Ballon

Ballon (2018) is a German historical thriller directed by Michael “Bully” Herbig, based on the true story of the Strelzyk and Wetzel families who escaped from East Germany to West Germany in a self-built hot air balloon on September 16, 1979.

Plot

Peter Strelzyk, an electrician in the Thuringian town of Posseck, conceives a desperate plan to fly his family over the heavily fortified inner-German border using a homemade hot air balloon. After a first attempt fails — the balloon crashes just short of the border — the Stasi begins investigating. With time running out, Peter and his friend Gunter Wetzel build a second, larger balloon from scraps of taffeta and nylon, racing against the secret police who are closing in on the evidence of their first flight.

Berlin Wall Connection

While the escape took place over the inner-German border in Thuringia rather than the Berlin Wall itself, the film powerfully depicts the same system of oppression that the Wall represented. The fortified border — with its minefields, guard towers, automatic shooting devices, and kill zones — was the rural equivalent of the Berlin Wall. The film shows how the entire East German border apparatus, from the Berlin Wall to the most remote stretch of countryside, was designed to imprison an entire population. The Strelzyks’ motivation and desperation mirror countless Berlin Wall escape stories.

Filming Locations

The film was shot in Bavaria and Thuringia, with period sets recreating the look of a small East German town in the late 1970s. The balloon launch and flight sequences combined practical effects with CGI. The actual landing site near Naila in Upper Franconia was used for reference, though the dramatic sequences were staged elsewhere for safety and practical reasons.

Cultural Impact

Ballon was a major box-office success in Germany, drawing over 2.2 million viewers. It brought renewed attention to one of the most spectacular escape stories from East Germany — a story previously told in the 1982 Disney film Night Crossing. The film was praised for its suspenseful pacing and historical accuracy, particularly in its depiction of Stasi surveillance methods. It served as a reminder of the lengths ordinary people went to in order to reach freedom, and of the everyday terror of living under a regime that treated emigration as a crime.

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