Tunnel 29
Page 31
Seven-tonne dump truck: Kempe, Berlin 1961, 405.
One day before her birthday: Hertle and Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 37.
‘The blood stain’: PdVP-Rapport Nr 234, 23.8.1961 in PHS, Bestand PdVP-Rapporte, Archive-No. 8037, Bl. 8.
‘Violating the laws’: Hertle, The Berlin Wall Story, 53.
‘ULBRICHT’S HUMAN HUNTERS’: BZ newspaper, 25 August 1961.
One last time: Kempe, Berlin 1961, 366.
Making notes of future trouble-makers: Hertle and Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 25.
CHAPTER 17
‘Oh man. The clouds’: Author interview with Joachim Rudolph.
CHAPTER 18
Stone has fallen: In my interview with Joachim, he used a beautiful German expression to describe this moment: ‘Mir fällt ein Stein vom Herzen’, which means ‘a stone fell from my heart’.
‘The Free World’: Richie, Faust’s Metropolis, 715.
For Berlin is: One of the spies working in West Berlin when Joachim and Manfred arrive is David Cornwall, an intelligence officer who was writing his first book under his pseudonym, John le Carré. As George Smiley, his best-loved character, described Berlin: ‘the place is a total minefield… even the damn cats are wired’.
CHAPTER 19
Siegfried clutches his bag: Stasi report, 29 September 1961, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/00016.
He must reach a target: Richie, Faust’s Metropolis, 763.
‘Breathing organs’: Ernst Wollweber, ‘Schlusswort auf der Dienstkonferenz in der Bezirksverwaltung Halle am 15.5.1957’, cited in Müller-Enbergs, Die Inoffiziellen Mitarbeiter (MfS-Handbuch) (Berlin, 2008), 5.
65 per cent of church leaders: Interview with former Stasi official, quoted in Funder, Stasiland, 197.
Into the ZAIG: Richie, Faust’s Metropolis, 764.
One informant per: Koehler, Stasi, 9.
CHAPTER 20
Over two hundred kilometres: BStU / MfS (Stasi Archives)
The first report: Stasi report, 2 October 1961, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/00016.
‘101-point system’: Richie, Faust’s Metropolis, 763.
Letter of commitment: Stasi report, 30 September 1961, BStU / MfS AIM 133347 / 64.
‘I, Siegfried Uhse’: Ibid.
A few days later: Stasi report, 13 November 1961, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/64.
CHAPTER 21
Evi and Peter sit: Details of this meeting from author interview with Evi Rudolph.
Like a caged animal: From interview with Mimmo Sesta in Der Tunnel, dir. Marcus Vetter, 1999.
Felt the Wall looming: From author interview with Evi Rudolph.
Over eight thousand had escaped: Hertle, The Berlin Wall Story, 106.
Walter and Wilhelm: Stasi file on Eveline Rudolph, BStU / MfS 0202. Hauptabteilung II/5.
‘Friends visiting’: Ibid.
CHAPTER 22
Glad of the coat: Author interview with Joachim Rudolph.
Lowest birth rates: Taylor, The Berlin Wall, 357.
Eventually, after an hour: Hertle and Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 63.
CHAPTER 23
Stands in front: The details of this meeting with Bodo Köhler come from Siegfried Uhse’s Stasi report dated 19 March 1962, BStU / MfS AIM 13337 / 64.
Escape networks in West Berlin: Anweisung Nr 1/60 des Ministers für Staatssicherheit v. 4.5.1960; BStU, MfS, MdL/Dok., Nr 3499, documented in Damian van Melis and Henrik Bispinck (eds.), “Republikflucht”: Flucht und Abwanderung aus der SBZ/DDR 1945 bis 1961 (Munich: Oldenbourg, 2006), 215.
Two hundred Stasi officers: Koehler, Stasi, 148.
In the morning: Details from interview with Joan Glenn in the Stanford Daily, 10 October 1962.
Yet Joan kept going: As Joan would later say in an interview, ‘We were a little blind to any danger. We wanted to help. I know this sounds naïve but when you are asked for help by one of the East Germans it is impossible to say no.’
The Stasi report: Stasi report dated 19 March 1962, BStU / MfS AIM 13337 / 64.
CHAPTER 24
Wolf gets hold of some: Author interview with Wolf Schroedter.
Just as it sinks in: Ibid.
Tidy up after themselves: Luigi Spina interview in Der Tunnel, dir. Marcus Vetter, 1999.
Mimmo who has the idea: Interview with Mimmo Sesta and Luigi Spina in Der Tunnel, dir. Marcus Vetter, 1999.
CHAPTER 25
Arriving at the factory: Author interview with Joachim Rudolph.
Taking it in turns: Author interview with Joachim Rudolph; Wolf Schroedter in NBC Film The Tunnel, broadcast 10 December 1962.
CHAPTER 26
Hundreds of gravestones: Author interview with Joachim Rudolph and Uli Pfeiffer.
He was arrested: Profile on Berlin Wall Memorial Site: www.berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de/en/hasso-herschel-789.html.
‘One of these days’: Interview with Hasso Herschel in Der Tunnel, dir. Marcus Vetter, 1999.
Uli was born in Berlin: Author interview with Ulrich (Uli) Pfeiffer.
‘All the cells in the human body’: Author interview with Ulrich (Uli) Pfeiffer.
CHAPTER 27
Revealing sticks of dynamite: Interview with Hasso Herschel in Der Tunnel, dir. Marcus Vetter, 1999.
CHAPTER 28
Looks across the table: Stasi report dated 22 May 1962, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/64 (000152).
‘He is a very friendly’: Stasi report dated 5 April 1962, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/64 (000091).
‘He has an open mind’: Stasi report dated 10 April 1962, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/64 Part II/1 (000118).
Siegfried tells Lehmann: Stasi report dated 22 May 1962, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/64 (000152).
‘It was the right thing’: Ibid.
CHAPTER 29
‘Four Blasts in 15 Minutes’: New York Times, 27 May 1962.
Along with sandbags: Mitchell, The Tunnels, 65.
‘I intended this signal’: Hertle, The Berlin Wall Story, 80.
CHAPTER 31
Reuven Frank took his seat: Frank, Out of Thin Air, 172.
‘Open with a shot’: Frank, Out of Thin Air, 30.
‘What a wonderful way’: Frank, Out of Thin Air, 30.
‘Transmission of experience’: Frank, Out of Thin Air, 181.
9 per cent of households: ‘Number of TV Households in America: 1950–1978’; http://www.tvhistory.tv/Annual_TV_Households_50-78.JPG, The American Century, https://americancentury.omeka.wlu.edu/items/show/136.
‘They’ve closed the border’: Frank, Out of Thin Air, 172.
‘Every news story should’: Frank, Out of Thin Air, 182.
‘If you find something interesting’: Frank, Out of Thin Air, 173.
CHAPTER 32
Every time they heard: Letter from Piers Anderton in Reuven Frank Papers, Tufts University.
‘Those swine shot me’: This was twenty-seven-year-old Heinz Jercha – a butcher and father. Details from Hertle and Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 74.
They could smoke away: Wolf Schroedter interview, as well as Sesta, Der Tunnel in die Freiheit, 43–47.
Front-page scoop: Der Spiegel, ‘Escape Through the Wall’, March 1962.
Stick a sign on it: Associated Press article, 12 May 1962.
‘Talk about realism’: LA Times article, 21 May 1962.
Impressed but scared: Author interview with Wolf Schroedter.
Fiddling with the bolt: Piers Anderton letter dated 24 July 1988 in Reuven Frank Papers, Tufts University.
CHAPTER 33
‘I’ve got to talk’: Frank, Out of Thin Air, 193, and Piers Anderton letter in Reuven Frank Papers, Tufts University.
‘That’s crazy!’: Interview with Reuven Frank, Newseum.
CHAPTER 34
A small fibreboard case: Letter from NBC Chief, Robert Kintner, to Dean Rusk, 20 November 1962 (Reuven Frank Papers).
Lies on his stomach: Piers Anderton letter to Reuven Frank, 24 July 1988, Reuven Frank Papers.
Film
the rest of the operation: Frank, Out of Thin Air, 195.
CHAPTER 35
Siegfried closes the door: Stasi report, 25 June 1962, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/64 Part II/1.
Siegfried gets a phone call: Stasi report, 30 June 1962, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/64 Part II/1.
‘The Secret Collaborator’: Stasi report, 30 June 1962, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/64 Part II/1.
They shot him: This was twenty-two-year-old Siegfried Noffke.
CHAPTER 36
Hundreds of stove pipes: Author interview with Joachim Rudolph.
$7,500 down his trousers: Piers Anderton letter in Reuven Frank Papers, Tufts University.
CHAPTER 37
‘Report on the Schmidt family’: Stasi report, 20 June 1962, BStU / MfS 0202 Hauptabteilung II/5.
CHAPTER 38
Piers Anderton is lying in: Piers Anderton letter, 24 July 1988, in Reuven Frank Papers, Tufts University.
‘The East Germans are swines’: The Tunnel, NBC, broadcast 10 December 1962.
‘Only a fool’: Frank, ‘The Making of the Tunnel’, 14.
Never tell anyone: Letter from NBC Chief Robert Kintner to Dean Rusk, 20 November 1962.
CHAPTER 39
Joachim is soaked: Details in this chapter are drawn from author interviews with Joachim Rudolph, Uli Pfeiffer and Wolf Schroedter.
Smuggling them over: Munkel, State Security, 144.
‘We’ve seen water’: Mimmo Sesta interview in Der Tunnel, dir. Marcus Vetter, 1999.
‘Wall of Shit’: Interview with Deutschlandfunk Radio on 20 August 2015.
Mimmo and Gigi: Interview with Luigi Sesta in Der Tunnel, dir. Marcus Vetter, 1999.
CHAPTER 40
Blotted out West Berlin: Richie, Faust’s Metropolis, 727.
CHAPTER 41
Wolfdieter lies on her bed: Details in this chapter drawn from author interviews with Wolfdieter and Renate Sternheimer.
CHAPTER 42
Renate leaves Ostkreuz: Author interview with Renate Sternheimer.
A few streets away: Author interview with Wolfdieter Sternheimer.
Joan seemed emotionally cold: Siegfried Uhse handwritten letter, 20 July 1962 BStU / MfS (000174).
Siegfried had even been asked: Stasi Meeting Report, 27 July 1962, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/64 Part II/1 (000177).
Buzzes at a tall brown door: Stasi Meeting Report, 6 August 1962, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/64 Part II/I (000186).
CHAPTER 43
Renate sits in her bathroom: Author interview with Renate Sternheimer.
Siegfried’s head is full: Stasi Meeting Report, 7 August at 1 p.m., BStU / MfS Abteilung II/3 (0054).
Wolfdieter stands at the meeting point: Author interview with Wolfdieter Sternheimer.
In an abandoned building: Mitchell, The Tunnels, 134.
His second bag: Author interview with Joachim Rudolph.
Eighty metres to: Measurement taken from Stasi Report on Kiefholzstrasse tunnel, 10 August 1962, BStU / MfS 0018.
Waited in a bush: Stasi report, 7 August 1962, BStU / MfS Department VII / 1553 (0057).
One man approaches: Stasi Report on Kiefholzstrasse tunnel, 8 August 1962, Department II, 0064.
Evi, Peter and their toddler: Author interview with Evi Schmidt.
The Stasi follow them: Stasi Report on Kiefholzstrasse tunnel, 7 August 1962, Department XIII, BStU / MfS (0062).
‘I feel sick’: Stasi Report on Kiefholzstrasse tunnel, 7 August 1962, Department XIII, BStU / MfS (0066).
From over the Wall: Letter from Robert Kintner to Dean Rusk, 20 November 1962, Reuven Frank Papers.
Hacking into the floorboards: Author interview with Joachim Rudolph.
At precisely this moment: Author interview with Wolfdieter Sternheimer.
Back at the house: Stasi Report on Kiefholzstrasse tunnel, 7 August 1962, Department XIII, BStU / MfS (0066).
In his brightly lit cell: Author interview with Wolfdieter Sternheimer.
CHAPTER 44
Wolfdieter sits in the van: The information in this chapter comes from my interviews with Wolfdieter Sternheimer as well as from the excellent Hohenschönhausen Memorial, both its online site and the museum in the former prison.
A Stasi file: Stasi report, 8 August 1962, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/64 Part II/I (000196).
It starts with: Wolfdieter Sternheimer interrogation, August 1962, BStU / MfS, 13337/64 part II/1 (000203).
They sent a dog: Stasi report, 8 August 1962, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/64 Part II/I (000098).
They noted the tools: Stasi report, 8 August 1962, BStU / MfS AIM 13337/64 Part II/I (0075).
Spread false rumours: Munkel, State Security, 128.
No idea if: Author interview with Wolfdieter Sternheimer.
‘Your statements are’: Edith Sendler interrogation, August 1962, BStU / MfS, 13337/64 part II/1 (000216).
CHAPTER 45
Siegfried is nervous: Stasi report, 12 August 1962, BStU / MfS, 13337/64 part II/1 (000214).
CHAPTER 46
Looks at his watch: Author interview with Joachim Rudolph.
CHAPTER 47
Wolfdieter lies in bed: Author interview with Wolfdieter Sternheimer.
Single shot to the neck: Koehler, Stasi, 18–19.
Sells products made in its prisons: Munkel, State Security, 128.
‘Red light radiation’: Munkel, State Security, 124.
Renate has never forgotten that: Author interview with Renate Sternheimer.
CHAPTER 48
Joachim lies back: Author interview with Joachim Rudolph.
They would talk politics: Frank, Out of Thin Air, 194.
Scrambling over the: Hertle and Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 102.
‘Mr President’: Wyden, Wall, 273.
‘He is dead’: Ahonen, Death at the Berlin Wall, 55.
‘The matter has’: Wyden, Wall, 273.
‘Protecting power’: Ahonen, Death at the Berlin Wall, 56.
They knew that: Hertle, The Berlin Wall Story, 83.
Monitor everyone: Ahonen, Death at the Berlin Wall, 60.
‘The life of each’: Schwarzer Kanal, DDR-Fernsehen, 27 August 1962.
CHAPTER 49
Claus went to the border: From Claus and Inge Stürmer interviews in Der Tunnel, dir. Marcus Vetter, 1999.
Wolf is on the road: Author interview with Wolf Schroedter.
CHAPTER 50
‘Remember,’ says Reuven: Frank, Out of Thin Air, 195.
General Clay thought Kennedy: Smyser, Kennedy and the Berlin Wall, 128.
‘Shelters: How Soon’: Time magazine, 20 October 1961.
The Americans switched on: Cate, The Ides of August, 482.
Ordering four submarines: Taylor, The Berlin Wall, 283.
Most dangerous moment: William Kaufman, a Kennedy administration strategist who advised on both Berlin and Cuba said: ‘Berlin was the worst moment of the Cold War… although I was deeply involved in the Cuban Missile Crisis, I personally thought that the Berlin confrontation… where you had Soviet and US tanks literally facing one another with guns pointed was a more dangerous situation.’ Interview with Professor William Kaufmann, National Security Archive, George Washington University.
Neither wanted the situation: General Clay’s analysis as quoted in Smyser, Kennedy and the Berlin Wall, 142.
CHAPTER 51
A forty-year-old: Hertle and Nooke, The Victims at the Berlin Wall, 110.
CHAPTER 52
The Stasi informant: Stasi report from ‘Wilhelm’, 20 September 1962, BStU / MfS 0232.
CHAPTER 53
She feels safe: Author interview with Ellen Sesta.
CHAPTER 54
They’re learning more: Stasi report, 13 August 1962, BStU / MfS, Division II (000214).
CHAPTER 55
Corner of Café Bristol: Author interview with Ellen Sesta; see also Sesta, Der Tunnel in die Freiheit, 180.
CHAPTER 56
A coded message: Frank, Out of Thin Air, 196.
&n
bsp; Ellen lies in bed: Author interview with Ellen Sesta.
CHAPTER 57
She wakes with: Author interview with Ellen Sesta.
Evi comes running: Author interview with Eveline Rudolph and Evi’s grandfather’s interrogation in Stasi report, 27 September 1962, BStU / MfS 0264.
Noticed how strange: Stasi report, 17 September 1962, BStU / MfS 0228.
Peter puts on thick underpants: Interview with Peter Schmidt in Der Tunnel, dir. Marcus Vetter, 1999.
Zooms in over: The Tunnel, NBC, broadcast 10 December 1962.
Threaten to leave: Author interview with Uli Pfeiffer.
Uli says no: Author interview with Uli Pfeiffer.
But in that moment: Author interview with Joachim Rudolph.
Holding a newspaper: Author interview with Ellen Sesta; see also Sesta, Der Tunnel in die Freiheit, 200.
An hour later: Author interview with Evi Rudolph.
Ducking down into the tunnel: Author interview with Joachim Rudolph.
Hasso steadies his hand: Interview with Hasso Herschel in Der Tunnel, dir. Marcus Vetter, 1999.