Antecedents, Paneuropean Picnic 1989, Sopron, Hungary

THE PULLING DOWN OF THE BERLIN WALL BEGAN IN SOPRON...

This statement was made by Lothar de Maiziere, Eastern Germany's last prime minister in 1990. But chancellor Helmut Kohl declared likewise, when he stated on the celebration of the unification of Germany: "The soil under the Brandenburg Gate is: Hungarian soil". These are flattering words, but knowing the facts maybe it does not seem as self-conceipt, if we Hungarians prove our veracity, too. The events leading to democratic transition, taking place in Hungary in 1988-89 have largely contributed to the pulling down of the feared and hated Berlin Wall, considered as a symbol of Europe being divided by totalitarian systems and along ideological barriers. Each of the oppositional movements and parties being founded, organized and becoming strong nationwide in fall 1988 had the notion of joining Europe and making the borders symbolical and passable. In spring 1989 the Hungarian government - which was tightly interwoven with the main power factor, the only governing force, the Hungarian Socialist Worker's Party according to old Soviet type structures - realizing the strong public pressure decided to discontinue the technical lock (barb wire), the so called "Iron Curtain", surrounding all the country. Meanwhile the influence and the activity of the democratic oppositional parties grew: demonstrations were held across the country, i.e. on the 15 Marc, the anniversary of the 1848 revolution and independence war, demanding democracy, free elections and freedom of press and speech. On 16 June, 1989 a historical era, the so called "Kádár-era" ended, as the martyrs of the 1956 revolution and war of independence, Imre Nagy and his associates were buried in Budapest, who lied in an unmarked mass grave until that time. These Budapest-centered events were joined by the Sopron oppositional organizations too, and they arranged succesful mass demonstrations, which set thousands of people in motion every time. July 1989 came this way, when the Hungarian Democratic Forum's Debrecen local branch turned to its Sopron co-organization with the idea that on 19 August, 1989 they would like to organize a program propagating the notion of a common Europe without borders, at the former border lock. The idea originally arouse at a dinner in May, 1989 in Debrecen, in which Otto Habsburg took part, too. This was the time, when the idea of the Pan-European Picnic was born. The Democratic Forum's Sopron local branch - partly because of the shortage of time, partly because of the dimensions of the problem, but mainly because meanwhile four Sopron oppositional parties formed the local Oppositional round-table, according to the constitution of which these organizations act in unity of action for the purpose of democratic transition - applied for help to the local branches of other oppositional parties (Federation of Free Democrats, Federation of Young Democrats and the Independent Smallholers' Party). After several days of common thinking the organizers decided that they arrange the Picnic, which originally was thought to be a small-scale closed meeting, as a big event, setting a whole region in motion. So 19 August, 1989 came, when truly large crowds (according to contemporary estimates 15-20,000) visited the field beside Sopronpuszta and took part with unbelievable enthusiasm and intensity beyond the official programs in the pulling down of the Iron Curtain's part still in existance. The Picnic became a real jubilee, and an unscheduled circumstance had a lion's share in this: at the place of the symbolical opening of the border according to the protocol, several hundred East-Germans broke through the gate at 3.20 p.m. and they virtually streamed to Austria. Finally this unforeseen event has made the Pan-European Picnic an event of world history; newspapers around the world wrote about it even days weeks later. The border breakthrough itself was immortalized by Tamás Lobenwein on historic pictures and by Dr. György Kárpáti on a video tape. We shall not forget about the procedure either, which was set off by the Pan-European Picnic itself. In autumn 1989 there were about 60,000 GDR citizens in Hungary according to official estimates, from which almost no one intended to go back his motherland. Several thousand people, whose official residence permits have already been outdated had to go to temporary refugee camps. Although the mass border-breakthrough at the Pan-European Picnic was an isolated case, East-German citizens tried to get over the "green border" several hundred times in smaller groups or on their own to the "land of freedom" - mostly with success. The Hungarian government had to face the fact, that "Eastern-Europe was punctured" and it was forced to do that humanitarian and European step, namely to open the borders before the East-Germans intending move to the other side. This set off procedures in the GDR itself, which lead to the mass demonstrations involving several million people in early November 1989, at which the desire for freedom and free travel exploded with an overwhelming force. In October 1989 party leader Erich Honecker said in vain that the Berlin Wall stand for another hundred years; the will of the people pulled it down on 10 November, 1989. A beautiful dream: we can look back at the Pan-European Picnic as a symbol of and an important step towards open borders and the desire for democratic self-determination. Our web-site is a contemporary documentation and a time travel: come along with us to today's integrating Europe - and visit this web-site and the town of Sopron hosting it as - like an East-German refugee saig - "the Hall of Liberty"...

~sztoth