[mkmk]

The photo of the balloon here really helps put the story into perspective.

https://web.archive.org/web/20190408181736/https://www.museu...

[neilv]

> “Are we here in the West??” Only this one question is asked by Peter Strelzyk and Günter Wetzel when they were in the early morning of the 16th.

The "Handmaid's Tale" TV series has a great variation on that moment, which chokes me up every single time.

(spoilers in video title) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oKZgXvpm0c

[qwertox]

The text in the link is nice to read. I did a Google Translate on it which you can read here: https://pastebin.com/SdkKQkC6

[observationist]

>Ballonfahrt in die Freiheit

Gotta love the way German sounds to English ears. Always good for a chuckle.

This guy is a hacker hero - do the engineering needed, get the proof of concept built, move fast, break things, start over and go big, then scores a victory over the commies and saves his family.

[eru]

You can only move so 'fast and break things', when failure can land you and your family in jail or get you killed.

That being said, the timeline is remarkably short for such a hardware project.

[assaddayinh]

The private mechanics and electrical hacking culture that is the base for German engineering . Tûftler in jedem Schuppen..

[asdfman123]

I enjoyed learning about the town of Bad Kissingen

[lostlogin]

Completely agree - although the shine has rather worn off the ‘move fast and break things’ approach.

[nephihaha]

I keep on thinking it was a lot smaller! Wow!