it was on this spot 30 years ago that 600 East Germans walked into Austria — a watershed moment.
In the weeks after the picnic, thousands of East Germans abandoned their DDR-produced Trabants in the nearby fields and crossed into Austria. In less than a month 60,000 East Germans were en route to West Germany via Vienna.
Contrasts sharply with the fence it built on its southern border with Serbia in 2015, after 1m asylum seekers passed through on their way to Germany.
FT 18 August 2019
Cracking the Iron Curtain: Remembering Hungary’s ‘Pan-European Picnic’
“Hungary was where the first stone was removed from the Berlin Wall” ~ former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, speaking to mark the reunification of Germany on October 4th 1990.
https://thevieweast.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/cracks-in-the-iron-curtain-remembering-hungarys-pan-european-picnic/
Contrasts sharply with the fence it built on its southern border with Serbia in 2015, after 1m asylum seekers passed through on their way to Germany.
FT 18 August 2019
Cracking the Iron Curtain: Remembering Hungary’s ‘Pan-European Picnic’
“Hungary was where the first stone was removed from the Berlin Wall” ~ former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, speaking to mark the reunification of Germany on October 4th 1990.
https://thevieweast.wordpress.com/2009/08/19/cracks-in-the-iron-curtain-remembering-hungarys-pan-european-picnic/
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