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Short-Lived Walls Can Have Lasting Trauma
- The Berlin Wall was short-lived compared with ancient walls but deeply traumatized Berlin's social fabric in just 30 years.
- It split families, drove skilled people away, and reshaped the city's psyche long after its construction.
Student Tunnelers Under The Wall
- Rolf Kabbisch joined a student team that dug narrow, exhausting tunnels under the Berlin Wall using spades and wheelbarrows.
- They lived in a bakery basement, hid power usage, and moved roughly 200 cubic meters of soil to reach East Berlin.
Soil Dictated Where Tunnels Were Possible
- Berlin's geology made tunneling usually difficult, but clay pockets created rare self-supporting zones ideal for digging.
- The students exploited one such clay area near the bakery, which explained why tunneling was feasible there.