Escape from the GDR by hot air balloon. A refugee tells his story.

Between 1961 and 1988, around 5,000 GDR citizens fled to the West. Probably one of the most spectacular and best-known escapes was that of two families who flew from Thuringia across the border to Bavaria in 1979 in a homemade hot air balloon. Michael "Bully" Herbig made a film of this event in 2018. The film is called Balloon and can currently be seen on SBS on Demand. We spoke with one of the refugees on whom the film is based. It is Günter Wetzel.

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Günter Wetzel baute insgesamt drei Ballons, bis die Flucht schliesslich gelang. Für den Film Ballon arbeitete Michael "Bully" Herbig eng mit Wetzel zusammen. Source: Supplied / Günter Wetzel