If you ever get a chance to visit Berlin, make sure you go visit the museum at Checkpoint Charlie. Big sections of the museum are devoted to the outlandish and

If you ever get a chance to visit Berlin, make sure you go visit the museum at Checkpoint Charlie. Big sections of the museum are devoted to the outlandish and ingenious ways that East Germans went over, under, around or through the Iron Curtain. If I recall correctly, there may actually be the remains of this home-made balloon, or at least a replica. Two others that I remember in particular: A West Berliner happened to own a convertible sportscar, and was dating an East German woman. One weekend, on returning from the East after visiting his girlfriend, he realized that if he put the top and the windscreen down, his vehicle was low enough to pass under the bar that was used at the East German checkpoint (this was relatively early, possibly before the Berlin Blockade, so security was laxer.) The next weekend, when he went to visit, he brought his girlfriend with him, and just gunned the car through the barricade, passing under the barrier into West Berlin. Another was a former aeronautic engineer who built a home-made aircraft in his barn, and flew over the wall to the west.