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Picnic events

In a symbolic gesture agreed to by Austria and Hungary, a border gate on the road from Sankt Margarethen im Burgenland, Austria to Sopronkőhida, Hungary was to be opened for three hours on 19 August. Otto von Habsburg was represented at the picnic by his daughter Walpurga von Habsburg, who gave his greetings. The Hungarian writer and dissident György Konrád also spoke, who until 1988 was only allowed to publish his critical texts abroad. Music was played and speeches made on a wooden stage, there was wine, beer, grilled food, and goulash. Many of the participants also cut about a kilometer from the fence of the old border system. This symbolic demolition party was officially approved. The fence area in question at Sopronpuszta was just not dismantled because it was supposed to be used for a planned game reserve. In addition to Walpurga Habsburg and the officials of the MDF, very few Hungarians were present at the picnic, but television teams and journalists were there.

Shortly before 3 p.m., the first 20 to 30 GDR citizens arrived at the border gate that was still guarded and secured by armed forces. The gate was torn open and the mostly young GDR citizens ran to the Austrian side, where some journalists and a camera team from an Austrian broadcaster were waiting. During the picnic and the "symbolic" opening of the border, the refugees overcame the iron curtain in three waves. It was the largest refugee movement from East Germany to date since the Berlin Wall was built. The news of the mass exodus spread very quickly. The Hungarian border guards reacted calmly to the emerging mass exodus and did not intervene. The then leading border officer Árpád Bella contributed significantly to this. In addition, thousands of GDR citizens waited a little further away for the chance to cross the border, because they did not believe in the opening of the border and did not trust the events. Because of this, only 661 people passed the border that day. And the 80,000 Soviet soldiers in Hungary did not intervene.

Prime Minister Németh said in 1989, "I was in my office all day, I was nervous, very nervous. Luckily, there was no knocking on my door by the Soviet ambassador, no telephone calls from Moscow."

More than 600 East Germans fled to the West. The then very extensive media coverage made it clear to the Eastern European population that, on the one hand, the Iron Curtain had partially broken open and, on the other hand, the Soviet Union was not intervening and the governments in the East were increasingly losing power due to indecisive action.

Erich Honecker, who lost control in summer 1989

East Germany's Erich Honecker told the Daily Mirror about the 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 Deutsche Marks, before being persuaded to go over to the West." Through this statement, the astonished public became even more aware of the powerlessness of the hitherto brutal rulers in their own area.

In the GDR political office (Honecker was absent due to his illness - Günter Mittag was the chairman), Habsburg's and Pozsgay's Paneuropean Picnic was one of the rare discussions. Slogans werde made such as: "The enemy's counterrevolution and its front-line reporting is at work", "The GDR is the tower in battle", "We must counter the underhand attacks of the GDR's enemies more", "We mustn't be hypnotized by the western media. The enemy has a big concept, he wants to smash everything with us. We have to attack the enemy. This is imperialism in the FRG. Those are the real culprits." But no action was taken.

In Budapest and around Lake Balaton, thousands of East Germans hesitated to cross the border. Over the next few days, the Hungarian government increased the number of guards patrolling its western border and a relatively small number of refugees reached the West. Another picnic spontaneously planned by an employee of the West German television station ZDF for August 23, 1989 was sturdily finished by the Hungarian security forces at the border.

Imre Pozsgay

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