Although the Inner German border had been closed throughout the country since 1952, from Czechoslovakia to the Baltic Sea, Berlin itself was still administered by the post-war occupying powers. With no barriers and a still-active subway system throughout the city, East Germans continued to find a portal to the West. In fact by 1961 fully 20 percent of the East German (GDR) population had emigrated, with a disproportionate amount being professionals and skilled workers.
And then…as the clock struck midnight on Sunday 13 August, GDR troops sealed-off the East/West border while pavement was torn up and barbed wire entanglements installed along it’s entire 43 kilometer length through the city. The same happened along the 156 kilometers of border that separated the three western sectors of the city from the surrounding GDR.
Next came improved wire fencing and a second, parallel fence that created a 100 meter No Man’s Land, blithely called the “Death Strip.” Covered with raked sand, to reveal footprints, and eventually incorporating anti-vehicle trenches, guard dogs, watchtowers and bunkers, the Death Strip also offered clear lines of fire.
Through the years the Wall itself, or the Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart as GDR authorities called it, continued to evolve until it consisted of 45,000 sections of reinforced concrete, each 12 feet high, with strategically placed “break through” points for Warsaw Pact armored vehicles in the event of war. Not that they didn’t welcome visitors and their money.
By the spring of 1984, when I took this picture near the sadly positioned Brandenburg Gate, NATO citizens could purchase a day visa, along with a requisite minimum of 25 East German Marks at Checkpoint “Charlie” for a venturesome stroll through the Iron Curtain. And while the airwaves reverberated with separate versions of today’s selection back in the West, here in the Soviet Sector there was a grand opportunity to put that currency to good use at an Alexanderplatz café.
“Herr Ober, Ein bier bitte” (Waiter, a beer please).
Born in 1960 in the West German city of Hagen, Gabriele Susanne Kerner acquired her nickname, “Nena” (German pronunciation for “niña’) while on a family holiday in Spain. After moving to Berlin in 1981 she and some friends formed a New Wave band, also dubbed Nena, and it quickly became popular throughout the country.
However the group’s international breakthrough (rare for a German band) came the following year after guitarist Carlo Karges attended a Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin. At one point a bunch of balloons had been released and Karges watched them as they floated away in slowly shifting clusters. When they began to look a lot like aircraft he wondered what might happen if the wind were to change and they floated into the Soviet Sector.
Recorded and released in Germany in 1983 (with music by keyboardist Uwe Fahrenkrog-Petersen) the resulting “99 Luftballoons” shot to the top of the domestic charts and received a great deal of airplay throughout Europe. In 1984 an English version, “99 Red Balloons” using the same music but with lyrics written by Belfast-born Kevin McAlea, topped the UK Singles Chart while in the US, where the original German version resonated most, “99 Luftballoons” hit Number 2 on the Billboard Charts.
Both versions follow below. Although not direct translations, each describes the advent of a nuclear war, triggered by faulty GDR radar equipment that registers 99 balloons as incoming weapons. Intriguingly, it was later documented that after the song’s initial release in 1983, a Soviet early-warning system operator willfully disregarded a false attack alarm (from shining clouds, rather than balloons) and is roundly credited with preventing a nuclear holocaust.
Hmmm, what’s the German word for another? Oh right, it’s “noch”…. “Herr Ober! Noch ein bier bitte!!”
LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Friday 7 December
99 Luftballoons
Hast Du etwas Zeit für mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer Dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Denkst Du vielleicht grad’ an mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer Dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Und dass sowas von sowas kommt
99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Hielt man fuer UFOs aus dem All
Darum schickte ein General
Eine Fliegerstaffel hinterher
Alarm zu geben, wenn es so war
Dabei war da am Horizont
Nur 99 Luftballons
99 Duesenjaeger
Jeder war ein grosser Krieger
Hielten sich fuer Captain Kirk
Das gab ein grosses Feuerwerk
Die Nachbarn haben nichts gerafft
Und fuehlten sich gleich angemacht
Dabei schoss man am Horizont
Auf 99 Luftballons
99 Kriegsminister
Streichholz und Benzinkanister
Hielten sich für schlaue Leute
Witterten schon fette Beute
Riefen Krieg und wollten Macht
Mann, wer hätte das gedacht
Dass es einmal soweit kommt
Wegen 99 Luftballons
99 Jahre Krieg
Ließen keinen Platz für Sieger
Kriegsminister gibt’s nicht mehr
Und auch keine Düsenflieger
Heute zieh’ ich meine Runden
Seh’ die Welt in Trümmern liegen
Hab’ ‘nen Luftballon gefunden
Denk’ an dich und lass’ ihn fliegen
99 Red Balloons
You and I, and a little toyshop
Buy a bag of balloons with the money we’ve got
Set them free at the break of dawn
‘Til one by one, they were gone
Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message, “Some thing’s out there”
Floating in the summer sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic lads, it’s a red alert
There’s something here from somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
Ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine Decision Street
Ninety-nine ministers meet
To worry, worry, super-scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we’ve waiting for
This is it boys, this is war
The President is on the line
As ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine knights of the air
Riding super high-tech jet fighters
Everyone’s a super hero
Everyone’s a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify, to clarify and classify
Scrambling in the summer sky
As ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine red balloons go by
Ninety-nine dreams I have had
Every one a red balloon
Now it’s all over and I’m standing pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenir
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you and let it go
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