Pan-European Picnic

The border crossing where the Pan-European Picnic took place in 1989

The Pan-European Picnic (German: Paneuropäisches Picknick; Hungarian: páneurópai piknik) was a peace demonstration held on the Austrian-Hungarian border near the town of Sopron on 19 August 1989, an important event during the Revolutions of 1989 that led to the fall of the Iron Curtain and the reunification of Germany. It was organised by the Paneuropean Union and the Hungarian opposition Hungarian Democratic Forum under the protection of Otto von Habsburg and Imre Pozsgay.

Background

The situation in the year 1989 in Central Europe was tense. While formally still under dictatorships, the peoples of Central Europe called for democratic elections, freedom of speech and the withdrawal of Soviet troops. The physical manifestations of the Iron Curtain remained a dominant factor in the movements to tear down the walls and unite Europe. Whereas some countries faced a severe communist power structure, some of them – like Hungary – assumed a more reform-oriented approach. Supported by Gorbachev´s new policies, the communist leadership realized the necessity for change. The newly founded organisations of civil society and political parties played an immense role in moving towards a democratic multi-party system. In the year 1989, in several Central European countries, round-tables had been organized to consensually shift the system. In February 1989 formal Round Table discussions began in the Hall of Columns in Warsaw. On 4 April 1989 the historic Round Table Agreement was signed legalising Solidarity and setting up partly free parliamentary elections to be held on 4 June 1989 (coincidently the day following the crackdown on Chinese protesters in Tiananmen Square). A political earthquake followed. The victory of Solidarity surpassed all predictions.^[1] Historians talk about the "revolution at the negotiation-table".

However, there remained orthodox hardliners who did not believe in democracy and human rights, but proclaimed the leading role of the communist party and thus their dictatorial regime. These regimes relied upon border controls to retain their dissident population, allowing citizens to travel to the "West" every three years and with only a small amount of cash. In Germany, this led to the Berlin Wall (1961-1989), which only pensioners could pass through. While these backward forces were predominant in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania, the Hungarian situation was more relaxed: Since 1988, Hungarians possessed so-called "world-passports", enabling them to travel relatively freely.

Starting in 1989, many Romanian citizens escaped the dictatorship in their country and were filling refugee camps at the Hungarian-Romanian border, near Debrecen. In early summer 1989, some 30-40,000 people were seeking asylum in Hungary. As the Hungarian government was bound by a bilateral agreement, it legally should have sent these people back to Romania, certainly exposing them to revenge by the Romanian authorities. A solution was found by Hungary formally joining the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (CRSR) in 1989, giving a legal base not to deport them back to their country of origin.

Since the financial situation was tense, not only in Hungary, the reform-oriented government of Miklós Németh decided to revise the system of border protection at the Western borders. They believed it was no longer necessary to lock down the country as Hungarians were allowed to freely travel anyhow and the leadership did not intend to renew the "anachronistic" massive and brutal border protection at the country´s Western borders. This was, however, not the case at the BRD (Germany)-GDR border, which was a virtual dead zone, where several hundred people were killed, and border guards were instructed to shoot escaping people. The last such victim was Chris Gueffroy who was killed in February 1989.

Simultaneously, East German citizens – who often spent their summer holidays in Hungary, at Lake Balaton, where they could meet their relatives and friends from Western Germany – accumulated in Hungary during the course of summer 1989, obviously not intending to return to East Germany.

On 20 June 1989, Otto von Habsburg, heir apparent of the former Habsburg dynasty and long-time MEP from 1979-1999, visited the university in Debrecen, where he addressed the interested Hungarian audience about the question of how Europe would look without borders, and what impact the European Parliament elections had on the people of Central Europe. The speech, which was warmly welcomed, was followed by a dinner where two representatives of the local MDF (Hungarian Democratic Forum, the conservative party of later Prime Minister József Antall), Mária Filep and Ferenc Mészáros surprised the attendees with the idea of arranging a picnic at he Austro-Hungarian border to demonstrate the ridiculousness of such borders those days. They were also inspired by the dramatic situation around Debrecen, where several tens of thousands of people from Romania gathered in camps.

While the national leadership of the MDF had doubts as to whether this might really be a good idea, Mária Filep took intensive action to recruit participants and to find the exact location suitable for such an event. She was supported by local groups of FIDESZ and MDF. Her suggestion was to involve the guests of the "common destiny camp", a gathering of intellectuals and opposition activist from the CEE countries taking place in Martonvásár (close to Lake Balaton) with a planned end date of 20 August 1989. Finally, it was agreed to host the picnic next to Sopron, in Sopronpuszta, at the old Bratislava Road, which has been a border since 1922.

From its conception, the picnic was intended to be an informal gathering of international participants, with special regard to Austrians and Hungarians who should be coming together directly at the border, at the meadow, to grill, eat and interact. Permission to open a short-time border station for just three hours was granted so that pedestrians from both sides of the border could meet and share their dream of a European continent without borders. The organisers even managed to engage Otto von Habsburg and Imre Pozsgay (a reform-oriented member of the Hungarian Socialist Workers´ Party MSZMP and Minister of State) as patrons of the event, which clearly demonstrated the will of all sides involved to work for the goals of the event (open borders, free Europe).

Though it is unclear how, the flyer advertising the picnic was distributed to East German citizens planning to somehow find a way to defect to Western Germany via Austria. Under communist German law, they were not allowed to travel to the "West" at any point, but had to write an official "petition" to the East German authorities; they observed the rapid developments in Hungary with curiosity and growing hopes. They saw the picnic as an opportunity to act. The destiny of these approximately 100,000 people was the top news story in prime-time news broadcasts for several months, showing Europe the urgent need to find a suitable way out. The East German rulers, planning to celebrate the 40th birthday of the "GDR" on 7 October 1989, were keen to hide the problems and were silent about the mass exodus of their own people.

Given all this, the picnic was just the seam where the pressure cooker would burst. Several hundred "GDR" citizens conducted a "run" to the picnic site, literally overrunning the old wooden gate and getting to Austria. The border guards around Árpád Bella did not hinder them, thus enabling them to fulfill their dreams to live in a free world. The picnic organisers made history – the gate was opened and the first brick from the Berlin Wall was knocked out in Hungary. "The soil under the Brandenburg Gate is Hungarian soil", Helmut Kohl rightly pointed out. Subsequent events led to a total and unconditional opening of the Hungarian borders on 11 September 1989, to the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, and, finally, to the end of the Iron Curtain.

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 19 August, 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 Central European countries. This was the first time that the border of a Central 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 Germans people fled to West Germany (soon to be united Germany) 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."

Today

Pan-European Picnic monument by Miklós Melocco

Today the place of the picnic is marked by a monument by Miklós Melocco, by a bell presented from the city of Debrecen (from where the idea of the Picnic emerged), a pagoda presented by the Association of the Japanese–Hungarian Friendship and by a wooden monument unveiled by the organisors in 1991. A large artwork symbolizing a Cross and a barbed wire can be found at the Cave Theatre of Fertőrákos, a few kilometres from the site. The artwork was made by Gabriela von Habsburg, a daughter of Otto von Habsburg.

The Pan-European Picnic is considered a highly significant milestone in the efforts that led to the end of the GDR and to the German reunification. Commemorative ceremonies are held each year on 19 August at the place where the border was opened.

In 2009, Angela Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, visited festivities marking the 20th anniversary and thanked Hungarians for courage and foresight: "Two enslaved nations together broke down the walls of enslavement... and Hungarians gave wings to East Germans' desire for freedom."^[2]

Hungarian President László Sólyom unveiled a white marble monument in memory of those who had risked their life to cross the Iron Curtain.^[2]

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said that "We must remain an open Europe of open societies and open minds, open to others beyond our present boundaries".^[2]

See also

• Austria–Hungary relations
• Removal of Hungary's border fence
• Revolutions of 1989

References

This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pan-European Picnic.

• "Das Paneuropa-Picknick vom 19. August 1989, das Ende der Teilung Europas" (in German). Páneurópai Unió. Archived from the original on 2007-10-08. Retrieved 2009-08-10.  Longer article on the Pan-European Picnic
• The picnic that changed European history

Coordinates: 47°45′26″N 16°37′20″E / 47.75722°N 16.62222°E / 47.75722; 16.62222