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

Tunnel 29: Love, Espionage and Betrayal: the True Story of an Extraordinary Escape Beneath the Berlin Wall by Helena Merriman recounts a real-life escape attempt connected to the Berlin Wall. Set in the summer of 1962, it follows Joachim Rudolph, a student who has escaped from one of the world’s most brutal regimes and then chooses to tunnel back in.

On the East Berlin side, dozens of men, women and children wait for a chance to flee, prepared to risk everything. Created by the award-winning maker of the BBC Radio 4 podcast Tunnel 29, the book draws on hundreds of hours of interviews with survivors and thousands of pages of Stasi documents to present the story behind what is described as the most remarkable escape tunnel dug under the Wall.

Key details

• Author: Helena Merriman
• True story centred on an escape tunnel beneath the Berlin Wall
• Set in summer 1962, involving student Joachim Rudolph
• Based on interviews with survivors and Stasi documents
• By the award-winning creator of the BBC Radio 4 podcast Tunnel 29

Synopsis

Joachim Rudolph, having escaped a brutal regime, returns to dig a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. Dozens of people in East Berlin wait on the other side, ready to attempt an escape. The account draws on extensive survivor interviews and Stasi records, and includes an ingenious group of student-diggers, a glamorous red-haired messenger, an American news network that films the escape, and a Stasi spy who betrays it.