East Germany balloon escape

The Damn Interesting podcast (no affiliation, just a huge fan) had an episode on this topic if you prefer to listen to this story: https://www.damninteresting.com/up-in-the-air/

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#5

Post by mkmk » Fri, Jan 16, 2026, 9:35 PM UTC

The photo of the balloon here really helps put the story into perspective.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190408181736/https://www.museu...

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#6

Post by tobyhinloopen » Fri, Jan 16, 2026, 9:43 PM UTC

Poor family members though

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#7

Post by DefundPortland » Fri, Jan 16, 2026, 9:43 PM UTC

[flagged]

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#8

Post by qwertox » Fri, Jan 16, 2026, 9:48 PM UTC

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...

The text in the link is nice to read. I did a Google Translate on it which you can read here: https://pastebin.com/SdkKQkC6

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#9

Post by nrjames » Fri, Jan 16, 2026, 9:48 PM UTC

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

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#10

Post by Isuckatcode » Fri, Jan 16, 2026, 9:49 PM UTC

VelNZ wrote: post #4

The Damn Interesting podcast (no affiliation, just a huge fan) had an episode on this topic if you prefer to listen to this story: https://www.damninteresting.com/up-in-the-air/

You beat me to it :D love the podcast. Too bad they stopped uploading from a while ago. You got any suggestions of podcasts in similar space? Nothing ever could scratch the itch like Damn Interesting