Summary of Helena Merriman's Tunnel 29

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 In August of 1961, Joachim was on vacation in the Berlin area with his best friend, Manfred. They heard the announcement that the border between East and West Berlin had been closed. It meant that the city had been split in half, and that everything would be cut off from each other.

#2 As the campsite buzzed with rumors, Joachim felt a long way from home. He and his friends packed up their old Citroën and drove back to East Berlin. As they drove down streets lined with linden trees and concrete buildings, something didn’t feel right.

#3 When the Wall came down, it was not a democratic event. It was the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669392217

IRB Media

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Insights from Chapter 1

#1

In August of 1961, Joachim was on vacation in the Berlin area with his best friend, Manfred. They heard the announcement that the border between East and West Berlin had been closed. It meant that the city had been split in half, and that everything would be cut off from each other.

#2

As the campsite buzzed with rumors, Joachim felt a long way from home. He and his friends packed up their old Citroën and drove back to East Berlin. As they drove down streets lined with linden trees and concrete buildings, something didn’t feel right.

#3

When the Wall came down, it was not a democratic event. It was the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The Wakes were German farmers who were escaping the Red Army. They were trying to get to Berlin before the Russians found them. The Russians were fast, and their veterans of winter battles. They were able to avoid the German soldiers’ thin socks, which resulted in many toes getting frostbite.

#2

The final months of the Second World War saw the Soviet Union take part of Germany, and Berlin was divided between the three allies. But Stalin was playing dirty, and wanted his soldiers to reach Berlin first, before the British and American soldiers, so they could strip the city of whatever was left.

#3

As the Russians were leaving, Joachim’s family was able to take a hand-cart. They began the long journey home, pushing the cart through the snow. Joachim was too young to understand about war and borders, but he was old enough to understand that his father might never be seen again.

Insights from Chapter 3

#1

By late April 1945, two million Red Army soldiers were just outside Berlin. The Russians fired a war’s worth of artillery shells onto the city. The city was defended by the remains of the German Army, bolstered by recently drafted women and terrified schoolboys.

#2

After the Battle of Berlin, Joachim and his family are thrown out of their farm. They walk for days, weeks, so long that Joachim has stopped asking his mother when they might reach Berlin. They arrive in Berlin in November, five months after they began walking.

Insights from Chapter 4

#1

Joachim and his mother were forced to live in Berlin after the war. The city was changing, and becoming part of Stalin’s massive post-war empire.

#2

After the war, Stalin wanted to win over the Germans so he could expand his empire. He decided to hire a group of German communists who had fled Nazi Germany and were now living in Moscow. They were known