A small hot-air balloon was seen over the roof-tops of Copenhagen on the 27th of December 1783. It was only one year after the brothers Montgolfier had sent up their first balloon in France.

The first Danish balloon flight taking a human being aloft took place on the 1st of October 1806 when  Professor Robertsen from Moscow ascended in his balloon from Rosenborg castle.

The first Dane to fly in a balloon was Studiosus Johan Peter Colding, who on the 23rd of April 1811 asceded in his home-made 40 ft (diameter) balloon. The trip from Blegdam 2, to Brønshøj Bakke took an hour. Colding was well know for his experiments in aeronautics, and he later succeded in sending mail by air across Øresund to Sweden.

The next balloon captain to try his luck was the Italian Joseph Tardini who had been hired by Tivoli.  The balloon crashed into the sea and Mr. Tardini drowned. His passengers, a woman and a child made it to shore.

Tardini’s balloon was later sold for 1085 Rigsdaler, and it was in this balloon that the Swede Granberg was immortalized. Granberg attempted to go aloft in the balloon, on Sunday the 26th of July 1857 from the square in front of the Danish parliament, Christiansborg. The balloon got caught on the roof of the Hofteatret building. To this day, the phrase “Den gik ikke Granberg” (That didn’t work, Granberg), is used in Denmark – Our ridicule of everything Swedish is obviously not new.

Tivoli continued to sponsor balloon flights, and many successful flights took place with paying passengers. The air captain, Lauritz Johansen, had a recordbreaking 117 ballon trips under his belt when he retired.