In 1952, East Germany was closed off from it's Western counterpart. Between the countries lay walls, barbed wire, minefields and lots and lots of soldiers. But that didn't stop the East German citizens from dreaming of escaping the oppressive dictatorship. In the late 70s two men got together and came up with a plan... to build a home made hot air balloon and fly their families over the border to a better life. This is one of the most audacious escapes ever attempted!

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Check out our other podcasts:
Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheat
Prime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/
Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/

Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader Thomas

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:

Günter Wetzel's website:
https://www.ballonflucht.de/en/idee.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_German_balloon_escape

https://www.cnet.com/news/how-two-families-fled-east-germany-in-a-homemade-hot-air-balloon/

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/779583/Peter-Strelzyk-fled-East-Germany-hot-air-balloon-death

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/09/28/harrowing-flight-from-east-germany/d71708d0-3d36-4218-b8b9-e93e858c0df9/

http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,947451,00.html

https://www.britannica.com/place/Germany/The-era-of-partition#ref297750

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_attempts_and_victims_of_the_inner_German_border

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_German_border

https://www.nytimes.com/1979/09/17/archives/2-east-german-families-escape-to-west-in-a-homemade-balloon.html For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy