Tunnel 29: Getting around the most infamous fortification in the world

Helena Merriman’s new book is the true story of how a group of Wast Germans dug their way under the Berlin Wall in 1962

A West Berlin citizen peers over the top of the Berlin Wall in 1964, three years after it was built. Picture: Getty

HISTORY

Tunnel 29: Love, Espionage and Betrayal: The True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall

By Helena Merriman

Hodder & Stoughton, €20.25

On the morning of August 13, 1961, Berliners woke up to a terrifying new reality. Shortly after midnight and without warning, East Germany’s communist government had started erecting barbed wire along the city’s east-west border. By 6am, families and communities were divided by the closure of 68 crossing points and ...