Pan-European Picnic
The opening of the border gate between Austria and Hungary at the Pan-European Picnic was an event in the chain reaction, at the end of which Germany reunified, the Iron Curtain fell apart, and the Eastern Bloc disintegrated.
[15] At the picnic several hundred East German citizens overran the old wooden gate, reaching Austria unhindered by the border guards around Árpád Bella.
Ruled by dictatorial governments, the people in Eastern Bloc countries demanded democratic elections, freedom of speech, and the withdrawal of Soviet troops.
The Iron Curtain and its physical manifestations in heavily guarded border fences and crossings, as seen in Czechoslovakia and in East Germany, were a dominant factor in the movement to unite Europe.
Supported by Mikhail Gorbachev's new policies, the reformist Communist countries' leadership accepted the necessity for change (Perestroika).
That year, round-table discussions were held in several Central European countries to develop a consensus on changing the political system.
In February formal discussions began in Warsaw, and on 4 April the Polish Round Table Agreement was signed, legalising Solidarity and scheduling parliamentary elections for 4 June.
In this context, there were individual organisations in the west that were constantly trying to get in touch with the people in the east or to find ways to weaken the communist system, like the Austrian branch of the Paneuropean Union, whose president Karl von Habsburg had been since 1986.
Under his responsibility, attempts were made to sustainably support the opposition and freedom movements in Central and Eastern Europe, and the Paneuropa Union participated intensively in political events in what was then Czechoslovakia, Hungary, then Yugoslavia, and the Baltic States.
[21][22] According to its files, the Hungarian State Security Service had known since 10 July 1989 that an event was planned at the border on the basis of a suggestion from Otto Habsburg.
[7] Beginning in 1989, the Hungarian government claimed that it opened refugee camps for Romanian citizens that supposedly crossed the Hungarian-Romanian border near Debrecen.
She wanted to include guests at the "common destiny camp", a gathering of intellectuals and opposition activists from Central and Eastern European countries in Martonvásár (not far from Lake Balaton) scheduled to end date on 20 August.
Its organisers recruited Otto von Habsburg and Imre Pozsgay, a reformist member of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party (MSzMP) and Minister of State, as patrons of the event.
Németh explained in the documentary:[23] This was really a great opportunity to us to assess the Russians' reactions, to test the tolerance of the Soviet Union.
The Hajdú-Bihar District State Security Service informed headquarters that the thought was raised during a visit by Otto von Habsburg to Debrecen on June 20, 1989 – in the middle of a discussion with local leaders of the Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF).
The Austria Paneuropa Union, which was under the leadership of Karl von Habsburg, distributed thousands of German language leaflets in Hungary inviting people to a picnic near the border near Sopron.
[31][32][33] According to a Stasi spy, leaflets were also attached to parked cars at the Formula 1 Grand Prix near Budapest in early August.
Aside from Walburga von Habsburg and the officials of the MDF, very few Hungarians and Austrians were present at the picnic, but television teams and journalists were there.
[38][39][40][41][15] Shortly before 3 p.m., the first twenty or thirty East German citizens arrived at the border gate, which was still guarded by armed forces.
[46] The very extensive media coverage made it clear to the Eastern European population that the Iron Curtain had partially broken open, that the Soviet Union was not intervening, and that the governments in the East were increasingly losing power due to indecisive action.
[50][39][51] In the GDR Politburo (Honecker was absent due to his illness – Günter Mittag was the chairman), Habsburg's and Pozsgay's Paneuropean Picnic was one of the rare topics of discussion.
Another picnic spontaneously planned by an employee of the West German television station ZDF for August 23, 1989 was forcibly prevented by Hungarian security forces at the border.
Its patrons were Christian Social Union in Bavaria, Otto von Habsburg, and Hungarian Minister of State and reformer Imre Pozsgay.
Németh said later:[23] We decided to get back to the rule books on the border control, but at the same time, we, or I, created a trap for myself [...] One of the advisers quite clearly told me, "Look, this is a very risky business now, Miklos, do you know what this means?
"[3] After the East German regime tried to block the Hungarian route, thousands fled to the West via Czechoslovakia and there was a massive popular uprising.
In 2009, EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso paid tribute to the "peaceful picnic on the Austro-Hungarian border near Sopron", which "helped to change the course of European history".
[56] The Pan-European Picnic is considered a significant milestone on the road to German reunification, and commemorative ceremonies are held annually on 19 August at the border.
[57][58] In August 2019, Chancellor Merkel and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recalled the Pan-European Picnic that took place 30 years ago and its importance for the subsequent fall of the Berlin Wall.
There are still some ambiguities about the exact sequence of the picnic, in particular the agreements between Otto von Habsburg, Miklos Nemeth, Imre Pozsgay and Helmut Kohl.
The memorial site was constructed by politicians and the media for their own purposes, and the importance of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and Austria's active role in it was exaggerated.
