
Up in the Air: Escaping from East Germany - vinnyglennon
http://www.damninteresting.com/up-in-the-air/#read-more
======
douche
If you ever get a chance to visit Berlin, make sure you go visit the museum at
Checkpoint Charlie. Big sections of the museum are devoted to the outlandish
and ingenious ways that East Germans went over, under, around or through the
Iron Curtain. If I recall correctly, there may actually be the remains of this
home-made balloon, or at least a replica. Two others that I remember in
particular:

A West Berliner happened to own a convertible sportscar, and was dating an
East German woman. One weekend, on returning from the East after visiting his
girlfriend, he realized that if he put the top and the windscreen down, his
vehicle was low enough to pass under the bar that was used at the East German
checkpoint (this was relatively early, possibly before the Berlin Blockade, so
security was laxer.) The next weekend, when he went to visit, he brought his
girlfriend with him, and just gunned the car through the barricade, passing
under the barrier into West Berlin.

Another was a former aeronautic engineer who built a home-made aircraft in his
barn, and flew over the wall to the west.

~~~
clamprecht
Imagine if they'd had drones back then. How many drones does it take to
generate enough lift and control to fly a 180-pound person?

~~~
themodelplumber
Well, they had submersible underwater scooters back then. I thought that
escape was pretty cool--Manfred Burmeister, 1969.

------
peckrob
Disney actually made a movie out of this; they touch on it briefly at the end
of the article. I watched it as a kid in once in school. It was called "Night
Crossing" [0]. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it's on any streaming
service, but if you look around you might be able to find a DVD copy
somewhere.

Also, as a side note, it's nice to see Damn Interesting on here. It's one of
the better blogs out there even if they don't update as much as they used to.
The article about the race to liquefy helium and chasing the lowest
temperature ever was really, really good [1].

[0]
[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082810/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082810/)

[1] [http://www.damninteresting.com/absolute-zero-
is-0k/](http://www.damninteresting.com/absolute-zero-is-0k/)

~~~
DamnInteresting
Thanks! I'm the founder of the site, and author of Absolute Zero is 0K. I wish
we could post articles more frequently, but it's a spare-time-and-weekends
project, and my spare time shrinks as I accumulate life responsibilities and
such. And because I am the final editor I am a terrible bottleneck.

I have hundreds--if not thousands--of other topics I want to write about. I am
optimistic that one day I'll be able to afford to quit one of my days jobs and
spend more time on Damn Interesting, which would help improve our posting
frequency tremendously. In the meantime I sigh wistfully.

~~~
blake8086
Have you considered Patreon?

~~~
DamnInteresting
I have indeed considered it, but there are some technical hurdles for me to
overcome first. Most notably, our current donation system has a lot of
automation included that I would need to reproduce for Patreon (e.g., sending
5% to our Kiva fund, putting funds into various buckets depending on multiple
variables, etc).

------
BJBBB
There is still much suspicion in Germany. Families still remember their
'missing' members.

One the way home, stopped in Germany early 1991 to see a good friend. While
sitting at sidewalk table, my friend abruptly arose and got in the face of
another patron. Words were exchanged, and they went behind the building. My
friend returned later, with blood on his sleeves and hands, with his pocket
notebook out. With a grim smile, he indicated that he now has a "list of
people to talk to...".

The wounds of Germany will not heal until their people of my generation have
been buried.

~~~
y4mi
the wall fell in 1988. 3 years before your event.

its been over 20 years since then - there is no real witch hunt or hostility
anymore.

~~~
sdoering
Well it was on 9th of November 1989. Not 1988. But yeah, there is no
witchhunt.

------
jacquesm
Super account of an extremely dangerous and imaginative way to escape the
East. They were extremely lucky, the prevailing winds there are West-to-East.

Every time I crossed back from East Germany into West Germany after spending
time in Poland I had my car pretty much taken apart at the border (the head of
the 'corridor', at a place called Helmstedt, if you drive by there today you
can still see the watchtowers and the old border to the right of the highway)
to make sure I wasn't hiding anybody in the strange bodywork of the car (a
Citroen model DS which has a lot of weird curves and spaces).

Very frustrating because the border guards would be very diligent about
ripping everything up but they would definitely not help putting things back
together again.

One day I had my engine overheating on the Eastern side at the border and was
greeted by rounds of tracer behind the car when I tried to back out of the
cage that the car was in in search of water.

Another time I got arrested at 'Checkpoint Charlie' by one Oberwachtmeister
Krause because I wasn't supposed to be there (on the Eastern side). He was
entirely correct that I shouldn't be there, the reason was that I'd helped a
bunch of people that were stuck in their car (a Trabant, a small two stroke
car with an extremely small engine that was prone to stop working for no
particular reason) by the side of the road (East Germans were allowed the use
of the corridor as well, but visitors and West Germans could not leave that
road except with special permission) and I couldn't find my way back to the
corridor. I had followed the signs back saying 'Berlin' but did not realize
soon enough that this would not work. After many hours waiting and interviews
and threats we were finally allowed to leave again. The Americans were quite
surprised that a car with Dutch license plates approached from the East German
side of the most guarded border in Europe, probably a first for them.

No fond memories of the officials in 'The East', I hope their children and
grandchildren will remind them periodically that they were part of the
problem.

Many of them went on to positions in the current German police force and
military, not without resistance of their former West German colleagues who
saw them (rightly) responsible for the many deaths on the East German side.

Fortunately these families made it, many did not and it is good to remember
that this was only a very few short years ago. Especially worth remembering
given that if the East German authorities had had access to the kind of
information that current governments have access to that these families likely
would _not_ have made it out at all and/or would have been killed in the
attempt.

~~~
mootothemax
_Especially worth remembering given that if the East German authorities had
had access to the kind of information that current governments have access to
that these families likely would not have made it out at all and /or would
have been killed in the attempt._

Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration, disproved by the many criminals (arguably
the the _existence_ of otherwise traceable crimes) and people under
surveillance who regularly get away?

Useless anecdote: I've sometimes seen border guards checking passengers'
faces/details against faxes as they exit the plane I'm on. I'm nosy, and have
hung around a couple of times to see what's happen - in the end, absolutely
nothing.

It seems that _even if_ they know you've got away, the _how_ and _where_ can
remain elusive, even in this day and age.

Edit: Forgot to add, I loved your comment! I would love to hear more about
your times in e.g. Poland at that time in your life.

~~~
jacquesm
> Isn't that a bit of an exaggeration, disproved by the many criminals
> (arguably the the existence of otherwise traceable crimes) and people under
> surveillance who regularly get away?

It's proven by the many people that were picked up before they could make
their attempt because the VoPo's picked up on that before they could actually
do it.

These guys would happily turn in their mothers if that's what it took to rise
in the ranks:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkspolizei](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkspolizei)

A bit of 'big data' (to use a popular buzzword) magic would have turned up the
names of the two buyers of fabric from the story linked in mere seconds.

Your experience with passengers exiting planes is probably not comparable
unless it is in a country like Israel or North Korea. Keep in mind that it
wasn't that the police was looking to stop particular people at the border but
that they were simply trying to stop _everybody_ from leaving (which tens of
thousands if not hundreds of thousands would have done if given the
opportunity)

I've written a bit about what it was like to be in Communist Poland here:

[http://jacquesmattheij.com/a-western-kid-living-in-
communist...](http://jacquesmattheij.com/a-western-kid-living-in-communist-
poland)

Joke from the era:

Erich Honecker
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Honecker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Honecker))
has been abroad for a state visit and returns home. Upon reaching Berlin
looking out from the windows of the aircraft he notices that the streets seem
very quiet. After landing this is confirmed, they drive around for hours on
end without encountering a single soul. Finally, in desperation they drive up
to the Berlin wall and search along side it, when they reach a very large
gaping hole in the middle. Next to the hole is a wooden post with an envelope
stapled to it, addressed to Honecker. He opens it and finds a note inside:

"Honecker, du bist der letzte, mach bitte das Licht aus...".

~~~
vezzy-fnord
_" Honecker, du bist der letzte, mach bitte das Licht aus..."_

I think there's a little typo, it should be "macht". Then it yields the
sentence "Honecker, you're the last, please turn off the lights."

~~~
lschmelzeisen
"mach" is the imperative form of "machen" and perfectly fine in that sentence
in the sense of "Honecker, please turn of the lights!".

With "macht" the sentence would be more of an observation and the "bitte"
(please) would sound weird: "Honecker please turns of the light."

Edit: as tazjin stated "macht" can also be used to address the whole group.

------
weinzierl
Actually there are many stories like this. German newspaper _Der Spiegel_ once
had a whole series of articles.

My favorite is about two guys escaping from East Germany an surf boards[1].
They built their own equipment, they never surfed before but still
successfully crossed 70 km Baltic Sea in about 4 hours.

The article link is just Google translated, the photo gallery is also
interesting[2]. It has images from the trip of the surfer guys as well as
other escapes including the balloon of Strelzyk und Wetzel.

[1]
[https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&pr...](https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.spiegel.de%2Feinestages%2Fddr-
flucht-auf-dem-surfbrett-a-997114.html&edit-text=&act=url)

[2][http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/spektakulaere-
mauerfluchte...](http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/spektakulaere-
mauerfluchten-fotostrecke-120035.html)

------
DamnInteresting
Thanks for the link! I am not the author of the article, but I am the Managing
Editor of the site and I worked with the author in getting it ready.

The funnest part was exchanging emails with one of the fellows involved
(Günter Wetzel). His English is poor and my German is rustier than a tetanus
factory, but with the help of Google Translate we were able to stumble through
a conversation. He ended up sending me scans of a bunch of photos from his
personal collection, several of which appear in the article (though a few
required some restoration). Günter's a swell guy.

------
nsns
Escape by swimming caught on camera -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7CWajaOx4E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7CWajaOx4E)

------
k__
My father got thrown out.

My uncle was in prison because he wanted to leave and after his release the
administration told his family (my father, my aunt, my uncle and their
parents) they should leave on the next day. They grabbed everything they could
carry, packed it in their car and got out.

~~~
tajen
I always wonder... How did they start a life from scratch in another country?
Without a job and roof for a few days you can quickly turn into a poorness
cycle.

~~~
thomasz
Obviously they were supported by the FDR's welfare system. To this day, ending
up without a roof over your head is very rare without other problems like
substance abuse or untreated mental illness.

------
hauget
Reminds me of the story of German actor Thomas Kretschmann (you might know him
from playing Baron von Strucker in Avengers: Age of Ultron & Captain America:
Winter Soldier). From his Wikipedia page: "At the age of 19, he fled East
Germany and began a month-long trek to West Germany to escape the East German
state. During this trek, part of his finger was lost but surgically
reattached. Kretschmann crossed four borders (Hungary, Yugoslavia, Austria)
with nothing other than his passport and the equivalent of $100 in his
possession." Pretty incredible!

------
geoka9
There's a book[1] written by a Russian guy in the US about his efforts to
escape from the USSR by... swimming the ocean! It's a highly entertaining
book, although there's a chapter in which he describes his incarceration in a
Soviet mental facility, and that one is pretty gruesome.

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Inclined-Escape-Yuri-
Vetokhin/dp/B0006...](http://www.amazon.com/Inclined-Escape-Yuri-
Vetokhin/dp/B0006OX6UG)

------
willvarfar
Another escape story is Bernd Boettger, who built a mini submarine:

[http://www.hisutton.com/The%20Escape%20of%20Bernd%20Boettger...](http://www.hisutton.com/The%20Escape%20of%20Bernd%20Boettger.html)

------
rgbrgb
The toggle animation combined with the click at the beginning of the audio is
wonderful. Anybody know any non-game UIs with great sound like that? They're
pretty rare but it could be cool if they come back in really subtle ways. Off
the top of my head I think of iPod scroll wheel, iOS keyboard, and Facebook
message alert sound. The first 2 are extremely subtle and well done, alert
sounds are kind of just a necessary evil.

~~~
dmix
If you're into this type of UI perfectionism, I recently read a book on the
subject called 'Microinteractions' which I highly recommend:

[http://www.amazon.com/Microinteractions-Full-Color-
Designing...](http://www.amazon.com/Microinteractions-Full-Color-Designing-
Details/dp/1491945923/)

They give examples of designers using sound to enhance interactions. For
example, slot machine designers make sure there are sounds every time the user
interacts with the machine. The sounds and music also get louder and louder as
the game goes on - to heighten the excitement and get the person addicted to
that rush. One of the reasons why slot machines bring in more money than the
movie or video game industries.

Website designers should definitely utilize this more often!

------
endymi0n
If you like this story, you'll love this one:

[https://web.archive.org/web/20110719094747/http://www.myspys...](https://web.archive.org/web/20110719094747/http://www.myspystory.com/intro.html)

All ingredients hackers will find interesting:

Surveillance, suspense, number stations, encryption, a human touch - and on
top it's true as well.

Amazing read.

------
brc
It's a great story.

The introduction though - this took place in 1979. The Marshall plan was a
limited program in the immediate postwar era. The rise of the West German
economy was much more to do with the liberalization of the economy,
restriction on government and of course the personal economic, speech and
actual freedoms of the West Germans. By 1979 they were already exporting
products to the USA and everywhere else by the container load. 'Mercedes Benz'
by Janis Joplin was released in 1970 - the West German economy was in good
shape by 1979, all from the work of the West German people.

------
e15ctr0n
Another story of escape from East Germany that took place in 1972.

[http://www.dadinani.com/capture-memories/read-
contributions/...](http://www.dadinani.com/capture-memories/read-
contributions/the-unforgettable/86-escape-from-east-germany-1972-by-kailash-
mathur)

------
louwrentius
I would recommend everybody to take some interest in the 'damninteresting'
podcasts. They are absolutely fabulous.

If you donate a bit, you get 8+hours of stories like this.

------
euroclydon
I'm only a third of the way through the story, but I'm struck by the contrast
between the intro's description of poverty in East Germany, and this family's
ability to procure such vast amounts of fabric, and they fact they owned a
car.

------
CroCroCro
Naila resident here. Ask me if you want to know something :P

------
rwmj
How far did the wall / barrier go? Could it be walked around? Were there any
weak spots in obscure fields in the countryside?

~~~
allendoerfer
It went all the way through. While The Wall means the border that separated
West Berlin from the East, there was a deadly border dividing all of Eastern
Germany from the West.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Green_Belt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Green_Belt)

------
stefantalpalaru
> However, the Soviets were still angry with the Germans for having done so
> much damage to their homeland in the Second World War three decades earlier,
> so they did not care about East Germany’s bleak economic prospects.

Not true. East Germany was socialism's window to the west so they were
supposed to look their best all the time. As a result, they had the best lives
in the Soviet Bloc. The rest of us had it much worse.

~~~
allendoerfer
In fact in the very early days young people fed up with their nazi parents
actually moved to the East to start something new. While the Soviets let East
Germans build a pipeline for free once in a while, it was not generally their
intention to let them suffer economically. Communism managed to do this on its
own.

