Pan-European Picnic - 1989 Events

1989 Events

In a symbolic gesture agreed to by both countries, a border gate on the road from Sankt Margarethen im Burgenland (Austria) to Sopronkőhida (Hungary) was to be opened for three hours. About 6 km (3.7 mi) away from this spot on 27 June 1989, Austria's then foreign minister Alois Mock and his Hungarian counterpart Gyula Horn had together cut through the border fence, in a symbolic act, in a move highlighting Hungary's decision to dismantle its surveillance installations along the border, a process started on 2 May 1989.

More than 600 East Germans seized the opportunity presented by this brief lifting of the Iron Curtain and fled into the west. In the run-up to August 19th, the organisers of the Pan-European Picnic had distributed pamphlets advertising the event. Before the event started, Hungarian border guards received an order from the Ministry of the Interior of Hungary not to intervene in it and not to bear any arms on the day of the event. At the time, the Hungarian border guards even helped people to flee across the border.

In Budapest and around the Lake Balaton, thousands more East Germans were waiting for their chance to cross the border, not believing that the border would be opened and not trusting the procedures in place. The number of people who crossed the border into the West on the day of this event was therefore limited to no more than a few hundred. Over the next few days, the Hungarian government increased the number of guards patrolling its western border, so that only a relatively small number actually reached the West successfully. But in fact the reason that a relatively small number of people went through the border after the picnic is that the East Germans were informed by the Hungarian guards that they could obtain West German passports issued by West German diplomats working in Hungary. As a result, many East Germans temporarily stayed in Hungary waiting for the issue of passport and the event to unfold. On 11 September 1989, Hungary opened its borders for citizens of the German Democratic Republic and other Eastern European countries. This was the first time that the border of an Eastern European country officially opened for the citizens of the Soviet bloc states. It marked the start of the fall of Iron Curtain. Only a few months after the opening, more than 70,000 people fled to the West through Hungary.

The picnic was organised by members of four Hungarian opposition parties, the Hungarian Democratic Forum the Alliance of Free Democrats, the Fidesz, and the Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party. The event's patrons were Christian Social Union of Bavaria MEP Otto von Habsburg (then head of the house of Habsburg and claimant of the Austro-Hungarian throne) and Hungarian Minister of State and reformer Imre Pozsgay.

East Germany's Erich Honecker gave the following statement to the Daily Mirror on the Pan-European Picnic:

"Habsburg distributed pamphlets right up to the Polish border, inviting East German holiday-makers to a picnic. When they came to the picnic, they were given presents, food, and Deutschmarks, before being persuaded to go over to the West."