Wall Museum - Checkpoint Charlie

This guide to the Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie follows Peter Strelzyk, an electrician, and Gunter Wetzel, a bricklayer, as two East German families spend a year secretly building a homemade hot-air balloon to escape over the border. You'll hear about their failed first attempt in July 1979, when the balloon soaked through with condensation and dropped them near a minefield, and about the second try they made at night with a bigger balloon and a propane burner. The museum's founder, Rainer Hildebrandt, opened it on this same street.