Everybody knows that 99 Red Balloons, or 99 luftballons, isn’t actually about balloons… it’s about the threat of nuclear war. If you DID know that already, you might not know the full story behind the song, or why the English version of the song doesn’t quite live up to the German original… 

For example - luftballon translates into air balloon - NOT  red balloon - so where did the red come from? There’s an interesting answer for that.

This is another one of those songs with really upbeat music that you don’t realise has quite a dark set of lyrics unless you really look. And the original has a different set of lyrics than the English version, so it’s quite hard to find the true meaning unless you speak German - but don’t worry I’ve done it for you. 

First of all, let’s talk about the song itself. The most well known song from German band Nena, 99 Red Balloons was originally released in German, and was known as 99 Luftballons.

So, one theory could be that Nena just wanted to write a hit, came up with 99 Luftballons and called it a day. But that wouldn’t be a very good story, so let’s look at the real inspiration behind the song.

Now, there are a couple of different accounts, both coming from the band themselves. We’ll look at both of them, but it's worth mentioning at this point that Nena were not just a German band - they were a West German band.

Nena formed in the early 80s in West Berlin. At this time, of course, Germany was divided between East and West, with a certain wall in the middle.

The history buffs among you might get the significance of this straight away, but for those less in the know, here’s the context.

After the Second World War ended in 1945, Germany was in a bit of a pickle (to put it lightly). It was decided the best course of action was to temporarily split up the country between the victorious allies until it could get back onto its feet, so the West of Germany was divided between the USA, Britain and France, and the East was given to the Soviet Union (which we now know as Russia).

This seems like a great plan, right? After all, they were allies in the war? Wrong.

With the threat of Germany dismantled, there were new tensions growing. Specifically to do with the fact that the USSR were communist, and the USA were not a huge fan of that. Throw in some recently developed nuclear weaponry on both sides and you have a very valid reason to be concerned. 

To make matters worse, in 1961 East Germany built a massive concrete wall, imaginatively referred to as the ‘Berlin Wall’, to stop their people fleeing to the West. This became a physical - and ideological - symbol of the divide between the two sides. 

So you can see what kind of world Nena were growing up in. Their singer, Gabriele Susanne Kerner (confusingly also known as ‘Nena’), was born in 1960, so most of her early life was a front row seat to the Cold War. 

So with that knowledge, the lyrics begin to make sense. Now unfortunately, the English version of the song is not a direct translation, so English speakers who have heard the song before might not have got all of the original meaning, although they are similar.

The original tells a terrifying story. 99 balloons are released and mistaken for UFOs. What follows is an escalation of military displays until countries nearby begin to panic and a full blown war breaks out and the world is destroyed. 

The message is clear; it’s a warning, a protest. It was voicing what a lot of Europeans were feeling at the time - they didn’t want America’s nuclear weapons anywhere near them, because the reality was a nuclear war could mean an apocalyptic war.

The inspiration behind the original weirdly came from a Rolling Stones concert that the band attended in West Berlin in 1982. At one point in the gig, balloons were released into the air as a harmless visual effect. However, it got guitarist Carlo Karges wondering what would happen if the balloons were misinterpreted by a military radar… a very normal thought for any young lad at a Rolling Stones gig. Nena told Top 2000 A GoGo in 2023:

It's crazy to think they even had to worry about that.

I think the fourth verse, when DIRECTLY translated, sums up the message of the song well:

Ninety-nine ministers of war

Matches and petrol canisters

Regarded themselves as clever people

Already on the scent of a hunt

They shouted, "War," and wanted power

Man, who would have thought?

That someday it would come this far

Because of ninety-nine balloons

The song finishes by declaring the war ‘left no place for winners’, a warning that the Cold War could only end badly for everyone if nuclear weapons were used. I think it does a great job of summarising the fear and paranoia that ordinary people were feeling at the time, and rightfully so. 

The original is not subtle in its message, and has even been analysed by academics well versed in the Cold War. Matthew J. Schmidt, associate professor of political science at the University of New Haven, said:

Now 99 Luftballon did exceptionally well in the US, European and Japanese charts (you can imagine exactly why the Japanese would be supportive of an anti-nuke song). In fact the song did so well that they decided to release an English version the following year.

As I mentioned earlier, the English version is not a direct translation. 

For one thing, the title is different. 99 Luftballon translates to 99 Air Balloons, nothing to do with the colour red. Some see this change as a reference to the colour of the Soviet Flag, as well as red being the general colour associated with communism. 

So maybe they were trying to appeal to the American audience with that one - make it sound like it was more of a criticism of Communism then a criticism of both countries involved with the Cold War. 

But the lyrics in the English version seem to lose their bite, a bit. They are a little bit more vague, and it sounds like they are talking about war in general rather than the Cold War specifically. 

Another difference is that the first verse explains where the balloons came from, whereas the German version doesn’t do that.

You and I in a little toy shop

Buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got

Set them free at the break of dawn

'Til one by one, they were gone

These lyrics suggest a pretty harmless childhood prank, which brings us to the other meaning that the band have claimed before. 

In 1972, 5 high school students released a load of balloons and a flair in Nevada, near the ‘Area 52’ military site. The site has been a draw to conspiracists for years due to its experimental and classified aircraft. Specifically, alien conspiracists. So, legend has it the kids released the balloons and flair with the hope of imitating a UFO and getting the attention of the military. 

Nena said this story was an inspiration for the song, as well as the stones concert.

So which one is true? It's not totally clear. It could be a mixture of both, or they thought it would be funny to make one up.

It seems though like the English version fits the prank story more, as it opens with the line about going to the toy shop and letting them go. But who knows?

Nena felt that the English version didn’t do the original meaning justice. While she has never been openly critical of it, she found it difficult to connect with the meaning in the same way.

Regardless, the English version did well in the charts. It topped the charts in UK and Canada, but weirdly didn’t chart well in the US, despite them being the target audience. It was actually the original German version that did best out of the two in the US, reaching a peak of No. 2. It was actually this success that encouraged them to release an English version in the first place. Nena told Top 200 A GoGo:

Despite the English version not doing as well in the US at the time, it has still become an iconic track in the English speaking world.

You might remember in 2023 a certain Chinese spy balloon that flew into US airspace and eventually got shot down - and then a few other balloons started to appear - this story actually caused a brief resurgence for the song - because, of course, it warned us about this very thing 40 years previously… it gives the song a whole new meaning and importance in the modern age.

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