Pan-European Picnic

Also called: Paneuropäisches Picknick

During a peace rally on the Austrian border near Sopron, Hungary, a border gate opened briefly and several hundred East Germans crossed to the West — the first big breach in the Iron Curtain.

Hungary, in the midst of reform, began removing the barbed wire on its Austrian border in May 1989, and on 27 June the two countries’ foreign ministers cut the fence together. East Germans holidaying in Hungary flocked there looking for a way west.

On 19 August the Pan-European Union and Hungarian opposition groups held a “picnic” at the border, at which an old border gate was to be opened symbolically for three hours. Hearing of it, some 600–700 East Germans rushed the gate into Austria, and the Hungarian border guards did not stop them. On 11 September Hungary opened its border to East Germans altogether, and the exodus shook the East German regime to its foundations.