The Final Victim of the Berlin Wall

East Germany erected the Berlin Wall in 1961 to keep residents from fleeing to the west. They kept fleeing, and many (estimated between 138 and 200) died in their attempt, most of them shot by East German authorities. In 1979, two families managed to escape in a homemade balloon, but a later attempt ended in tragedy. 

Winfried Freudenberg and his wife Sabine surreptitiously gathered materials and built their own balloon, but instead of hot air they planned to use natural gas to avoid detection of a flame. Sadly, they were seen as they were filling the balloon. As police approached, Winfried untethered the half-filled balloon solo. With little gas and without the weight of Sabine, his flight plans were useless, and the erratic flight ended in Freudenberg's gory death. The kicker was that this all happened in March of 1989, only a month before East Germany began allowing crossings into the west. The Berlin Wall was completely defunct only a few months later. Read the story of Winfried Freudenberg at Amusing Planet.