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East Germany balloon escape

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Re: East Germany balloon escape

#21

Post by dang »

hungryhobbit wrote: post #14
nrjames wrote: post #9

Disney made a movie about this called Night Crossing in the early 1980s. More recently, there's a 2018 German movie about it called Balloon. [0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082810/ [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7125774

[flagged]

I appreciate your concern for comment quality! but this is the kind of point that depends on how someone is using HN overall.

If an account were doing this repetitively in a way that didn't feel like genuine conversation, that would be quite different than a case like this, where there's no sign of such a pattern and the account is using HN quite as intended - randomly walking through topics of curiosity. It seems more likely that nrjames just happened to remember those movies* and wanted to make sure they got a mention in the thread. That's fine!

I'd say this guideline is relevant here: "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

(* as have others, e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46652703)

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#22

Post by lukan »

toephu2 wrote: post #18
baud9600 wrote: post #17

In Eastern Europe in 1979, those were big sums of money. What an extraordinary story

Yeah I'd be curious into how they acquired so much money

Likely black market deals/work I think. Also just getting a replacement car was not really easy for normal people.

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#24

Post by lukan »

martin-t wrote: post #16
thenaturalist wrote: post #15

> East Germany immediately increased border security, closed all small airports close to the border, and ordered the planes kept farther inland.[6] Propane gas tanks became registered products, and large quantities of fabric suitable for balloon construction could no longer be purchased. Mail from East Germany to the two escaped families was prohibited.[12] > Erich Strelzyk learned of his brother's escape on the ZDF…

Dustpile of history, sure, but gallows first. Bleeding out on the pavement is also acceptable. Way too often, connected ("powerful") people manage to escape proper punishment, sometimes in the name of a "peaceful transition of power".

Hm. I am not sure if a lynchmob and more blood would have helped the transition. The main important thing to the people was, that the wall was down and Stasi (secret police) out of power.

There has been prison time and the careers of anyone important connected to the Stasi ended.

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#25

Post by nephihaha »

thenaturalist wrote: post #15

> East Germany immediately increased border security, closed all small airports close to the border, and ordered the planes kept farther inland.[6] Propane gas tanks became registered products, and large quantities of fabric suitable for balloon construction could no longer be purchased. Mail from East Germany to the two escaped families was prohibited.[12] > Erich Strelzyk learned of his brother's escape on the ZDF…

The GDR seems to be forgotten/misunderstood by many people. Which is a pity because it serves a warning about mass public surveillance plans that keep rearing their ugly head, even in Germany.

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#29

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

lukeweston1234 wrote: post #12
nrjames wrote: post #9

Disney made a movie about this called Night Crossing in the early 1980s. More recently, there's a 2018 German movie about it called Balloon. [0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082810/ [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7125774

The 2018 film is a really good movie, I would highly recommend checking it out!

+1 to this! I wonder if some of the horror in it (the constant threat of the Stasi and its implications) translates well to non-German audiences. In case you're wondering about Germany's strict privacy laws - this is part of why they exist.

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#30

Post by neilv »

mkmk wrote: post #5

The photo of the balloon here really helps put the story into perspective. https://web.archive.org/web/20190408181736/https://www.museu...

> “Are we here in the West??” Only this one question is asked by Peter Strelzyk and Günter Wetzel when they were in the early morning of the 16th.

The "Handmaid's Tale" TV series has a great variation on that moment, which chokes me up every single time.

(spoilers in video title) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oKZgXvpm0c

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