Steinmeier thanks Hungary for helping unite Germany
August 19, 2024
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has been commemorating the Pan-European Picnic in Hungary's border town of Sopron. The event 35 years ago was a precursor to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The Pan-European Picnic allowed several hundreds of East Germans to cross into AustriaImage: dpa/picture alliance
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Commemoration events marking the 35th anniversary of the Pan-European Picnic, a gathering at the Hungarian border in 1989 that set the stage for the fall of the Berlin Wall and Iron Curtain, took place in Hungary on Monday.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited the town of Sopron, where the historic event took place, in the afternoon, in which he thanked Hungary for its contribution to ending the divisions in Germany and Europe.
The event was also attended by Hungary's president, Tamas Sulyok, but not by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has often called the value of European unity, as symbolized by the Picnic, into question.
First chinks in the Iron Curtain
25 years ago, German unification and the fall of the Iron Curtain began in Hungary. In May 1989, six months before the Berlin Wall fell, the Hungarian government demolished the security barricades at its Austrian border.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The beginning of the end
On May 2, 1989, Hungarian officials tore down the fences at the Austrian border. The fences were corroded and Prime Minister Miklos Nehmet didn't want to pay for their replacement. In any case, the Hungarian government was unhappy about the security installations: Two years earlier a report had already described them as technically, politically and morally outdated.
Image: AP
A fake fence for the media
Just a few weeks later, Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyula Horn and his Austrian colleague Alois Mock wanted to make a show of cutting the fence for the media. But in order to perform this historic act, on June 27, 1989, a piece of fence had to be reinstated as the entire security installation had already been removed.
Image: AP
Pan-European Picnic
The East German leadership was not happy about the Hungarians' move, but the Budapest resisted the pressure. Then, on August 19, 1989, the Pan-European Union and members of the Hungarian opposition invited people to come to a "Pan-European Picnic" near the border town of Sopron - during which the border to Austria was opened for three hours.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Border crossing to freedom
It had been announced that a delegation would cross the Hungarian-Austrian border. However, on the day more than 600 East German citizens, who had found out about the event from leaflets, stormed the border to cross into Austria, taking with them only what they could carry. Some families with children also seized the opportunity to abandon their Communist home.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Border official's crucial decision
The chief Hungarian border official in Sopron, Arpad Bella, saw the hundreds of people escaping to the West during the Pan-European Picnic. Bella (left in the photo, with an Austrian colleague at a memorial plaque in 2009) ordered his guards not to shoot, preventing what could have been a massacre. Many of his colleagues considered him a traitor, but he was later honored for his actions.
Image: Ferenc Isza/AFP/Getty Images
We've made it!
The refugees who made it across the border to Austria on August 19, 1989, were overjoyed. A flood of East Germans followed them to Hungary, aiming to take the same route to the West. The Hungarian government tried to discuss the problem with the East German leadership, which refused to negotiate an official solution. Between August and November 1989 more than 50,000 people crossed the border.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A historic day
Eighty-two days after the Pan-European Picnic the Iron Curtain was finally torn down. November 9, 1989, went down in history as the date of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
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What did Steinmeier say?
The Pan-European Picnic was a "milestone on the path to German reunification," Steinmeier said at a joint news conference with Sulyok.
"Germany will always be grateful to the people of Hungary for their contribution to our unity. And as the federal president, I sincerely
say: Thank you, dear Hungarians."
The German president also called on Hungary to use its current European Union Council presidency to strengthen the bloc.
"With its EU Council presidency, Hungary plays an important role in strengthening the unity within the EU and advancing constructive and shared solutions for our common future topics," Steinmeier said.
What happened at the Picnic?
In August 1989, the Austrian chapter of the Pan-European Movement and the newly formed Hungarian Democratic Forum jointly organized an event for August 19 in Sopron, which is located at the Austrian-Hungarian border.
The event included a symbolic opening of the border between Austria and Hungary, then still in the last throes of communist governance, aimed at allowing people from both countries to celebrate together in a foretaste of hoped-for wider European unity.
East Germans from the communist German Democratic Republic (GDR) on holiday in Hungary saw publicity leaflets for the event, and almost 700 of them crossed into Austria without hindrance from border guards.
