Opening
A spark becomes a plan. As Gerta Lowe deciphers her father’s clues and pulls her brother Fritz Lowe back from a fatal impulse, the siblings pivot from fear to fierce action. These chapters shift the story into motion—toward a tunnel, a cover story, and a point of no return.
What Happens
Chapter 16: The Shelter’s Secret
Gerta returns to the Welcome Building and slips into the old air-raid shelter beneath it. The room is damp, cold, and bare—no hidden cache, no message in a jar. As she imagines wartime Berlin and how her father might have sheltered here as a boy, the space deepens into a private connection to Aldous Lowe.
She tests the dirt wall on the west side and feels how soft it is, how it gives beneath her fingers. Then the true map snaps into place: the Berlin Wall sits directly above; the Death Strip stretches beyond. Her father’s “treasure” isn’t an object at all. It’s a starting point—and a direction. He wants her to dig not for something, but through something: a tunnel to West Berlin. The realization reframes his message as a daring stand for Freedom vs. Oppression, and Gerta’s resolve hardens.
Chapter 17: A Desperate Plan
The cost of this discovery hits her immediately. She emerges from the shelter, haunted by the mistakes she may already have made: being seen with a shovel, leaving footprints, drawing attention. At home, a note explains that their mother, Katharina Lowe, will be away caring for Oma Gertrude for weeks. The absence creates a narrow window—dangerous but usable.
That night, Gerta catches Fritz furtively writing. In the morning, he reveals a stack of notes, then burns them in the stove to dodge Stasi bugs. He has been fired and intends to escape that very night by swimming the Spree—an almost certain death sentence. Terrified, Gerta seizes the last note, sketches a map to the Welcome Building on the back, and writes one word that changes everything: “Tunnel.” It’s an act of faith—and risk—anchored in Trust and Betrayal.
Chapter 18: A Brother’s Refusal
In the shelter, Gerta lays out everything: seeing their father and Dominic Lowe, the coded dance in the square, and the drawing she received from Anna Warner. Fritz’s face doesn’t light with hope—it tightens with fear. He insists she’s misread the signs and fears a Stasi trap. He refuses to endanger them based on coincidences and wishful thinking.
Their argument crystallizes Courage and Fear. Gerta argues the ground is diggable, the shelter hidden, and Fritz’s river plan nearly suicidal. She demands they plan an escape for their whole family, invoking Family Loyalty and Division as the core rule. Fritz won’t budge. He walks away, choosing inaction over a risk that could swallow them all.
Chapter 19: A Change of Heart
Deep in the night, they hear their neighbor Herr Krause sobbing through the walls. Fritz admits the crying happens every night since the Stasi released him. The sound—raw and relentless—becomes an omen of what the state does to a person. By morning, Fritz is done waiting to be broken. He tells Gerta their parents’ permission no longer matters. They are going to build the tunnel.
On the last day of school, Gerta tries to reconcile with Anna in hopes of accessing her apartment to study the Death Strip. Instead, Anna accuses her of selfish Western materialism. The clash forces Gerta to name what she truly wants: not goods, but freedoms—uncensored books, travel, privacy, and control over her future. The divide between former friends widen into an ideological gulf.
Chapter 20: The First Dig
Gerta reaches the shelter to find Fritz already at work. He has carved out a space and brought overalls—bought with grocery money—to mask the dirt ground into their clothes. A letter from their mother confirms she’ll be gone for several weeks. They set a system: Fritz digs; Gerta hauls earth up to the basement above.
The labor is punishing. Buckets grind into palms, muscles burn, throats parch. Yet the tunnel inches forward, and with it, a brighter mood. Their progress, however small, breathes life into Hope vs. Despair. Before leaving, they settle on a cover story: they’ll “plant a garden” on the abandoned plot—an everyday act to hide a revolutionary one. The plan is set; the work begins tomorrow.
Character Development
The siblings stop reacting to the Wall and start shaping their response to it. Fear doesn’t vanish, but it is harnessed.
- Gerta: Shifts from decoding clues to leading action. She stops Fritz’s reckless plan with one charged word, defines freedom in personal terms, and shoulders grueling work while crafting their outward-facing deception.
- Fritz: Moves from resignation and solitary escape to committed partnership. Herr Krause’s suffering pushes him from paralysis to purpose; he burns his old plan, buys practical gear, and organizes the dig.
- Anna: Emerges as a voice for state propaganda, framing the West as shallow and greedy. Her stance underscores the social cost of dissent and the fracture of former friendships.
- Herr Krause: Mostly heard, not seen, he becomes a catalyst. His nightly sobs embody the regime’s power to break people and galvanize the siblings’ decision.
Themes & Symbols
Freedom vs. Oppression sharpens into a physical route: the tunnel. Gerta’s inventory of desires—books without censors, movement without permission, a life not surveilled—defines freedom as dignity and agency, not possessions. That vision collides with a state that invades homes, burns futures, and isolates neighbors from one another.
Courage and Fear coexist in every choice. Gerta’s hope-driven bravery meets Fritz’s experience-driven caution; only when fear transforms into resolve do they act together. Family Loyalty and Division sets the moral boundary: “It has to be all of us” turns a desperate gamble into a family mission. Hope vs. Despair animates the rhythm of digging—pain and risk on one side, purpose and momentum on the other.
- The Tunnel: A hidden artery of resistance, a line stitching family and city back together, and the book’s central symbol of forbidden passage.
- The Garden: Their cover story and a counter-symbol—cultivation, life, and growth above ground masking subversive labor below.
Key Quotes
“Tunnel.”
A single word redirects the story. Gerta replaces Fritz’s solitary, fatal plan with a collective path to freedom. It’s both invitation and ultimatum: live together or die alone.
“We’re going to build that tunnel.”
Fritz’s vow marks his turning point. He accepts danger not as impulse but as duty, trading despair for disciplined action.
“You must’ve misunderstood his message... Father never would’ve asked us to put ourselves in this much danger. Never.”
“If you are going to escape, then we need a way for all of us to escape. We’re a family, Fritz... it has to be all of us.”
This exchange exposes their core conflict—protection through inaction versus protection through courage. The dialogue reframes risk as a moral responsibility to the family, not a reckless gamble.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters pivot the novel from surveillance and suspicion to intent and motion. The conflict is no longer abstractly Gerta versus the state—it becomes the siblings versus time, soil, and secrecy. Fritz’s transformation turns a risky idea into a workable plan, while the garden-and-tunnel duality captures private resistance hidden beneath public conformity. The stakes are now concrete and cumulative: every bucket moved deepens their commitment and heightens the danger, setting the trajectory for the rest of the book.