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How would you break into the most heavily guarded country on Earth?

I'm Helena Merriman, and over the past six months,

I've been investigating the true story of a man who tried it.

His name's Joachim. He's a student just 22 years old.

And when this story begins back in 1961,

he's just escaped to West Berlin from East Germany,

a brutal dictatorship. But now he wants to go back.

Back into the East, the place is just escaped

to help other people get out, just like heated.

To do that though, he has to get past this.

The Berlin Wall, miles and miles of concrete slabs and barbed wire.

He could try to climb over the wall, but the searchlights might find him.

And then, like others who tried, he could be killed.

And so you can see why Joachim decides not to go over the wall,

but under it.

He builds a tunnel, spending hours at a time digging underground

in a space the size of a coffin.

He finds a route that avoids the city's water pipes,

the electric cables, and he lies flat on his back,

pulling out the earth, handful by handful.

And he does all this for days, weeks, until finally,

...