# Berlin Wall Tunnels **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 22, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berlin-wall-tunnels/696243 "2014-08-22T22:04:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berlin-wall-tunnels/696243/1 "2014-08-22T22:04:52Z")
According to [this](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/secret-tunnels-that-brought-freedom-from-berlins-wall-1804765.html), there were 70+ tunnels dug under the Berlin Wall that allowed East Germans to sneak into West Germany. Compared to the tunnels that were dug from Gaza into Israel, these were fairly short distances and could be dug in a few weeks. My question is, why weren’t there more tunnels dug and more people smuggled from east to west? If they could dig 70 tunnels, why not dig 100 or 200? I understand the risks they were taking in digging these tunnels, but that risk seems small compared to trying to scale the wall itself on foot or using a hot air balloon as some tried to do. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berlin-wall-tunnels/696243/2 "2014-08-22T22:57:14Z")
According to your own cite > [@](#): > > Often tunnels were discovered before they could be used by the border troops or the Stasi, East Germany’s dreaded secret police. Others collapsed, were flooded by groundwater or buried by loose soil. > > “Altogether, we have counted 71 tunnel projects and 20 per cent 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. “Most tunnels were dug from the West to the East, often by men who had already fled to the West and who were now trying to get the rest of their families out of East Germany,” Mr Arnold told visitors recently. People tried, and 80% of the time the tunnels collapsed or flooded. Don’t forget, \*there’s a river that runs right through the middle of Berlin. \*That’s going to complicate tunnel digging. Besides, the article only says they identified 71 projects. There may have been hundreds more attempts that haven’t been catalogued. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berlin-wall-tunnels/696243/3 "2014-08-22T22:57:16Z")
Ninjaed. ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berlin-wall-tunnels/696243/4 "2014-08-22T23:07:06Z")
And keep in mind that the Stasi had people working on the issue on both sides of the border. So you had to find and coordinate two suitable secret end points and then dig the tunnels in complete secrecy while being a sitting duck. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2014, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/berlin-wall-tunnels/696243/5 "2014-08-23T01:14:21Z")
I will declare myself an expert on this, having totally read stuff about the Stasi and actually visited the Stasi Museum in Berlin. And I wrote a report on the Stasi. It was like, 30 pages and everything! (Yes, I did those things, and yes, I’m being self-deprecating and not claiming any actual expertise.) Basically, the Berlin Wall was nearly impenetrable. It was actually something of a frightening marvel of modern technology, and many further upgrades were planned. Also, don’t forget that the Wall was simply most noticeable in Berlin. It was simply an isolated portion of a similar border which divided the entirety of Germany. Getting across this border in any fashion that wasn’t approved of by the DDR government was nigh-impossible, so people just didn’t try. Attempts were rare and unwise. Remember that this was an extreme totalitarian government which tried to know everything about its citizens at all times: just being near the border if you didn’t have very good reason to and official permission was dangerous. The regime moved even moved people away from it and had internal spies watching for anyone who went close to it. Plus, freedom of movement just didn’t exist within the DDR, so it was hard to even get near the border in the first place. Plus, most of the border had an “advantage” over Berlin’s Wall, in that the DDR was a lot more free to put mines and other traps to kill an incapacitate. Going near it could be suicidal. About as many people died as escaped over it. Berlin, then, became something of a preferred point for people trying to sneak out. Because it was the capital and largest city, there were a lot of people living there. If you didn’t live there, it was often possible move. It had a decent internal transit system so you could get around even without a car, and there was regular trade and traffic through the Wall. Tunnels were an option for people who couldn’t fix a way to sneak through. But they were very difficult, especially later as the DDR got better at preventing it. Remember that this is a society with no privacy, in the capital city of the DDR and mere miles from the secret police HQ. (The HQ is very nice. Looks deliberately like a quiet apartment complex. It also had files on essentially _everyone_ in East Germany.) **The Stasi turned around 10% of the entire country into secret informants.** Which meant that statistically you were likely to run a Stasi agent if you went past five people on your way to the bus stop, and they were thicker in Berlin that anywhere else. So it was very, very hard to do anything they didn’t know about. Building a tunnel required many people working together, over a decent stretch of time and perhaps getting some tools and machinery. It just wasn’t easy to do all that without attracting notice. Plus, you had to have access to a location in East Berlin that could serve a meeting place and hide your tunnel, and you’d better believe that everywhere near the border was closely monitored. And yet, people kept trying. They mostly didn’t have high political ideals; they just wanted a better life and a chance to breathe a little easier. Wikipedia has some excellent pages on the German borders. > **[Berlin Wall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall)** > > The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer, pronounced \[bɛʁˌliːnɐ ˈmaʊ̯ɐ\] (listen)) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic (GDR)\[a\]. Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government of the GDR on 13 August 1961. It included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, accompanied by a wide area (later known as the "death strip") t The S... > **[Inner German border](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_German_border)** > > Border Troops of the German Democratic Republic > National People's Army > Stasi > Volkspolizei > > Bundesgrenzschutz > Bundeszollverwaltung > Bayerische Grenzpolizei > British Army > British Frontier Service > US Army The inner German border (German: innerdeutsche Grenze or deutsch–deutsche Grenze; initially also Zonengrenze) was the frontier between the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, West Germany) from 1949 to 1990. De jure not including the s... > **[Escape attempts and victims of the inner German border](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_attempts_and_victims_of_the_inner_German_border)** > > There were numerous escape attempts and victims of the inner German border during its 45 years of existence from 1945 to 1990. > Between 1945 and 1988, around 4 million East Germans migrated to the West. 3.454 million of them left between 1945 and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The great majority simply walked across the border or, after 1952, exited through West Berlin. After the border was fortified and the Berlin Wall was constructed, the number of illegal border crossings fell dr...