Grito de Dolores / East German balloon escape - September 16

The Grito de Dolores launched the Mexican War of Independence on this day in 1810. / On this day in 1979, the Strelzyk and Wetzel families escaped from East Germany to West Germany in a homemade hot air balloon.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everyone, it's Eaves. Just wanted to let you know
that you'll be hearing an episode from me and an
episode from Tracy V. Wilson today. I hope you enjoyed
the show. Welcome to this Day in History Class from
how Stuff Works dot com and from the desk of
Stuff you missed in History Class. It's the show where
we explore the past one day at a time with
a quick look at what happened today in history. Hello

(00:24):
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and
it's September. On this day. In eighteen ten, parish priest
Miguel Hidalgo Castilla issued the Grito did Dolores, launching the
Mexican word independence. This is named for the parish of
Dolores that was Hidalgo's parish, now known as Dolores Hidalgo,
the cradle of national independence. Mexico had been Spanish territory

(00:48):
for hundreds of years, along with pretty much all of
the rest of Central and South America, and in the
early nineteenth century, these Spanish colonies all over that part
of the world, we're fighting for their independence. In A
big factor in these uprisings was Napoleon's occupation of Spain.
Napoleon had forced Spain's King Ferdinand the Seventh to abdicate

(01:09):
and had placed his brother on the Spanish throne. This
amplified ongoing discontent with Spanish rule, including opposition to very
heavy taxation and the erosion of civil rights. Fifty seven
year old Miguel Hidalgo e Castilla had been part of
a plot to resist the Spanish government in Mexico, and

(01:29):
that was supposed to lead to an uprising in December
of eighteen ten, but the plot was discovered. Hidalgo was
advised to flee, but instead he took his cause to
the pulpit. He had the bell ringer, summoned the people
to the courtyard before the church, and he issued a
speech that is known today as the Grito di Dolores
or El Grito the Cry of Dolores. The actual text

(01:53):
of it has been lost, but we know that he
called for the end of Spanish rule in Mexico, and
he was addressing as many a eight hundred people in
this call for an uprising against Spain and against the
Spanish monarchy. This was the start of a war for
independence that lasted for almost eleven years, and this whole
war for independence was somewhat controversial. In the Mexican state

(02:16):
of Guana Wato, which is where Dolores is located, a
Spanish owned silver mind. There was a huge source of wealth,
so a lot of people were really loyal to Spain.
Some of the early battles in this war were also gruesome.
Hidalgo's force swelled to nearly eighty thousand and made it
almost to Mexico City in November of eighteen ten, but

(02:39):
rather than pressing ahead to capture Mexico City, Hidago retreated
for reasons that are not clear. He was captured and
executed on July thirty one, eighteen eleven, and he was
then decapitated. His head was put on display at a
government building in Guana Wattu. But the Mexican can War

(03:00):
for Independence continued on and on, and Spain finally accepted
Mexican independence on August eighteen twenty one with the Treaty
of Cordoba. Today, September sixteenth is observed as Mexican Independence Day,
and that's a tradition that dates back to eighteen twelve.
It was established while the war for independence was still

(03:21):
ongoing and in Dolores. Today there is a museum called
Cassa to Cure Hidalgo or Hidalgo's House, and there are
at least two other museums connected to the Mexican War
of Independence in Dolores as well. Thanks so much to
Christopher Haciotis for his research work on today's episode, an
Tatari Harrison for her audio work on this podcast. You

(03:41):
can subscribe to This Day in History Class on Apple Podcasts,
Google podcast and wherever else you get your podcasts, and
you can tune in tomorrow for a step toward peace.
Hi again, while come to this Day in History class

(04:02):
where history waits for no one. The day was September six,
nineteen seventy nine. Eight people escaped communists East Germany by
floating over border fences to West Germany in a homemade

(04:23):
hot air balloon. The German Federal Republic, better known as
West Germany, was created in nineteen forty nine when the
zones that were controlled by America, Britain, and France merged.
The Soviets then created East Germany, also known as the
German Democratic Republic, from their zone of occupation, though Berlin,

(04:46):
the former German capital, was situated within the Soviet zone,
the city was divided into West Berlin and East Berlin.
East Germany built the Berlin Wall in nineteen sixty one
to cut off the Allied occupied West Berlin from East
Berlin and surrounding East Germany. Many people attempted to escape

(05:07):
East Germany for West Germany, motivated by troublesome political events
in East Germany and better living conditions in West Germany.
But East Germany punished and demeaned people who tried to
flee the state. The border was hundreds of miles long
and made of metal fences with barbed wire, watched by
East German soldiers and watch towers with searchlights and sirens.

(05:30):
Fling was punishable with fines and imprisonment, and many people
who tried to make it over the border were killed
by land mines and guards. Still, refugees attempted to flee
using a variety of tactics. Mechanic Peter Streelzek and his
friend bricklayer Gunterbutzel were eager to leave oppressive East Germany,

(05:52):
so they got the idea to escape with their families
in a hot air balloon after watching a television show
on the history of ballooning. They studied how to make
a balloon and realized that to carry eight passengers plus
the weight of equipment and materials, they would need a
balloon that could hold thousand cubic feet of air. They

(06:12):
bought rolls of material and bed sheets from shops around
East Germany, and their wives stitched them together to make
the balloon. The burner was made out of propane bottles
and a stove pipe. The cast iron platform had posts
on the corners for hand holes and rope anchors, and
the guard rail was a clothes line. The whole time

(06:34):
they were building the balloon, they were still going to work.
Their first few tests of their balloon were unsuccessful, and
they experimented with different materials to improve the balloon's construction.
On the night of July three, ninety nine, the Strelsk
family went to a meadow about twenty five miles from
the border and attempted to make the trip to West Germany.

(06:57):
The vessels had backed out, afraid the plan was too risky. Unfortunately,
the balloon dropped to the ground due to water vapor
that added weight to the balloon, and the family did
not make it across the border. They abandoned the balloon
and went back home. Fearing the East German authorities would
be on their trail soon, the Strollsics decided to build

(07:20):
a new, larger balloon. On September six, nineteen seventy nine,
both families went to the launch site and took a
twenty eight minute hot air balloon trip across the border
into West Germany. People who lived in Nila, the Bavarian
town near where the hot air balloon landed, offered the
families food, money, clothes, housing and jobs. The Streltics later

(07:44):
moved to Switzerland, then back to Germany after German reunification
in nine. The story of the balloon escape has been
told in a book and movies. I'm Eve Stepfcote and
hopefully you know a little more about history to day
than you did yesterday. If there's something that I missed
in an episode, you can share it with everybody else

(08:07):
on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook at t D i h
C podcast. Thanks for joining me on this trip through history.
See you here, same place tomorrow. For more podcasts from
I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

(08:28):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.