What is a "luftbaloon"?

So when I showed the Psy video "Gangnam Style" and theorized about how it, being an international song not in English, managed to do so well here in America when many others do not, I knew there were other songs that have done remarkably well in American charts that were not in English. Most notably German songs.

The first song that came to my mind was Rammstein's "Fuer Frie". It was featured in the opening of Vin Diesel's xXx and became a huge success, making them one of the biggest international industrial metal bands.

I don't listen to the radio that much, but as recent as a few years back I remember the rock radio still playing "Du Hast". I still listen to their albums from time to time.

What surprised me, though, was another song, also in German, beat it to the punch by somewhere around 20 years. It's a song most people have heard, but probably few people know what it's about.

99 luftbaloons

Apparently, the German version of this song was a chart topper in the 80's and was more popular than the English version in America. Mind you, this is according to Wikipedia so take it as you will.

I never really thought much about this song until I heard a punk cover of the song in English

Given the time period, if you know anything about the cold war this song makes alot more sense in English. It just goes to show how tense the cold war was, how close to nuclear war we all were, and how popular the anti-war sentiment was.