{"id":3071,"date":"2021-08-25T22:33:31","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T20:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.alm.smithberlin.com\/?post_type=object&p=3071"},"modified":"2024-10-07T12:08:52","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T10:08:52","slug":"the-berlin-spy-tunnel","status":"publish","type":"object","link":"https:\/\/www.alliiertenmuseum.de\/en\/objekt\/the-berlin-spy-tunnel\/","title":{"rendered":"The Berlin spy tunnel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Berlin spy tunnel represents one of the most fascinating intelligence operations of the early Cold War period. From 1953 to 1955, the American CIA and the British SIS collaborated in planning and constructing a secret tunnel with the aim of tapping Soviet military communications. With a length of approximately 430 meters, it ran from the Rudow district in Berlin\u2019s American sector to Altglienicke in the Soviet sector. Between May 1955 and April 1956, the Americans and British tapped into more than 400,000 Soviet Army telephone conversations and a large volume of telegraph communications.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Interior
Restored segment of the spy tunnel in the Allied Museum\u2019s permanent exhibition, 2019 (AlliiertenMuseum\/Eberle u. Eisfeld)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A SEN­SA­TIONAL FIND IN PASE­WALK<\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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After its discovery by a special communications unit of the Soviet Armed Forces in April 1956, the Berlin spy tunnel caused a stir internationally. In autumn 1956 the circa 300-meter-long tunnel segment on East Berlin territory was removed. The remaining segments on the West Berlin side were forgotten. That changed in 1997, when the Allied Museum had a ca. seven-meter-long section of the \u201cwalking gallery\u201d (Laufstollen) excavated and removed for restoration and exhibition. There was no information on the whereabouts of the GDR tunnel segment\u2014 until 2012.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI believe there are sections of the Berlin spy tunnel in Pasewalk forest,\u201d Werner Sobolewski told the Allied Museum\u2019s tunnel expert Bernd von Kostka in a telephone conversation of early August 2012. After the first excavation on West Berlin territory in 1997 and a subsequent one in 2005, Kostka had no longer dared to hope for such a tip. The very next day the historian traveled to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and realized when he got there that the find indeed contained sections of the legendary tunnel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Rusted
Segment of the spy tunnel in the forest near Pasewalk, 2012 (AlliiertenMuseum\/ Chodan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"View
Segments of the spy tunnel filled with earth in the forest near Pasewalk, 2012 (AlliiertenMuseum\/ Chodan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Segments
The transport with segments of the spy tunnel from Pasewalk arrives in Berlin, 2013 (AlliiertenMuseum\/Chodan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Parts
Storing segments of the spy tunnel from Pasewalk in an Allied Museum storage depot, 2013 (AlliiertenMuseum\/Chodan)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Research revealed that engineering units of the GDR National People\u2019s Army had been charged with removing the tunnel segments in the Soviet sector in 1956. The army engineers recognized that they could be useful for their own military work. And that is how a number of segments came to be repurposed as shelters and command centers for exercises. After German reunification in 1990 some of them remained in the ground, and this was the case in Pasewalk. In collaboration with the historic monuments protection authority and the office responsible for Pasewalk Forest, the Allied Museum had these tunnel segments salvaged in December 2012. They are now in the Museum\u2019s depot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Now, 56 years after its discovery, the intriguing history of the Berlin spy tunnel has been expanded to include the fascinating episode of its \u201creuse\u201d in the GDR. Only now can the story be told in its entirety as a chapter of the Cold War. The Allied Museum is the only institution in the world to possess original segments of the tunnel, one of which can be seen in the permanent exhibition. It is one of the absolute highlights for visitors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cold War underground: The history of the Berlin spy tunnel and a spectacular discovery in provincial Mecklenburg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/www.alliiertenmuseum.de\/?post_type=object&p=283","_featured_caption":"","_featured_caption_checkbox":false,"_featured_alt":"","_pinkie_id":812,"_pinkie_caption":false,"_pinkie_alt":"View of the spy tunnel in the exhibition.","footnotes":"","_post-color":[]},"collection":[],"class_list":["post-3071","object","type-object","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","en-US"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Berlin spy tunnel - AlliiertenMuseum<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We present the history of the Berlin spy tunnel in our permanent exhibition, a highlight of our Cold War collection.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.alliiertenmuseum.de\/en\/objekt\/the-berlin-spy-tunnel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Berlin spy tunnel - 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