNEL 29 podcast:
'Combining the fun of a thriller that we know will end happily with grim perspective on history and tyranny... stunning' New Yorker
'Reminiscent of a savvy Netflix block buster series' Evening Standard
'A truly exciting yarn... creates a sense for the listener of being right there in the tunnel, experiencing the dangers.' Observer
352 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2021
637 people are currently reading
10.4k people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 710 reviews
January 26, 2023
What a page turner. A riveting read that had my attention from the very first chapter.
I came across this Book while just browsing the German History section of a very good bookstore. I had never heard of the book or the author and a what a wonderful reading surprise this was.
In the summer of 1962 Joachim Rudolph, a student is digging a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Waiting on the other side in East Berlin are dozen of men, women and children, desperate to escape and risk their lives in the attempt. Tunnel 29 is a story of courage, desperation, bravery, and the lengths that the East German government of the time went to in order to cage their citizens in.
I was there with my spade, I made every trip over and back to east Germany and I was felt a nervous feeling every time I picked up this book and seemed to have time travelled back to 1962 Berlin.
I have read quite a lot of books on Berlin after the war and I have even visited the city a couple of years ago but still this book was an eye opener.
The author has done impeccable research and even if reader don’t like history and non fiction books, this reads like a thriller and you won’t be disappointed with the story.
The book and numerous photos from the time and I especially loved � What they did next� chapter.
I spent a couple of hours watching clips from the documentary on you tube after I finished the book and really enjoyed the footage.
A terrific read and so deserving of 5 stars. I look forward to more from this author as this was a soup for my reading soul.
I came across this Book while just browsing the German History section of a very good bookstore. I had never heard of the book or the author and a what a wonderful reading surprise this was.
In the summer of 1962 Joachim Rudolph, a student is digging a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Waiting on the other side in East Berlin are dozen of men, women and children, desperate to escape and risk their lives in the attempt. Tunnel 29 is a story of courage, desperation, bravery, and the lengths that the East German government of the time went to in order to cage their citizens in.
I was there with my spade, I made every trip over and back to east Germany and I was felt a nervous feeling every time I picked up this book and seemed to have time travelled back to 1962 Berlin.
I have read quite a lot of books on Berlin after the war and I have even visited the city a couple of years ago but still this book was an eye opener.
The author has done impeccable research and even if reader don’t like history and non fiction books, this reads like a thriller and you won’t be disappointed with the story.
The book and numerous photos from the time and I especially loved � What they did next� chapter.
I spent a couple of hours watching clips from the documentary on you tube after I finished the book and really enjoyed the footage.
A terrific read and so deserving of 5 stars. I look forward to more from this author as this was a soup for my reading soul.
June 3, 2023
What an amazing book and a true story as well. I do remember the Berlin Wall and how we did learn about it. Never, though did I fully realize the things that went on behind that wall, the struggle to escape from the totalitarian rule of East Berlin and its maniacal leaders.
The story centers on the escape plans, those of building a tunnel, in order to be free. It focuses on the hardships, the struggles, the loneliness, and heartbreak that occurred when the wall went up and families were separated, children from parents, wives from husband, and the road to ever seeing them again was cut off. It was a story of deprivation, of being watched all the time by hidden members of the Staci in their efforts to control all. The list of those who were spies showed, years later, the husbands who exposed wives, the children who turned on their parents, friend against friend, in an effort to appease those in control. The methods used when "traitors" were uncovered was cruel and inhuman, often resulting in death or years in prison, using mind control and other tortures to elicit the information the Staci needed. It was in essence a trip into hell from which no one escaped and if they were released the prisoners never were the same.
It was a story of authoritarian control, a time of Kennedy, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Communism, and others who felt helpless to intervene knowing that the tenuous thread of nuclear war hung in the balance.
There were the success stories, those who managed to escape and Tunnel 29, tells us the harrowing tale of those brave young men who dug tunnels to help those on the other side escape. They all knew their fate, if they were captured and the informants were running rampant so danger lurked behind every ear that heard a plan for escape.
This powerful story is both amazingly told and a caution to all of us as to what happens when a government holds total control over their people. It is definitely recommended as a non-fiction book that delivers on so many levels.
Thank you to Helena Merriman whose exhausted research made this such a moving story, PublicAffairs, and NetGalley for a copy of this story already published on August 24, 2021.
August 29, 2021
Perfect narrative nonfiction.
There are lots of documentaries on German TV at the moment since the anniversary of the closing-off of the border and the beginning of the wall’s building is on August 13. It was surreal to see images and scenes described here depicted in some of them - like the elderly woman who got halfway out of an apartment window with West Berliners pulling on her from below and East Berlin policemen trying to pull her back in. The author is so gifted at descriptions and building atmosphere, every scene was exactly as I’d pictured it from her words.
I haven’t listened to the podcast this grew out of but I was skeptical because the book/podcast connection has been pretty disappointing thus far. She must be a great interviewer though, because the details and the way the stories were built and layered was outstanding. It also explains some complex bits of history and politics very well, while still managing to read like a thriller much of the time.
There are lots of documentaries on German TV at the moment since the anniversary of the closing-off of the border and the beginning of the wall’s building is on August 13. It was surreal to see images and scenes described here depicted in some of them - like the elderly woman who got halfway out of an apartment window with West Berliners pulling on her from below and East Berlin policemen trying to pull her back in. The author is so gifted at descriptions and building atmosphere, every scene was exactly as I’d pictured it from her words.
I haven’t listened to the podcast this grew out of but I was skeptical because the book/podcast connection has been pretty disappointing thus far. She must be a great interviewer though, because the details and the way the stories were built and layered was outstanding. It also explains some complex bits of history and politics very well, while still managing to read like a thriller much of the time.
January 23, 2023
Helena Merriman is a journalist. She interviews 80-year-old Joachim Rudolph in his apartment in Berlin in 2018. This leads her down a rabbit hole or rather, a tunnel.
In August 1961 the Berlin Wall was erected, not to keep people from coming into East Germany but to stop the flood of East Germans leaving. Merriman describes it as a ‘human zoo� once the Wall is put up as tourists visit from the West to peer at the people in the East. If people from the East try and escape they are shot or imprisoned.
Still, people from the East want to leave and they’ll find ways. Some of them at least. Joachim and his friend Manfred do find a way back in 1961. One year later they and three friends look to tunnel from the West to the East to help people escape. It is an audacious plot. It will take careful planning, hard work and sleepless nights. 120 metres of tunnel needs to be dug. This is an immense feat for sure.
They need to look out for the border guards, the Stasi and spies. It is thought that in East Germany 1 in 6 people were spies. Who can you trust? Who can you not trust? The tunnellers have friends who are willing to help financially. I will not spoil the surprise in this review.
This is such an easy read and quite thrilling in its own way. It just shows the strength of humans and what they are capable of. It is remarkable. The internet is a great thing. You can watch the 1962 NBC documentary so after you finish the book I highly recommend you do that.
In August 1961 the Berlin Wall was erected, not to keep people from coming into East Germany but to stop the flood of East Germans leaving. Merriman describes it as a ‘human zoo� once the Wall is put up as tourists visit from the West to peer at the people in the East. If people from the East try and escape they are shot or imprisoned.
Still, people from the East want to leave and they’ll find ways. Some of them at least. Joachim and his friend Manfred do find a way back in 1961. One year later they and three friends look to tunnel from the West to the East to help people escape. It is an audacious plot. It will take careful planning, hard work and sleepless nights. 120 metres of tunnel needs to be dug. This is an immense feat for sure.
They need to look out for the border guards, the Stasi and spies. It is thought that in East Germany 1 in 6 people were spies. Who can you trust? Who can you not trust? The tunnellers have friends who are willing to help financially. I will not spoil the surprise in this review.
This is such an easy read and quite thrilling in its own way. It just shows the strength of humans and what they are capable of. It is remarkable. The internet is a great thing. You can watch the 1962 NBC documentary so after you finish the book I highly recommend you do that.
November 12, 2021
This is an extraordinary book centered around a true story of East Germans escape attempts to West Berlin. It is a very fast paced and exciting read, much like a fictitious thriller filled with many tense moments that had me on the edge of my seat, no small feat for non fiction writing. The author, Helena Merriman, has done fantastic research and was blessed to have interviewed at length one of the central figures in the whole ordeal, Joachim Randolph, who gave her so much insight into what transpired that the reader feels like he/she's actually in the room with all of the heroes (& sometimes villains.) But it is really so much more than an account of one escape attempt. It really helps you understand what life was truly like behind the Iron Curtain and why freedom was so meaningful that lives were risked and often lost to achieve it. I was very fortunate having worked for a fabulous German airline to have visited Germany for work and pleasure multiple times. And as knowledgable as I thought I was about the country and its recent history, this book was still eye opening about what went on in the early 1960's and what life among the Stasi, VoPos and neighbors spying upon neighbors was like in the East. Merriman weaves historical facts and background into the central tale so seamlessly it just added to my enjoyment. I read (& reviewed on ŷ) another excellent non fiction account called "Betrayal in Berlin" by Steven Vogel which I highly recommend. "Tunnel 29" is equally compelling.
October 5, 2021
Non-Fiction>The Berlin Wall, mid 1900s>Biography, 3.5 Stars
East Berliners were actually held in place by a wall. After WWII ended and the city was split, there were avenues to allow East Berliners to work, visit family, vacation and go to school in West Berlin (and vice-versa). There was tension and certain items were confiscated at the border similarly to modern border-crossings between nations today. In 1961, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev put up a wall between the East and West overnight and the US did not intervene or demand that the ridiculous wall be taken down. Consequently, the citizens of the East were suddenly trapped in the [essentially] Soviet-ruled side of Germany.
Many wanted out. Maybe most wanted out. One of few walls ever built keep people in was suffocating an entire population and some of them actively sought a way out in spite of the risks: imprisonment, torture and death if they failed but freedom without those whom they left behind if they succeeded. This is the story of some of the people who were involved in a tunnel that NBC documented and showed the world after some of the largest tunnel escapes for the Berlin Wall happened. The back-breaking work, lack of oxygen, logistics, politics, outsiders, insiders, spies and common folk involved are documented here.
Reading this makes me want to seek out the TV special that NBC aired.
This is a great story, but dragged on a little long for me. This has a very journalistic style and I would enjoy a first-person account more. There are SO many WWI and Cold War stories to choose to read: historical fiction can create wonderful twists and character development with the backdrop of this time, autobiographies and memoirs give first-hand accounts and histories explain what happened to whom and when and by whom. The second-hand journalist style is my least favorite way to learn the personal perspectives of most situations and time periods.
I liked the contrast between JFK's speech, "I am a Berliner." and Gorbachev's, "I love this wall."
East Berliners were actually held in place by a wall. After WWII ended and the city was split, there were avenues to allow East Berliners to work, visit family, vacation and go to school in West Berlin (and vice-versa). There was tension and certain items were confiscated at the border similarly to modern border-crossings between nations today. In 1961, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev put up a wall between the East and West overnight and the US did not intervene or demand that the ridiculous wall be taken down. Consequently, the citizens of the East were suddenly trapped in the [essentially] Soviet-ruled side of Germany.
Many wanted out. Maybe most wanted out. One of few walls ever built keep people in was suffocating an entire population and some of them actively sought a way out in spite of the risks: imprisonment, torture and death if they failed but freedom without those whom they left behind if they succeeded. This is the story of some of the people who were involved in a tunnel that NBC documented and showed the world after some of the largest tunnel escapes for the Berlin Wall happened. The back-breaking work, lack of oxygen, logistics, politics, outsiders, insiders, spies and common folk involved are documented here.
Reading this makes me want to seek out the TV special that NBC aired.
This is a great story, but dragged on a little long for me. This has a very journalistic style and I would enjoy a first-person account more. There are SO many WWI and Cold War stories to choose to read: historical fiction can create wonderful twists and character development with the backdrop of this time, autobiographies and memoirs give first-hand accounts and histories explain what happened to whom and when and by whom. The second-hand journalist style is my least favorite way to learn the personal perspectives of most situations and time periods.
I liked the contrast between JFK's speech, "I am a Berliner." and Gorbachev's, "I love this wall."
November 5, 2024
Pretende ser uma biografia ficcionada de uma das muitas fugas da Alemanha oriental. Um texto no qual a autora se propõe contar uma história verídica com um componente ficcional e ao que me parece falhou em ambos. Nem a história real foi contada de forma suficientemente dramática nem o que lhe colou como ficção me parece que tenha acrescentado algo. A título de exemplo refiro a caso de um agente da Stasi que infiltrado nas organizações de Berlin ocidental que planeavam as fugas, ajudou a expor e desmascarar muitas e assim destruiu muitas vidas. Se a autora aqui pretendia uma abordagem mais histórica o seu resultado é muito pobre pois seguramente com tanta informação haveria bem mais a dizer. Se queria usar uma liberdade ficcional, aqui o seu falhanço é mais gritante e sem desculpa. Contudo, parece-me que a autora pretendeu dar ênfase à história em si, mas para isso era preciso bem mais que uma entrevista.
Porém, tem um lado positivo. Fiquei com curiosidade em conhecer a história da Stasi e dos dirigentes da Alemanha de Leste cujas motivações, a espaços, surgem no texto como genuínas. Saber de que forma uma Alemanha que emerge do nazismo e abraça o ideal comunista é algo que me intriga, até pelo caminho inverso que os russos do séc XXI estão a seguir - um tema que a autora poderia ter desenvolvido. De resto toda a envolvencia emocional dos que se dispuseram a fugir me parece demasiado clichê, numa escrita que não é cativante nem acrescenta nada.
Porém, tem um lado positivo. Fiquei com curiosidade em conhecer a história da Stasi e dos dirigentes da Alemanha de Leste cujas motivações, a espaços, surgem no texto como genuínas. Saber de que forma uma Alemanha que emerge do nazismo e abraça o ideal comunista é algo que me intriga, até pelo caminho inverso que os russos do séc XXI estão a seguir - um tema que a autora poderia ter desenvolvido. De resto toda a envolvencia emocional dos que se dispuseram a fugir me parece demasiado clichê, numa escrita que não é cativante nem acrescenta nada.
November 19, 2021
This was about a specific tunnel with a focus on select individuals, but also included a great deal of history about East Berlin in general during the Cold War. Fascinating and at times suspenseful as I wondered if anyone was going to make it across the border. Loved that there was a "where are they now" chapter at the end. Good job by narrator.
December 12, 2021
Tunnel 29 by Helena Merriman
Synopsis /
Its summer, 1962, and Joachim Rudolph, a student, is digging a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Waiting on the other side in East Berlin - dozens of men, women and children; all willing to risk everything to escape.
My Thoughts /
How do you dig a tunnel into the most heavily guarded country in the world? How do you find somewhere safe to dig from and somewhere safe to dig to? How do you dig your tunnel when you can't use machines in case you're heard by one of the most powerful secret police forces on earth? How do you buy tools when you have no money? How do you avoid hitting a pipe and drowning? How do you see in the tunnel when there's no light? How do you breathe when the air runs out? And if, somehow, you do all this, and you get to the other end, what if the secret police are waiting for you?
The program you are about to see is a document on human courage in seeking freedom. It is a first-hand report - filmed as the event took place - of the digging of a tunnel, and an escape, under the Wall that divides Berlin.
Some had come two hundred miles. All were strangers to this place. They came here past the �..armed People's Policemen on patrol…�.they went quietly down these cellar stairs by ladder down a shaft and stood fifteen feet below the surface of Schönholzer Strasse. There was a tunnel there, less than three-feet wide and three-feet high. Through this, they crawled�.one hundred and forty yards to West Berlin and a free future. I'm Piers Anderton, NBC News Berlin. And this is the story of those people and that tunnel.
What follows will have you on the edge of your seat. Written by BBC journalist, Helena Merriman, Tunnel 29, retells the story of Joachim Rudolph’s daring plan to dig a tunnel under the Berlin Wall and is based on a series of interviews with Joachim (now well into his eighties); and other men and women who participated in the most successful escape of the Cold War.
After the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, desperate Germans trapped inside East Germany tried many creative ways to escape to the West, often with deadly consequences � the guards had orders to shoot to kill. But every once in a while, a plan was so audacious and so skilfully executed that its plotters believed that with some extraordinary luck, they would make it to freedom. This was such a plan.
As a young boy, Joachim Rudolph took advantage of the ability to travel between the two sides of the city, leaving the East to enjoy the freer lifestyle in West. However, when the East German authorities erected the Berlin Wall, almost overnight life under the communist government became even more oppressive. So between the sliver of time between when the barbed wire was replaced with concrete barriers, engineering student, Joachim managed to escape and slipped from East to West with some friends. He became a student at the technical university in West Berlin, studying communications engineering. While at university he met two Italians, Luigi “Gigi� Spina and Domenico “Mimmo� Sesta, and together hatched a plant to dig a tunnel not from East to West, “as the border guards might predict,� but rather from West to East. Because Joachim was originally from the East he knew the landscape and, being an engineer, could construct a tunnel through which 29 freedom seekers would ultimately escape. The task was arduous. In a city crawling with spies and informants, the Stasi, one of the most powerful secret police forces on Earth, was primed to crush any efforts to flee the East and had mastered infiltrating every layer of society: neighbours informed on neighbours, parents on children, wives on husbands. Merriman, in addition to chronicling Rudolph’s story, cuts away to follow others, including the informant who nearly managed to expose the entire plot to the Stasi after he was caught smuggling contraband across the border and the NBC crew leader who found out about the diggers and recorded their efforts from start to finish
There is a journalistic saying - 'you can find the best stories lying around on the streets'. Tunnel 29, proves that sometimes the best stories lie underneath.
Synopsis /
Its summer, 1962, and Joachim Rudolph, a student, is digging a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Waiting on the other side in East Berlin - dozens of men, women and children; all willing to risk everything to escape.
My Thoughts /
How do you dig a tunnel into the most heavily guarded country in the world? How do you find somewhere safe to dig from and somewhere safe to dig to? How do you dig your tunnel when you can't use machines in case you're heard by one of the most powerful secret police forces on earth? How do you buy tools when you have no money? How do you avoid hitting a pipe and drowning? How do you see in the tunnel when there's no light? How do you breathe when the air runs out? And if, somehow, you do all this, and you get to the other end, what if the secret police are waiting for you?
The program you are about to see is a document on human courage in seeking freedom. It is a first-hand report - filmed as the event took place - of the digging of a tunnel, and an escape, under the Wall that divides Berlin.
Some had come two hundred miles. All were strangers to this place. They came here past the �..armed People's Policemen on patrol…�.they went quietly down these cellar stairs by ladder down a shaft and stood fifteen feet below the surface of Schönholzer Strasse. There was a tunnel there, less than three-feet wide and three-feet high. Through this, they crawled�.one hundred and forty yards to West Berlin and a free future. I'm Piers Anderton, NBC News Berlin. And this is the story of those people and that tunnel.
What follows will have you on the edge of your seat. Written by BBC journalist, Helena Merriman, Tunnel 29, retells the story of Joachim Rudolph’s daring plan to dig a tunnel under the Berlin Wall and is based on a series of interviews with Joachim (now well into his eighties); and other men and women who participated in the most successful escape of the Cold War.
After the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, desperate Germans trapped inside East Germany tried many creative ways to escape to the West, often with deadly consequences � the guards had orders to shoot to kill. But every once in a while, a plan was so audacious and so skilfully executed that its plotters believed that with some extraordinary luck, they would make it to freedom. This was such a plan.
As a young boy, Joachim Rudolph took advantage of the ability to travel between the two sides of the city, leaving the East to enjoy the freer lifestyle in West. However, when the East German authorities erected the Berlin Wall, almost overnight life under the communist government became even more oppressive. So between the sliver of time between when the barbed wire was replaced with concrete barriers, engineering student, Joachim managed to escape and slipped from East to West with some friends. He became a student at the technical university in West Berlin, studying communications engineering. While at university he met two Italians, Luigi “Gigi� Spina and Domenico “Mimmo� Sesta, and together hatched a plant to dig a tunnel not from East to West, “as the border guards might predict,� but rather from West to East. Because Joachim was originally from the East he knew the landscape and, being an engineer, could construct a tunnel through which 29 freedom seekers would ultimately escape. The task was arduous. In a city crawling with spies and informants, the Stasi, one of the most powerful secret police forces on Earth, was primed to crush any efforts to flee the East and had mastered infiltrating every layer of society: neighbours informed on neighbours, parents on children, wives on husbands. Merriman, in addition to chronicling Rudolph’s story, cuts away to follow others, including the informant who nearly managed to expose the entire plot to the Stasi after he was caught smuggling contraband across the border and the NBC crew leader who found out about the diggers and recorded their efforts from start to finish
There is a journalistic saying - 'you can find the best stories lying around on the streets'. Tunnel 29, proves that sometimes the best stories lie underneath.
September 3, 2023
Un libro de no ficción en el que nos contará el cómo, el por qué, cuándo, las consecuencias , del muro de Berlín. Las reacciones de la oposición de los aliados y todo contado de una manera muy ágil y nada pesada aún tratándose de política.
.
La historia de personas que decidieron tener esperanza y ayudarse para lograr fugarse mediante un túnel, sabiendo el peligro que implicaba.
.
Una historia real , con una investigación documental exquisita , con narraciones heroicas, la autora aborda este tema con fechas y lugares exactos que te van a tener enganchada desde el principio hasta el mismo final.
.
Un tema con el que aprender más de esto hecho histórico , para conocer lugares y libros. Añado que hay un podcast que habla sobre esto, narrado también por la propia autora.
.
La historia de personas que decidieron tener esperanza y ayudarse para lograr fugarse mediante un túnel, sabiendo el peligro que implicaba.
.
Una historia real , con una investigación documental exquisita , con narraciones heroicas, la autora aborda este tema con fechas y lugares exactos que te van a tener enganchada desde el principio hasta el mismo final.
.
Un tema con el que aprender más de esto hecho histórico , para conocer lugares y libros. Añado que hay un podcast que habla sobre esto, narrado también por la propia autora.
July 5, 2021
Despite being familiar with this story (having read The Tunnels by Greg Mitchell), I found this narrative quite exciting. This was primarily from the perspective of Joachim Rudolph, the child of a farmer who survived WWII, but relocated to East Berlin after his father was captured by the Russians. Trapped in the East after the partition of Germany, Joachim eventually escapes to the West and joins an organization that helps would-be escapees. Their most ambitious project would be the titular tunnel, and it was quite a feat of engineering (good thing Joachim was an engineering student).
There are several periphery characters presented as well, like a Stasi informant, fellow students, and people desperate to get out of East Germany. Of course, there are the few people from NBC who are aware of the tunnel and are filming a documentary. Merriman also highlights some of the most famous escapees and the tensest moments of the Cold War. The storytelling is excellent, the writing is captivating, and Joachim is truly admirable.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.
There are several periphery characters presented as well, like a Stasi informant, fellow students, and people desperate to get out of East Germany. Of course, there are the few people from NBC who are aware of the tunnel and are filming a documentary. Merriman also highlights some of the most famous escapees and the tensest moments of the Cold War. The storytelling is excellent, the writing is captivating, and Joachim is truly admirable.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher.
January 21, 2023
"Tunnel 29" -- the story of an extraordinary escape from East to West Berlin -- is a testament to the resiliency of the human spirit. Hope springs eternal, and no Authoritarian regime, no matter how horrific, how cruel, or how oppressive it is, can override the quest for freedom, and the universal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Never, ever -- never never ever -- underestimate the powerful drive for liberty in an environment that seeks to restrict freedom of movement, of thought, of speech, of private property, of privacy, and of the simple need for common human decency.
A truly uplifting account. Highly recommend.
Never, ever -- never never ever -- underestimate the powerful drive for liberty in an environment that seeks to restrict freedom of movement, of thought, of speech, of private property, of privacy, and of the simple need for common human decency.
A truly uplifting account. Highly recommend.
August 20, 2022
Thrilling.
Read
November 7, 2022Such an extraordinary tale and Merriman makes it human as well as historical. I learned a lot and cheered for these young engineers even more.
February 7, 2023
¡Vaya libro, muy buena narración de este hecho histórico! …”Eso sí, todos tienen una cosa en común. Allí donde hay un muro, la gente hará lo posible por cruzarlo, ya sea por encima. ¡O por debajo!�
April 28, 2023
Ciekawa historia z czasów istnienia Muru Berlińskiego, oparta o wywiady, materiały prasowe, czy źródła Stasi, ale mocno poszatkowana. Krótkie rozdziały nie zawsze są dobre.
Mimo tego polecam przeczytać, bo niby o tym wiemy, ale fascynujące jest poznać ludzi którzy wykopali tunel, ludzi którzy nim uciekli i poznać ich uczucia.
Mimo tego polecam przeczytać, bo niby o tym wiemy, ale fascynujące jest poznać ludzi którzy wykopali tunel, ludzi którzy nim uciekli i poznać ich uczucia.
March 6, 2025
Learnt a lot
October 24, 2024
Made me extremely emotional!! Incredible amount of detail woven together to read like a work of fiction. Highly recommend.
February 7, 2022
#Tunnel29 � Helena Merriman
#hodderandstoughton
#jonathanball
In the winter of 1945 a young boy, Joachim Rudolph, fled the invading Russian forces on the East German countryside. What remained of his family, settled in Soviet controlled East Berlin. At 11 years of age, he became involved in smuggling operations between East and West Berlin, but nothing could prepare him, or the other residents of East Berlin, for what awaited them at first light of the morning of 13 August 1961: overnight the border between East and West were closed with barbed wire and armed guards; parents and children were separated, as were husband and wives. Stranger and more terrifying than any fiction. There were many stories of escapes � some ending in tragedy and some completely bizarre, like that of 77-year-old Frieda Schulze. Epic photographic evidence, existing to this day, shows her hanging upside down from the upstairs window of her house that formed part of the artificial border; East German soldiers trying to pull her back by her feet and West Germans trying to pull her to safety in the West.
During the night of 28 September 1961 Joachim Rudolph escaped to West Berlin. After mere months of freedom, he started digging a tunnel back to the East to provide an escape route for others. The tunnel originated in the basement of a house in Bernauer Strasse in the West and would end in the basement of another house in the East: 7 Schönholzer Strasse, 135m underground. It would consume 4 months of his life and cost many lives. This is his story. But not only his: there was also Siegfried Uhse, the young hairdresser who became a Stasi spy after being blackmailed about his homosexuality; it is also the story of The House of One Thousand Eyes, Walter Ulbrecht and Erich Mielke; Reuven Frank and his team at NBC who were secretly filming the progress of the tunnel and the planned escape (the film aired on 10 December 1962 after initially being banned); and the tragedy of Peter Fechter’s death. This young East German bricklayer merely wanted to see how close he could get to the wall. Young and reckless. He was shot by East German guards and lie dying, calling for help, next to the wall; the East refusing to help and the West not daring to, for fear of sparking World War Three.
The author interviewed survivors, including Joachim Rudolph, and searched through thousands of pages of Stasi documents to create the hit BBC Radio 4 podcast, ‘Tunnel 29�. This book is the result thereof. It narrates a powerful story of human compassion and dedication: Joachim had no-one in the East he needed to help escape; he could have walked away and carried on with his new life in the West, but he chose to take on the might of the East in challenging a wall of 96 miles long, fortified by armed patrols, trip wires, explosives and watchtowers. His name deserves to be known. And remembered. Although nonfiction, the book reads like an excellent spy novel, set during the Cold War. The tension remains palpable, and the reality of the text is confirmed by photographs and detailed accounts as to what happened to all the mayor role players after the wall came down in November 1989. It is recommended reading for lovers of history and readers interested in the Cold War and deserves 5 stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#Uitdieperdsebek
#hodderandstoughton
#jonathanball
In the winter of 1945 a young boy, Joachim Rudolph, fled the invading Russian forces on the East German countryside. What remained of his family, settled in Soviet controlled East Berlin. At 11 years of age, he became involved in smuggling operations between East and West Berlin, but nothing could prepare him, or the other residents of East Berlin, for what awaited them at first light of the morning of 13 August 1961: overnight the border between East and West were closed with barbed wire and armed guards; parents and children were separated, as were husband and wives. Stranger and more terrifying than any fiction. There were many stories of escapes � some ending in tragedy and some completely bizarre, like that of 77-year-old Frieda Schulze. Epic photographic evidence, existing to this day, shows her hanging upside down from the upstairs window of her house that formed part of the artificial border; East German soldiers trying to pull her back by her feet and West Germans trying to pull her to safety in the West.
During the night of 28 September 1961 Joachim Rudolph escaped to West Berlin. After mere months of freedom, he started digging a tunnel back to the East to provide an escape route for others. The tunnel originated in the basement of a house in Bernauer Strasse in the West and would end in the basement of another house in the East: 7 Schönholzer Strasse, 135m underground. It would consume 4 months of his life and cost many lives. This is his story. But not only his: there was also Siegfried Uhse, the young hairdresser who became a Stasi spy after being blackmailed about his homosexuality; it is also the story of The House of One Thousand Eyes, Walter Ulbrecht and Erich Mielke; Reuven Frank and his team at NBC who were secretly filming the progress of the tunnel and the planned escape (the film aired on 10 December 1962 after initially being banned); and the tragedy of Peter Fechter’s death. This young East German bricklayer merely wanted to see how close he could get to the wall. Young and reckless. He was shot by East German guards and lie dying, calling for help, next to the wall; the East refusing to help and the West not daring to, for fear of sparking World War Three.
The author interviewed survivors, including Joachim Rudolph, and searched through thousands of pages of Stasi documents to create the hit BBC Radio 4 podcast, ‘Tunnel 29�. This book is the result thereof. It narrates a powerful story of human compassion and dedication: Joachim had no-one in the East he needed to help escape; he could have walked away and carried on with his new life in the West, but he chose to take on the might of the East in challenging a wall of 96 miles long, fortified by armed patrols, trip wires, explosives and watchtowers. His name deserves to be known. And remembered. Although nonfiction, the book reads like an excellent spy novel, set during the Cold War. The tension remains palpable, and the reality of the text is confirmed by photographs and detailed accounts as to what happened to all the mayor role players after the wall came down in November 1989. It is recommended reading for lovers of history and readers interested in the Cold War and deserves 5 stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#Uitdieperdsebek
May 8, 2022
Tunnel 29 is non-fiction that reads like fiction. It's a historically jam-packed page turner that has a lot of heart, and a lot of heart break.
It seems unbelievable to think that a government would stop its citizens from leaving or returning to its country, then set up a system where they nark on each other for disobeying the communist government. Unbelievable, except I read this just after NZ had done something similar - barred us from leaving our homes, from citizens re-entering their country, separating families for years, and had set up a hotline system during lockdown to report any of our neighbours who were disobeying. Of course, Tunnel 29 documents much worse atrocities as things devolved in their country.
So I think the saddest part of this story is the ability the government's propaganda had to to turn human against human, friend against friend.
What was heartening, though, was how BRAVE people were. How they sacrificed their safety for others. I often think that people love a story about others being brave, but it's so hard to do in actuality.
Anyway, LOVED THIS (and hated that it ever happened).
It seems unbelievable to think that a government would stop its citizens from leaving or returning to its country, then set up a system where they nark on each other for disobeying the communist government. Unbelievable, except I read this just after NZ had done something similar - barred us from leaving our homes, from citizens re-entering their country, separating families for years, and had set up a hotline system during lockdown to report any of our neighbours who were disobeying. Of course, Tunnel 29 documents much worse atrocities as things devolved in their country.
So I think the saddest part of this story is the ability the government's propaganda had to to turn human against human, friend against friend.
What was heartening, though, was how BRAVE people were. How they sacrificed their safety for others. I often think that people love a story about others being brave, but it's so hard to do in actuality.
Anyway, LOVED THIS (and hated that it ever happened).
March 2, 2022
It's rare that a book forces me to continue reading. Many are interesting, I enjoy them, but reading more the next night works too. Not this one. I forced myself to put it down to sleep. The story is compelling enough, but the way author Merriman tells it makes it even more so.
I wonder how many of you reading this are under 40, thinking to yourself, "Escape beneath the Berlin Wall? What wall?"
You will enjoy the book, but more importantly, in this time of walls meant to seperate people, you need to read this.
I wonder how many of you reading this are under 40, thinking to yourself, "Escape beneath the Berlin Wall? What wall?"
You will enjoy the book, but more importantly, in this time of walls meant to seperate people, you need to read this.
November 1, 2021
i don’t use this word very often to describe books but trust that when i say “gripping� i mean G R I P P I N G.
author helena merriman did an incredible job � it’s a hefty task to try and condense so many stories into one narrative, but she pulls it off splendidly, not only with a helluva lot of compassion and empathy, but also some serious skill.
upon finishing it i scrambled to google everything about it and hell fkin yes it’s being made into a tv series. honestly, if the screen version is even half as good as the book is, it’ll definitely be something worth watching.
author helena merriman did an incredible job � it’s a hefty task to try and condense so many stories into one narrative, but she pulls it off splendidly, not only with a helluva lot of compassion and empathy, but also some serious skill.
upon finishing it i scrambled to google everything about it and hell fkin yes it’s being made into a tv series. honestly, if the screen version is even half as good as the book is, it’ll definitely be something worth watching.
July 2, 2023
Long, winding sentence. Long, winding sentence. Short, snappy sentence. End chapter.
Helena Merriman sits back in her chair with folded arms, a wry smile spreading across her chapped lips. 'I've done it again!' she thinks, taking a well-deserved sip from a glass of water, 'Now they'll have no choice but to read on!'
And that's when the Tyrannosaurus rex knocks down her front door.
Helena Merriman sits back in her chair with folded arms, a wry smile spreading across her chapped lips. 'I've done it again!' she thinks, taking a well-deserved sip from a glass of water, 'Now they'll have no choice but to read on!'
And that's when the Tyrannosaurus rex knocks down her front door.
November 27, 2022
Me encantó.
Aprendí y recordé por qué me gusta tanto este género.
Aprendí y recordé por qué me gusta tanto este género.
January 5, 2023
Fascinating story following people trying to escape East Berlin for West Berlin. The book tells the story from several perspectives including the people looking to escape, the people trying to help them escape and even a spy working against them from the Stasi.(Stasi are the police in East Berlin working to stop and punish people trying to leave)
I grew up being aware of the strange circumstances of a city divided by a wall and the tension at that wall over the cold war but never heard the stories of how it tore families apart with husbands and wives on opposite sides and even parents separated from their children.
In Tunnel 29, Helena Merriman does a great job of keeping the reader on the edge of their seat as tension builds towards the big planned escape.
I certainly loved reading about the heroes risking their lives to help people escape but the most incredible part was about the spies turning in their friends and neighbors. When the wall finally came down Germany started to release the "Stasi" files which gave people a chance to see their files and find out who spied on them. In many cases people were heartbroken to find it was their good friends and even relatives that were betraying them.
"When you talk to people who lived behind the Wall, it's these personal betrayals that seem to have caused the deepest hurt: children betrayed by parents, parents betrayed by children, friend betrayed by friend".
I grew up being aware of the strange circumstances of a city divided by a wall and the tension at that wall over the cold war but never heard the stories of how it tore families apart with husbands and wives on opposite sides and even parents separated from their children.
In Tunnel 29, Helena Merriman does a great job of keeping the reader on the edge of their seat as tension builds towards the big planned escape.
I certainly loved reading about the heroes risking their lives to help people escape but the most incredible part was about the spies turning in their friends and neighbors. When the wall finally came down Germany started to release the "Stasi" files which gave people a chance to see their files and find out who spied on them. In many cases people were heartbroken to find it was their good friends and even relatives that were betraying them.
"When you talk to people who lived behind the Wall, it's these personal betrayals that seem to have caused the deepest hurt: children betrayed by parents, parents betrayed by children, friend betrayed by friend".
February 26, 2024
One of those stories that just sounds way too insane to be true but absolutely is.
June 2, 2024
Fascinating true story about the escape of 29 East Germans in 1962.
February 15, 2025
This one was a true page turner once it got going, and a super interesting, moving, and inspiring story. I don’t know a ton about the Cold War and Berlin Wall so this was really interesting to me. I highly recommend it!
February 25, 2024
Astonishing and important!
December 29, 2021
> How much did NBC pay the diggers? The real answer is $12,000, which paid for five tons of steel for the rail in the tunnel, a VW van, electric cables and bulbs, pumps to suck out water, compressors and pipes to bring fresh air in, pulleys, ropes and motors for the cart, and lastly, several months� worth of tea, coffee and sandwiches.
> a State Department spokesman said that the NBC film is ‘not in the national interest�, that it’s ‘risky, irresponsible, undesirable and contrary to the best interests of the United States�.
> five days later, Khrushchev caved in, agreeing to dismantle every single one of his missiles in Cuba. It was a victory for Kennedy, the man who’d done so little when the Berlin Wall was built. The ‘boy in short pants� had learnt from that experience, shown he could stand up to Khrushchev.
> a State Department spokesman said that the NBC film is ‘not in the national interest�, that it’s ‘risky, irresponsible, undesirable and contrary to the best interests of the United States�.
> five days later, Khrushchev caved in, agreeing to dismantle every single one of his missiles in Cuba. It was a victory for Kennedy, the man who’d done so little when the Berlin Wall was built. The ‘boy in short pants� had learnt from that experience, shown he could stand up to Khrushchev.
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