What is the meaning of the song "99 Red Balloons"?

The original German lyrics were darker than the English version. In that version, a bunch of balloons is let go in the sky. Some people think they're UFO's. Generals who see them interpret them as enemy craft and start a giant war.

It seems to be a commentary on how quick to the trigger armies can be without first finding out the fact of a situation.

Belor are the translated lyrics, credited to Hyde Flippo (and if my rusty German can be relied on, they're pretty accurate):
99 BALLOONS



Have you some time for me,
then I'll sing a song for you
about 99 balloons
on their way to the horizon.
If you're perhaps thinking about me right now
then I'll sing a song for you
about 99 balloons
and that such a thing comes from such a thing.

99 balloons
on their way to the horizon
People think they're UFO's from space
so a general sent up
a fighter squadron after them
Sound the alarm if it's so
but there on the horizon were
only 99 balloons.

99 fighter jets
Each one's a great warrior
Thought they were Captain Kirk
then came a lot of fireworks
the neighbors didn't understand anything
and felt like they were being provoked
so they shot at the horizon
at 99 balloons.

99 war ministers
matches and gasoline canisters
They thought they were clever people
already smelled a nice bounty
Called for war and wanted power.
Man, who would've thought
that things would someday go so far
because of 99 balloons.

99 years of war
left no room for victors.
There are no more war ministers
nor any jet fighters.
Today I'm making my rounds
see the world lying in ruins.
I found a balloon,
think of you and let it fly away.

I interpret it as 'Panic'


Nena - 99 Red Balloons Lyrics


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
Back at base, bugs in the software
Flash the message
"Something's out there"
Floating in the summer sky
99 red balloons go by

99 red balloons
Floating in the summer sky
Panic bells, it's red alert
There's something here
From somewhere else
The war machine springs to life
Opens up one eager eye
Focusing it on the sky
Where 99 red balloons go by

99 Decision Street
99 ministers meet
To worry, worry, super-scurry
Call the troops out in a hurry
This is what we've waited for
This is it boys, this is war
The president is on the line
As 99 red balloons go by

[Instrumental Interlude]

99 Knights of the airway
Ride super-high-tech jet fighters
Everyone's a Silverhero
Everyone's a Captain Kirk
With orders to identify
To clarify and classify
Scramble in the summer sky
As 99 red balloons go by

As 99 red balloons go by

99 dreams I have had
In every one a red balloon
It's all over and I'm standin' pretty
In this dust that was a city
If I could find a souvenier
Just to prove the world was here
And here is a red balloon
I think of you and let it go

I think it means, we (the human race of today)
is so paranoid and on edge, that the smallest thing can trigger a major catastrophy .

They fly up and trigger a radar alert which leads to nuclear war, as far as I know...

Sorry "MotoArena" But you are misinformed, that is the English Version which was in a way censored. The first response is quite correct. That is the translation, and the meaning is really self interpretation, but you can see the message they are trying to portray.

But everyone has their own opinion, and mine is that the cold war was very much similar to this, because one nation began working on nuclear weapons, the other became afraid and started to build more to match the other nation. Both sides are keen on staying on top, and not knowing themselves the outcome of their own technology, they are sitting on the edge of their seats, they then find on the horizon 99 red UFOs.
They believe these to be the work of the opposite nation and begin to war each other rather than doing a full amount of research. (As in they were so jumpy, both sides sent up fighters to investigate, thought each other was going to attack, and fought each other. Which in turn results in the end of the world.)

It has to do with red balloons at a Rolling Stone concert in Germany and someone seeing them or imagining them going over the Berlin Wall.

The actual answer (fact, not a guess) is to do with the radar system the US used to detect nucleam missiles during the cold war. A missile on the radar was shown as a red balloon, and the song sings about red balloons, symbolising missiles, being fired from Russia to destroy the US, and there being nothing the US can do. The red balloon at the end is an actual red balloon flying up to the sky when the earth is destroyed by these missiles to symbolise going to heaven.

99 red balloons floating in a summer sky are just 99 balloons on the horizon. People don't take a closer look to see what is really there. So, they get out their war weapons and fire away. Destruction follows. She is looking through the rubble to make sense of the waste. She finds "one" red balloon. 99+1=100. They had missed the 1 balloon. It would have told the whole story had they looked closely before they attacked.
The nice part is that she lets the balloon go.

During the cold war, the United States and the USSR had a combined 99 nuclear missle silos that were known. The song is about ''Mutually Assured Destruction'' or MAD. If one nation would fire a missle, it would take several minutes to fire across the Atlantic Ocean. By that time, the other nation would of fired all of their missles. Each nuke is represented as a red dot, or ''a red balloon'' on radar. The song is in protest that two nations at war will fire all their ''balloons'' and destroy the entire world.. even the ''innocent'' countries.

The song was written because the allies had planned an attack and the singal of where to drop the bombs was supposed to be red balloons. well it just so happened that that day an elementary school had planned a project to tie post cards to balloons and release them to see who would write back. but the allies misinterpreted the project as the signal and ended up bombing the elementary school. just goes to show how screwed up war can be sometimes huh?
if consenting adults want to go blow each other up thts their problem, but these were just little kids...

It was meant to be an anti-nuke song, originally sung in German entitled 99 luft Balons. I think the singer eventually married and gave birth to tatu, which pretty much soured any validity she may have had on the protest circuit.

it sounds so nice though.... :)

There actually was an incident prior to the fall of the wall where balloons released to honor east germans killed trying to get over the wall .. When the balloons were released it triggered an alert. Jet fighters were deployed but quickly returned when they realized the blips were balloons. The answers here really illustrate how easily mis-information spreads on the internet.

99 red ballons refers to the nazi blimps that were made during the second world war. The Lyric its all over and im standing here pretty in the dust that was a city talks about how the war ended (with two nucs been droped) and pretty refers to how America came out on top economically.

Wikipedia is an awesome thing.

"While at a Rolling Stones concert in Potgutville, Nena's guitarist Carlo Karges noticed that balloons were being released. As he watched them move toward the horizon, he noticed them shifting and changing shapes, where they looked nothing like a mass of balloons but some strange spacecraft (referred to in the German lyrics as a "UFO"). He thought about what might happen if they floated over the Berlin Wall to the Soviet sector..."

Check out this page for the rest of your answer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99_Luftballons

no

Balloons released to honor killed east germans that had tried to get over the wall. They set of alert and jet fighters did deploy but were quickly called back. This was before the fall of the wall.

99 Luft (Air) Balloons was certainly a darker song when translated from German (Deutsch) into English (Englisch) compared to the English Version 99 Red Balloons which was a non literal transation of the German version.

I perceive this song about the Cold War in Germany betwen the Allies (United States of America Great Britian and France) and the former Soviet Union now largely Russia. With the petition of Germany after WII and the present Capital Berlin by these nations.

West vs East (West vs Ost) and the Berlin Wall central to this conflict. Fortunately in 1989 this changed all and Germany (Deutschland) became a normal Western Democracy in 1990. A fair percentage of Germans speak (sprechen) English fluenty as a second language now in Germany due to the Amercians and the British in Hamburg.

That the mutual DISTRUST among nations ITSELF is enough to start a war. When one side over-reacts to something innocent.

It is a poetic war and war head reference

Ali is super lame.

The story I was told as a young whipper snapper was this: The allied forces set their radars at a certain height to detect incoming bombers. The germans set off 100 red balloons into the sky. Once the allied forces realised a mass on their radar screens they sent out aircraft to destroy what they thought were enemy aircraft.

From this information the Germans could find out which balloons passed beneath the radar and send their own aircraft to the Uk undetected.

I have been telling this story for years so I hope its true.

Nena was extremely fit so the story really doesnt matter to me. Armpits and all.