“99 Red Balloons” — Nena

We think the world has its troubles now. Not so long ago, even in Europe, the world was divided by what Winston Churchill christened the Iron Curtain…the divide between East and West, the world’s two major political blocs.

Watching a Cold War espionage drama last night, I recognised a familiar song on the soundtrack from the days when the Cold War was real and the world seemed permanently on the brink of nuclear catastrophe.

“99 Red Balloons” was by the German band Nena…slightly confusingly also the name adopted by the band’s lead singer (real name Gabriele Susanne Kerner). It made the UK Number One spot in 1984.

Tensions were running high at the time. Soviet strongman since 1964, Leonid Brezhnev had recently passed away and his successor, Yuri Andropov fell ill soon after taking office and passed away a short time later.

Purges were rife in the Kremlin. The West didn’t know who was in charge or what was going to happen next.

So “99 Red Balloons” was a perfect song for those uncertain times.

The fact that “99 Red Balloons” was by a German group made it even better. Nowhere was the contrast between East and West more stark than the contrast on either side of the Elbe River.

In West Germany, people drove around in Mercedes and BMWs. To the East, the bleak conditions of life under communism made even a basic standard of living for Westerners seem unimaginably opulent.