1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
Israel-Hamas warUkraineExtreme weather
Society

German couple ties wedding knot in the sky

June 16, 2018

The couple was married while sitting on a swing dangling from a motorcycle on a tightrope. The pastor stood atop a fire service ladder nearly 50 feet above the ground.

https://p.dw.com/p/2zh3w
A wedding couple sits on a swing, dangling from a motorcycle atop a tightrope as a pastor atop a fire ladder leads the ceremony.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Gercke

A German couple got married Saturday while sitting on a swing 14 meters (46 feet) above the ground, dangling from a motorcycle perched on a tightrope.

The wedding took place in the town of Stassfurt, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Berlin.

The pastor stood in a cage atop a fire service ladder as he presided over the wedding of Jens Knorr and Nicole Backhaus, who were sitting on a swing.

The couple exchanged rings while in the air but for safety's sake waited until they had their feet back on the ground before kissing.

A long descent

More than 3,000 people witnessed the aerial wedding, which took place during a local festival.

The couple started out 45 meters in the air — on a wire hung on an angle between a tower and the old city wall of the eastern city of Stassfurt.

A trapeze artist drove the motorcycle carrying the swinging couple as it descended toward the waiting pastor 14 meters above the ground.

Read more: US rifle-toting worshippers renew wedding vows at Pennsylvania church

bik/rc (dpa, AP)