A facile synthesis of highly substituted, optically pure tetrahydro-isoquinolines with a quaternary carbon stereocenter is described. Glycolic cleavage of 1,2-dihydroxy-hexahydro-pyrrolo-isoquinolines 1 affords a mixture of cyclic hemiacetals, which can be converted via intramolecular chemoselective Cannizzaro reaction into respective β-amino alcohols, whereas the IBX oxidation gives N-formyl aldehydes