Tunnel 29
Summary with vocab
I listened to Tunnel 29 on Radio 4 a few years ago and was blown away. My son was a baby and me and Alessandro listened to it in the evenings. We’d put Alex to sleep, creep outof the bedroom and then put on an episode, listening to it while we pottered arounddoing other things. It was a nice change from watching telly and we were completely hooked.
It’s aremarkabletrue story about a young man that digs atunnelunder the Berlin Wall. It is presented and produced by Helena Merriman, a broadcast journalist that spent a year in Berlin interviewing people, namely Joachim - the 22 year oldprotagonist.There are ten episodes in total and I’ve decided to summarise the first one. I’d recommend listening to it first beforereading on.
It’s the summer of 1961 and Joachim is having ablastwith his friends. They are at a campsite, swimming and sunbathing during the day and dancing and drinking beer at night. However, one morning everything changes. They are woken up by an announcement onloudspeakers.It was hard to understand what was being said but they managed tomake outthat the east Berlin government were going to close the border between east and west Berlin.
At the end of the second world war, Germany was divided in half. The Soviet Union got the eastern half and Britain, the US and France got the western half. The problem was that people were leaving east Germanyin swathesand not returning. The communist government decided to that they had to act so they made theunbelievabledecision oflockingthe inhabitantsin.
In the dead of night,soldiers came and built a wall between east and West Berlin. Itcut throughparks, playgrounds, cemeteriesand squares and didn’t stop for anything. Trees were cut down, houses wereboarded upand even families weresplit up.It’s just unthinkablewhat some people must have gone through.
At first many east Berliners managed to escape but then the government cracked downand made it much harder. Joachim is reluctant to escape at first but decides that he doesn’t want to live in a place where freedom of speech was so restricted. So he and a friendhatcheda plan……
Summary without vocab in bold
I listened to Tunnel 29 on Radio 4 a few years ago and was blown away. My son was a baby and me and Alessandro listened to it in the evenings. We’d put Alex to sleep, creep out of the bedroom and then put on an episode, listening to it while we pottered around doing other things. It was a nice change from watching telly and we were completely hooked.
It’s a remarkable true story about a young man that digs a tunnel under the Berlin Wall. It is presented and produced by Helena Merriman, a broadcast journalist that spent a year in Berlin interviewing people, namely Joachim - the 22 year old protagonist. There are ten episodes in total and I’ve decided to summarise the first one. I’d recommend listening to it first before reading on.
It’s the summer of 1961 and Joachim is having a blast with his friends. They are at a campsite, swimming and sunbathing during the day and dancing and drinking beer at night. However, one morning everything changes. They are woken up by an announcement on loudspeakers. It was hard to understand what was being said but they managed to make out that the east Berlin government were going to close the border between east and west Berlin.
At the end of the second world war, Germany was divided in half. The Soviet Union got the eastern half and Britain, the US and France got the western half. The problem was that people were leaving east Germany in swathes and not returning. The communist government decided to that they had to act so they made the unbelievable decision of locking the inhabitants in.
In the dead of night, soldiers came and built a wall between east and West Berlin. It cut through parks, playgrounds, cemeteries and squares and didn’t stop for anything. Trees were cut down, houses were boarded up and even families were split up. It’s just unthinkable what some people must have gone through.
At first many east Berliners managed to escape but then the government cracked down and made it much harder. Joachim is reluctant to escape at first but decides that he doesn’t want to live in a place where freedom of speech was so restricted. So he and a friend hatched a plan……
Glossary
blown away
To be very impressed by something
creep out
To walk out of a room very quietly
pottered around
To spend time doing things around the house/garden in a relaxed way
telly
Television
hooked
To be enjoying something so much that you want to continue doing it and find it difficult to stop
remarkable
Amazing
Tunnel
An underground passage
protagonist
The main character in a book, film, series etc
reading on
Continuing to read
blast
A great time
loudspeakers
A piece of electrical equipment that is used to make people’s voices or music very loud
make out
To understand what is being said.
in swathes
Huge numbers of people
unbelievable
Hard to believe
lock in
To keep people (or animals) in a place with no way out
the inhabitants
People that live in a particular place
the dead of night
In the middle of the night
cut through
To go through an area instead of going around it
cemeteries
Places where dead people are buried
boarded up
To cover the windows and doors of a building with wooden boards
split up
To separate
unthinkable
Impossible to imagine
gone through
To experience
cracked down
To make rules much stricter
hatched
To plan something in secret
Questions
Have you been to Berlin? Have you seen where the Berlin wall was?
Do you know any Berliners? Have you heard any stories about what that period was like?
Have you watched any films about that time in east Berlin?
Do you remember when the Berlin wall came down in 1989?
Do you think the east German government did the right thing by building the wall? Do you think they should have done anything else?
Do you think Britain, France and the US should have acted differently?